Long time no speak

I have abandoned my blog alot recently. Mainly for the simple fact that i knew the next time i wrote a new post, i had to write about the fact that in June, i lost my best friend Sam.

I was absolutly heartbroken when he passed away and it didnt really sink in for a long time, even now i still get that punching feeling in my stomach when i think about him and how much i miss him. He was my best friend for 16 years and it is so strange him not being around anymore.

I know he had an amazing life with us and 16 is a good age for a lab! I have so many good memories of him and he will always have a special place in my heart.

Sleep tight my baby

X

Dogs Die in Hot Cars!

The hot summer months are defiantly approaching quickly which means lots of people will be having sunny day outings with their beloved pooches. It seems that the phrase 'Dogs die in hot cars' seems to be quite a well known one but even so, it still frustratingly happens.

On a sunny day like today, the temperature inside a car with no windows open and no ventilation can reach up to 47°C/117°F within 60 minutes.

In hot weather, dogs pant to keep cool. as there is no air circulation in a stuffy car, dogs cannot cool down which can be fatal to them. Leaving dogs in hot cars is not only bad for the dog but its can also get you into alot of trouble under the animal welfare act from causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

If you ever see a dog suffering in a hot car, call the police straight away! this could save a dogs life!

Top tips on keeping your dog cool in the summer sun

• If you have to leave your dog in the car, make sure you park under a shaded area and leave all windows open slightly
• Brush your dog regularly to keep excess hair from building up
• always provide plenty of fresh drinking water
• If you have a short haired dog, use suncream on their vital areas e.g nose and top of ears

<3

Save Lennox

Lennox is a gorgeous 5 year old American Bulldog Labrador cross who is currently being held in a dreadful cell in Belfast city council buildings. All because he looks like Pit Bull Terrier.

Lennox was taken away from his loving family on the 15th May 2010. Belfast city council dog wardens entered their home, measured Lennox's nose and legs and decided amongst themselves (very ignorantly!) that he was a Pit Bull Terrier.

This is Lennox now, living in a tiny cell in Belfast city council building with only sawdust to sleep on.

Lennox is a beautiful dog and does not deserve to be treated like a criminal all because of the way he looks. He is now facing a death sentence which the Save Lennox campaign is fighting strongly against. No animal should ever live in these conditions, especially when they have got a loving family eagerly wanting him to come home!

The Save Lennox campaign is now a global effort with the support of many animal charities, local MPS, Veterinary groups and celebrity's including dog trainer Victoria Stilwell.

The Save Lennox campaign needs all the support they can get to help free this amazing dog. Help them by signing the ongoing petition to free him.

Sign The Save Lennox Petition:

 www.savelennoxpetition.co.uk

Follow the campaign on Twitter: www.twitter.com/#!/savelennox

My life plan!

It's always good to set yourself goals so here are mine :)

1. Firstly, and probably one of the most important ones! Find myself the perfect job. One which makes me jump out of bed in the morning ready to start the day! of course my perfect job would be working for an animal charity :) and I'm certainly on my way to do get it!

2. Live in a cute little cottage in the Dales with a big garden for all my animals...

3. Adopt 2 dogs, a cat, 2 rabbits, chickens and 2 donkeys... all from rescue centres of course :)

                                                                



4. The one which might take the most time.....

STOP ANIMAL CRUELTY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD! i know this is a pretty big goal but im going to at least try!

Skipping into summer

The Daffodils are out! Hurray! Must mean that summer is on its way!

So this weekend, me and dave took Jess (Daves lovely yellow lab) for a trip to Danes Dyke near Bridlington. What a lovely place! Here are some pictures i have taken..

Such a lovely day, can't wait for summer when it will be warmer and not so windy!

Stop chewing those bars!

So, I have a new little hammy called Betty. Shes very cute and lovely but she is an insane chewer! She chews the bars on her cage CONSTANTLY! I cant find anyway of stopping her, all the Internet forums say give her chews toys and bits of wood to stop her. well, this spoilt little hamster has; fruity chew toys, wooded sticks, a mineral block, honey nut chew sticks, tunnels, a wheel, toilet roll tubes and a digging house! this hamster cannot possible be bored! How on earth do i stop her doing it? It really makes me sad because when hamsters chew metal it can seriously damage their teeth and can also lead to brain damage. I cant afford to buy a new all plastic cage so theres nothing i can do :(

This is the little madam...

