June already, time certainly flys when there's animals to be rescued!

The past few months have been a very productive time for South West Animal Rescue. We have expanded further and taken on a new volunteer role - Adoption Coordinator. Tanya comes on board with a wealth of knowledge of animals, and most importantly a keen desire to see them rehomed to loving forever homes. Tanya's role is to liase with potential adopters to establish the most appropriate home for the animal to go to. This is done via a home visit where Tanya makes an appointment to come to the potential adopters home. Fences are checked and an informal interview is conducted to make sure the people know as much about the animal as we know, for them to make an informed decision as to whether it is the right one for their family. The potential adopter then views the animal and has the opportunity to ask the foster carer more information. An application form is filled out and reviewed and a decision is then made. Most people understand our desire to see the animals go to loving families who understand the responsibilties of pet ownership, however some people do get angry at our adoption process and question why they cant just "have" the animal. The reasoning behind this is simple - these beautiful, special animals have already been dumped once. They have either been taken and surrendered to the pound by their humans who they trust and love. Or they have been dumped in the bush or on the side of the road, like a pile of rubbish and ended up wandering the streets, again by the people they love and trust. This is extremely traumatic for them. We dont want to see that happening again and if it means screening people to find the most appropriate home, then we make no apologies for that.

We have some wonderful animals in our care at the moment. Misty is a overly loving, overly happy and overly affectionate dog! She is a wonderful girl that leaves you in no doubt the appreciation she has at  receiving attention and I know with the right family would make a loyal and still overly affectionate dog!  Angus reminds me of a Mr Mom. He is the sweetest, friendliest dog that makes me wonder why he hasnt found a new home. He came to us already trained, he loves to fetch a ball and bring it back and is really hoping his new life will begin on a larger property as he doesnt like being in a small surburban block.  Maggie is also a wonderful young lady who last time I visited her at her foster carers home, I was amazed at how far she had come. She was really getting the hang of the obedience training and her foster carers have done a wonderful job at teaching her. These wonderful dogs and others animals listed on our Animal page are all desperately looking for a loving new home, where they will be treated with love and respect, kindness and compassion - this is our hopes and dreams for these animals and many more like them who we know will face an uncertain future after being abandoned, in the months and years to come.

South West Animal Rescue is looking for more foster carers. The number of animals we can rescue is based on the number of foster carers we have. If you are thinking about becoming a foster carer, or know someone who is thinking, please ask them to contact us urgently. We are still turning away a number of animals each week. The desperate and confused stares of dogs and puppies in pounds and cats and kittens dumped at vet clinics that don't have happy endings and are destined to be euthanased are a community concern that we should all be focusing on.

"I saw deep in the eyes of the animal, the human soul looked upon me"    (Edward Carpenter)

Hi everyone,

3 months in and things are looking good. We are rapidly expanding into the community and new business supporters are coming on board, which is also fantastic. Check out our supporters page to find out the wonderful businesses in the Bunbury and surrounding areas who are helping us to achieve our goals. Particulary McGregors Vet Clinic in Bunbury who contribute an enormous amount of support towards SWAR and the animals we rescue, we cannot thank them enough.

We now have over 20 SWAR financial members who will be receiving newsletters every 3 month along with the satisfaction of knowing that becoming a member is helping to save lives. Our goal is 100 before the end of the year as this will contribute to our ever increasing vet bills.

SWAR has also developed a well established committee and our meetings are becoming very productive and organised! With the establishment of a committee we are now working towards a very big event - becoming incorporated! With a lot of hard work, frustrations and the hugest learning curve possible, our policies and procedures are being established, our constitution under development and we are laying down very solid foundations for the group to become a legitimate and well respected organisation in the Bunbury area,and also to ensure that we can continue developing and expanding in the months and years to come.

The most important thing of course is the animals we have rescued!  Dylan is now known as Tyson and recently came with me to visit a classroom of students to show of and get his fur clipped and did he love it!  Graham has also visited the same class and promptly fell asleep during a nail clipping demostration. Kevin has gone from a traumatised cat who stared blankly at a wall to an affectionate and cuddly boy who loves nothing more to snuggle.  Jerome is now known as Digger - yep you can guess how he got his name, but still a joyful happy dog that his new owners adore. Tinkerbelle and Peaches are our most recent success re-homing stories. Its unthinkable that these beautiful animals were destined to be destroyed, discarded as though they were nothing and are now living and enjoying lives with new loving families who understand the responsibilities of pet ownership.

