Wednesday 5 September 2012

ALFIE THE LURCHER

I'm not a speciesist. Just because the title of this blog is Cat Rescuing Sunderland doesn't mean I can't include dogs when I come across them.

Here's Alfie and this is the story of my brief encounter with him.




Alfie was handed over to Gary who lives on the north side of Sunderland and is a regular contact of Carole's. He'd arranged for Alfie to visit the vet and Andrea had arranged with Mark of Ferryfarm Kennels to take him in.

I was the transport facilitator.

I found Gary and Alfie at the front of Gary's house (see first two photos) where he gave me the brief details. He'd been told that Alfie didn't like other dogs or cats but was okay with bitches. He was also okay with kids as there were a few around. He'd been used as a hunting dog and had at least one bite on his leg from a fox. I petted him a little and he didn't really react one way or another. We took him to the van and he hopped in the back with only the slightest encouragement. I tied him up (see above) and set off. Alfie was no bother on the short journey of about a mile. He looked out of the rear window for a couple of minutes then settled down.

When I opened the van up I had to hold him still or he'd have throttled himself before I could undo the leash. The vets was empty and Alfie settled down next to me. After I'd made a fuss of him for a couple of minutes he licked my face. He was fine when Louise the vet checked him over, wagging his tail and generally being perky. He didn't react when she slid the needle into him for the required vaccination. Any minor wounds were healing well. She reckoned he was about a year old and generally in good health.

In other words, a nice young and very re-homeable  dog.

After that I took him to Ferryfarm kennels where we got him settled in and Mark and I grumbled about the lack of progress on the cat re-homing centre which, he reckoned, was going to take another three weeks. Great.

And that is the story of my brief encounter with Alfie the amicable lurcher.

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