If anyone has any suggestions on how to stop her please get in touch!

Our Hayls

The sun has got his hat on...

Hip Hip Hip Hooray! :D

I absolutely cannot wait for summer! The wildlife, the colours, the smells... everything about summer makes me happy and jolly! This weekend has been a little taster of summer. The sun came out to play on Saturday which means its slowly getting into summertime.

As the little dormice, hedgehogs and other furry little friends are soon going to be coming out of hibernation, its important that we do as much as we can to help them be happy and jolly in the summer months. leaving out some cat food in your garden can give our prickly little friends some yummy food to get them going!

Summer is a great time to go wildlife and bird watching and can give you a real appreciation for the animals we share the world with :)

My day at Dogs Trust HQ

As i am aspiring to work in PR for an animal charity, i thought it would be a good idea to get a taste of what its like before diving head first into a job which i have no idea about. My first instinct was to contact The Dogs Trust as it is my favourite charity and i also follow the press team on twitter so i kind of had an idea of what sort of things they did.

Luckily, from contacting them telling them how keen i was to learn about what the Dogs Trust press team did, i was given the opportunity to visit Dogs Trust HQ in Islington, North London for a day. (This also helped me in my work based learning module for uni which was a plus!)

So... on Tuesday 1st of March at 9:30am i arrived at Dogs Trust HQ. (absolutely pooing myself my i add!) I have never done any work experience since Ive been at uni so this was very scary having my first experience at a huge charity organisation in London! My nerves soon disappeared after meeting the lovely Sarah who lead me to the press office where i was faced with about 8 lovely smiling faces and a little terrier/woodland creature all ready to welcome me. This made me feel right at home and excited to get stuck into any work sent my way :)

 My first task was to scan through the days newspapers to find any articles relating to dogs or animals. This would be a typical job in any press office as it is important to keep up to date with the news and any stories relating to the organisation. Even though i only managed to find one relevant story, it was still interesting and made me feel like i was contributing to the daily duties :)

Throughout the rest of my day in the press office,  i was mainly helping out Katy by researching why dogs can make people more attractive and approachable. I managed to find alot of articles and research studies on the Internet to contribute :) This task was really fun and gave me the chance to see how an idea can progress from the initial research to the end result.

From helping out the press team at Dogs Trust, it really showed me how much a job in animal charity PR suits me and is something i can defiantly see myself going in to. Everyone in the press office were so lovely and friendly and obviously cared so much about the charity and the great things Dogs Trust do. I am so glad i went and experienced a typical days work as it gave me so much more confidence in myself and gave me more motivation to continue reaching my goal of working for an amazing charity :)

Its a shame i could only visit for one day as its a long way to travel from Sheffield! Hopefully in the future (when im all grown up :P) i  will be working there as a press officer!

This is my goal. and i will, one day, achieve it :)

Our Hayls xx

Our Henners...

On Tuesday, which happened to be my 20th birthday. I lost my little Syrian hamster, Henry. He was two and a half years old and right character! we believe he had a stroke as he was trembling lots, couldnt walk and couldnt manage to  eat or drink  anything.

He was put to sleep by the vet which was the kindest thing to do. I miss him so much :(

Sleep tight little Henners, i will love you forever.

Give a rescue dog a chance

Many people who want a dog often go for puppies. This is mainly because they want the dog from the start of its life and watch it grow. Also, let's face it, puppies are really cute! When you decide to adopt a dog as a member of your family, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Firstly, never ever ever ever buy from a puppy farm. Puppy farms are awful establishments that breed large amounts of dogs. The owners of puppy farms only care about one thing, money. The dogs are kept in cruel and cramped conditions and have their puppies taken away from them straight away to be sold in pet shops. The dogs also are kept in their cages for 24 hours a day, never getting any exercise. When the dogs are too old to breed, they are killed. The puppies are also never in good condition when adopted often having physical and physiological problems. buying a puppy from a puppy farm is just adding to the problem, you may feel sorry for the puppy and want to give it a good home but the more this happens, the more money the evil owners get which just makes the horrible farms get bigger and bigger!
For more information about this visit the puppy love website, a campaigning group set up to find these establishments and shut them down. http://www.puppylovecampaigns.org/

http://www.getpuppysmart.com/

The RSPCA has just launched a new website, Get Puppy Smart. This website has loads of information about buying the right puppy and how to avoid puppy farms. This is a great website as it not only tells you how to buy the right puppy, but also which breed is best for you, and how much owning a puppy really costs!

