Animals at Home
Exmoor & Quantocks

Not much has happened recently except the routine pet care work across the area. The animal ambulance has been quiet which means luckily not many animals are being injured; the pet taxi is still busy doing routine and follow up trips to local vets and we're very busy at home with our guest dogs, as are Hosts Jane and Alex.

We caught up with a very good friend from Kathy's college days today. We met up with Adam Henson, presenter of BBC Countryfile and owner of Cotswold Park Farm; he was opening the new Countrywide Farmers store in Taunton so we telephoned him and took the opportunity to catch up as we've not seen him for a year or so. Adam did a very good short speech then cut the ribbon expertly. He was a little tied up with meeting and greeting people but we had a good chat for half an hour. He had to shoot away back to workso we left with the promise of seeing him at home (and on the farm) in the new year.

See Adam's Cotswold Farm Park at  http://www.cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk/.

Here's a great job I had the pleasure in doing, returning Lottie the lost London pedigree British Shorthair cat to her home. She went missing from South East London and disappeared for 3 weeks until she turned up in West Somerset. I was more than happy to return her home to her loving family and her brother Milo. See the link below for the news story.

http://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/4680870.Missing_cat_found_150_miles_from_home/?ref=mr

Well it's all been go go go here, too much to do and soooo little time.

We've been all over the place recently with pet transport work:

• Transported one dog and four cats from The Lizard in deepest south Cornwall to Worcester Park in Surrey (edge of London).
• Brought a dog back into the UK from Heathrow airport to Sedgemoor.
• 2 cats from Surrey to Langport
• 1 cat from Wiveliscombe to South East London

As well as the usual local pet taxis, pet feeding and companion visits, we're keeping busy at home with our sheep. Having recently purchased an 18 month old Suffolk ram, he's been 'interested' in some of our ewes so fingers crossed, next March/April we'll have some lovely lambs.
We also now have a Herdwick (hill sheep) lamb for our little boy to care for and hopefully he will be able to show her next year at country shows and agricultural fairs as well as rare breed shows. Will post some pics soon.

Happy Birthday to Us!

Today is our 4th birthday. We started trading as Animals at Home (Fenland) Ltd on 16th September 2005. The four years has seen us expand, move across the country, expand again and we're still going strong.
We've had 5 different ambulances over the time, each one better than the last. I dread to think how many miles I've walked with client dogs, how many thousands of miles I've driven across the UK and Europe, how many tons of dog and cat food I've dispensed and how many injections I've given; let alone how many dogs have passed through our doors while being hosted.
All in all, we're so happy to be a successful business and so happy you, the important client keeps returning .................................. THANK YOU!

We provided a first aid and water point for the first (hopefully annual) Great Greyhound Treasure Hunt today. The day was very successful for the organisers from the Retired Greyhound Trust (Honiton branch) as approximately twenty teams entered. The aim was to walk your dog(s) (not necessarily greyhounds) around the 75 minute route, answering clues along the way.
Held on the top of the Quantocks on a beautiful September day, all had a great time walking, solving clues and scoffing at the bar-b-que afterwards.
Animals at Home offered the animal ambulance and first aid / water point at no charge and dealt with a couple of very minor things; mainly offering a continuous supply of drinking water and advice.

Here's looking forward to next years event!

The branch now has a full off-road capability in our Landrover 90 Defender. Occasionally there is a need to go off road to get to animal related events, injured or lost animals or to transport vets to rural locations.
The Landrover is a capable vehicle fitted with the usual animal ambulance items, all under an Ifor Williams livestock hood. Powered by a 2.5 turbo diesel engine it will be able to get to nearly any part of the Exmoor & Quantocks patch.
Iain has previously been trained to drive 4x4's and particularly landrovers firstly while serving with the RAF and again while serving in the police.
The truck will also be used to get to our grassland and tend our sheep; Bob the sheepdog has found it very comfortable and enjoys his rides!

Today I had the pleasure of transporting a family of animals and a human to their new home in Devon. The whole managerie fitted in the am,ulance with room left over for the man of the house too.
Three Huskies, one of which needed to travel in his own part of the vehicle to avoid confrontation, a 20 year old cat that couldn't be near the Huskies or within sight of any of them and five red-kneed tarantulas in their own carriers, plus Lee the owner in the front with me.
All arrived from their journey from Bristol to Devon happy and stress-free; no arguments, no scraps, no hissing and certainly no spider bites (however, some Spiderman super-powesr would certainly help some days!).

The previous green trousers and white uniform shirt or yellow polo shirt has been replaced in order not to have the appearance of a human paramedic or ambulance personnel. I've come across several road traffic accidents (non call outs) where I've stopped to assist and been mistaken for a paramedic (easily done if a quick glance at the van and uniform) so to avoid any confusion at this type of incident and ones where I or staff may be called to attend, I've changed the uniform to:

'Farm' overalls stay dark forest green.

Incident overalls are now blue with silver reflective trim and reflective 'VETERINARY AMBULANCE' patches to front and back..

Every day 'normal' uniform is now black combat style trousers, black polo shirt with white AAH logo and small 'VETERINARY AMBULANCE ANIMAL CARE OFFICER' text.

A black baseball cap or uniform cap is sometimes worn depending on the duty.

This change doesn't affect any services, just a chance to look smarter and more obvious as a pet care worker or animal ambulance crew.

Let me know your thoughts when you see it!

Iain.

Several of the Animals at Home branches have been featured on a twenty minute televison programme following them around on their day to day work. Most branches use Renault Kangoo ambulances so the programmes was made by Renault to promote their vans and our company.

See the whole programme here:

http://www.renault.tv/#/infotainment/videos/140935/driven-pet-taxi

The 4x4 vehicle was put to good use last night following a report of a sheep with an injured leg. Kathy and I responded and headed up a wet and steep slate-bed and grass lane to the field. The sheep was restrained and loaded into the vehicle and then we had a slow drive down hill.
The injury was non-life threatening and she should make a full recovery after treatment.