Some of SWAR's animals still waiting for new homes are Graham, the ever faithful Kelpie pup who never stops amazing me with his zest for life. He is a rescue dog and he definately knows and appreciates every moment he has in his new life. Ace and Dodge are in foster care with Graham and are very used to Graham herding them into a corner and pouncing on them- the kelpie instinct is alive and well in him!    Roy is a zippy dog who just screams "play with me"! He loves other dogs and they love him too.    Lilly and Violet are in foster care together and are little princesses in their lovely bright collars.   Pugsy is Mr Character, not too fond of other cats but willing to wrestle dogs and normally he wins!   Smokey is a sweet loving girl, considering the neglect she has previously had to endure, all she really wants is a home that she can call her own.    Fiona is a Staffy X, rescued from the pound just today. From death row to laying sprawled out in a paddle pool with iceblocks surrounding her on this particulary hot day - it doesnt get much better than that!

SWAR works on a no-kill basis. Each animal is extremely important to us and they will stay in our care until they are re-homed. For this reason many are sadly still being turned away.  Only when these animals are re-homed can we move on and rescue another animal. Please consider one of the rescued animals as a new companion so we can continue the rescuing of future unwanted and abandoned animals.

SWAR - "to rescue, rehabilitate and re-home abandoned domestic animals"

Our Christmas rehoming period was very exciting.
Jasper and Hudson, our beautiful dogs have found new homes, along with Cynthia (now known as Violet) and kittens - Chip, Timtam, Snowball all finding new homes.

We still have Fergus, a lovely dog who unfortunately is finding it difficult to find his new home. Everyone who meets him loves him (except for cats of course!), hopefully he will be the next to find his new home.

The past few days have been busy with vet visits and some serious grooming. Dylan is a shitzu x and a pound dog who came to me in a mass of matted, muddy fur and fleas. A new haircut and what a cutie he has turned out to be. A really nice young dog, who  loves the company of people, cats and dogs but doesnt cope very well on his own for very long.      Eric is our other new dog, (a shitzu x maltese)  is now in foster care with a lovely family and will continue his road to recovery from serious neglect. He continues to amaze me with his determination and is a very inspirational boy as he copes with his near blindness and skin problems. Although his problems are treatable (with ongoing care), many people have said he should be euthanised, simply because he will take awhile to re-home and because he is almost 7. I have faith that someone out there will see past those conditions and see the beautiful natured happy and proud dog that he is. After only a few days in care with us he has already grown back a small amount of fur on his tail area, which is very exciting to see.

The road to 2007 has been amazing. Less than 6 weeks ago South West Animal Rescue was just a concept in my mind, now we go into this year with huge plans to continue the growth of the group.

We will soon have memberships available to anyone wishing to support our work, plenty of fundraising ideas to work on, a sponsorship program for individual animals and advertising/marketing ideas will be put into action. We can expect a growing community presence this year through various media outlets which is very exciting.

Having said that, huge numbers of animals are still being turned away as we simply do not have the funds or the room to take them into our care. Foster carers and money for vet bills are the 2 main keys for the continued success and growth of South West Animal Rescue. If your unsure if foster care is for you, why not call anyway and find out a little more about it. You could be saving the life of one of the many unwanted, neglected and abandoned animals in the South West.

Ultimately our goal will be to have an established shelter. Many people have asked when this will happen. The issue with this is finding suitable land that we can legally put kennels and a cattery on. Already I have had offers of free help to build the premises and building materials  can be donated through sponsers and grants - we just need somewhere to put it!! Although the foster care program will continue to grow and become more established, whether its a year, 5 years or 20 years from now (gee I hope its not that long) that is where South West Animal Rescue will be heading.

I envisage it to be a sanctuary of healing, rehabilitation, recovery and finally re-homing for all our beautiful animals who come to us. I know there are many people around willing to volunteer at such an establishment to ensure the happy and safe journey that these animals will take and the journey that we, as volunteers and supporters will take to get there,  begins now.

"The question is not can they reason? nor can they talk? But rather, can they suffer?
Jeremy Bentham

Hi everyone and welcome to our new webpage. I will be keeping everyone up to date (as much as time permits anyways) so we can all keep in touch with how things are progressing.

Have a wonderful Christmas and stay safe.