Puppies may be great fun and are really cute, but rescue dogs are just as great! There are hundreds of dogs in dog's home right now who need a loving family to rescue them.

Give a rescue dog a chance!

19 days to go...

Only 19 days to go until my visit to The Dogs Trust press office! I am SO excited! it's going to be so great to see how the charity runs and how the PR team work. Also, i am very excited to meet any lovely little pooches who might be rooming the hallways! Hopefully i will learn alot on my visit and experience what its like to work for an animal charity.

I have also fell in love with this video from the office!

Some doggylicious charitys

I just wanted to point out some AMAZING animal Charity's and what they aim to do :)

First up is The Cinnamon Trust, this is a charity very close to my heart. The aim of this charity is to provide peace of mind for elderly and terminally ill people and their pets. They have a national network of 15,000 volunteers who help elderly people to walk their dogs when they become housebound. this service provided by the volunteers can become vital to the people in need by giving them the help they need with the care of their pets. The charity also have a national fostering service available for anyone going into hospital for a short or long amount of time. Another service The Cinnamon Trust provides is a long term foster care for owners who have either died or gone to a residential home that does not allow pets.

This is an amazing charity doing amazing work. they need all the help they can get so if you would like to volunteer or donate, go to http://www.cinnamon.org.uk/

The Oldies Club is also a very lovely charity which i believe are doing an amazing thing! Their aim is to find older dogs aged 7+ their forever homes. Oldies Club have a network of foster homes across country giving the older dogs a chance at a happy life and not end up spending the rest of their lives in kennels.

 

"The initial inspiration behind the idea was a 13-year-old collie we called Ted. Ted was blind in one eye and was terrified in the noisy, stark pound environment. He had to stay in kennels as a stray for 7 days but when no owner came forward to claim him, steps were taken to get Ted into a domestic situation immediately. Once in a foster home Ted thrived, the skinny dull-coated nervous boy became a healthy, active and rejuvenated character and became a star of the internet. Teds story generated so much support and sympathy that this old boy who nobody had wanted soon had many offers of loving permanent homes. It was felt that this support and enthusiasm could be channelled into helping other older dogs that found themselves in need of rehoming."

Older dogs may not be as desirable as puppy's but they are certainly not dull! especially if my Sam is anything to go by! This charity is so amazing by giving the older dogs a chance at happiness. http://www.oldies.org.uk/

Probably the most recognised charity for dogs. The Dogs Trust is the UK's largest dog welfare charity with 17 rehoming centres across the UK caring for up to 16,000 dogs a year. The Dogs Trust also run campaigns and projects aimed at the care and welfare of all dogs in need. This is a well established charity which hopefully will get even bigger and even better! they do an amazing job and their hearts are certainly in the right place :)
http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/

Why dogs are so amazing...

Many people love dogs because they're good companions, they're cute and they're loving. There are so many more reasons why we should love and respect dogs, they are more intelligent than we may think...

Dogs are now used to detect cancer in humans. Dogs are known for their well established sense on smell, Cancer cells release small amounts of volatile substances not produced by normal cells, which dogs, with their exquisite sense of smell, are likely to be able to detect.

Dogs are so important to humans and i believe that this is not always realised by people. They are more useful than we first think, yes they are cute and are good for cuddles, but they are so much more than just a big ball of fur! This amazing reserch carried out by The Cancer and Bio-Detection Dogs group is so important and deserves the recognition for their good work.

Click the link to sponser and Cancer detection puppy :)

My very first blog

Since i am a PR student, it only seems right to start blogging! so, i best introduce myself!

Hayley Cox is my name, or Hayls if you want to make me smile. I study Public Relations and Media at Sheffield Hallam University in my second year. Doing pretty well so far which i best keep up if i want to get that first! I am a big animal lover so most of my blog posts will most deffinatly be about animals and news about animals. I'm hoping to work in charity PR hopefully with a animal charity such as Dogs Trust or RSPCA.

so, for now, thats me :)

here is our sam, my best friend

Aint he gorgeous!