Luke has a New Home

This was Luke shortly after he arrived in rescue

This is Luke a few months later

We have decided to keep Luke here with us for the rest of his life, he is really settled here and it would be impossible for us to find a more perfect dog for us, so he is here to stay.


There are many homeless animals with Pawz for thought so if you are looking to rehome a cat , dog or rabbit please do take a look.

Lukes new video

http://picasaweb.google.com/goldie2shoes/LukeAndTysonVid?authkey=e_3_7d4qGdQ



click on the link and then click on the smaller photo in the album , I love this short video as when Luke first arrived he had a lot of fears and phobias, water was one of them, other dogs was another, it has taken a while for him to get there but now as you will see he really loves the water. For me this is the most rewarding part of fostering, seeing the progress that an animal makes day by day, enjoy the video

Love Linda and Luke x

Time for a little friend maybe?

It wears you out all this running about !!

Although Luke is quite happy I'm sure, getting all the attention and lazing his days away after his outings lying in the sunshine on his own, with every whim catered for, I feel it is time he had a little companion , maybe a nice older female dog . Persuading Dave however that its a good idea is another thing !!!

Luke is so much better now with other dogs and really loves to play and runs to meet them when he is out, we still have a few issues when he is on his lead, but with time I know he will improve , it isnt aggression, its just excitement because he wants to be near them.

Luke has been with us now for over 5 months, he has been in rescue for nearly 10 months, I feel his chances of getting a lovely new home will be increased if we know he can live happily with other dogs. so.... I will keep working on Dave and will keep you informed of my progress, !!!

here are more pics of Luke and one of his friends, as you can see he is now quite a water babe .

Love linda and luke x

why can't I help with the gardening ?

Luke and a friend

Out for a walk with Tyson My daughters Rottweiller

And when we came Home !

Look who got over his fear of water !

whats this then?

These sculptures are along the walk we enjoy and in the nice weather its beautiful to see all the birds and insects doing there thing and being very industrious. Luke is fascinated by all the different scents he picks up along the way, and we can see tracks probably made by foxes etc . its very popular with cyclists too, 5 points for anyone who can tell me where the walk is? I'll give a clue on this sculpture is states 3 miles to sunderland and 6 miles to washington .
love Linda and Luke

come to the Air show

Pawz for thought will be at the sunderland air show on the weekend of 26th and 27th July representatives from the charity will be there to chat and tell you all about the great work they do, there will also be a tombola stall which is always very popular.
Also this year we have volunteered to face paint to try and raise a little bit more towards the funds needed to carry out the work pawz does. we will look forward to seeing you there please come and say hello, and enjoy the air show, its a fabulous event Look out for the Pawz for thought banner.

we went to visit a new fosterer for Pawz today and Dave made friends very quickly with the dog of the house "Scruffy" is a gorgeous little rescue dog that the family adopted and they are very lucky he wouldnt fit in my handbag or he would have been home with us !!!

Welcome Sarah and Graeme, and thank you for volunteering with Pawz, we promise to only send you the nice doggies !! (yeah right ! )

Looking after a dog and then having to say goodbye as it goes to its new home is never easy, but although we find it difficult it is heartbreaking for my grandaughter Sophie. Dave and I have always felt it is really important for children to have a pet while they are growing up it teaches them to respect life and also shows them how sometimes putting others before themselves is a worthwhile thing to do.
Poor Sophie has fallen head over heels in love with every dog we have had in foster with us so far, and when I told her last week that Luke may be going to a new home she was inconsolable, I did wonder if it was fair to keep doing this to her , as it happens Luke is still here :) but when and IF he ever finds his forever home, after the initial grief at him going Im sure Sophie will be waiting for the next dog to come and make her fall in love with him too.
love from Linda and Luke x

Topping up the tan

Luke really loves this rug, we put it down for him when he goes in the garden it stops a bit of the grass contact on his sensitive skin and he treats the rug like a long lost friend every day, he rolls on it then licks it for 10 minutes then eventually settles down to snooze on it. As you can see he has filled out since he arrived, trouble is he is getting lazy so we will have to find some new activities for him. We thought we had found the perfect owner for him this week but a new more suitable dog arrived at the last minute so he is going to go live with the lovely gentleman instead. we are happy though because they are perfectly matched and I know they will be very happy together and thats what matters. so Luke is here for a bit longer, we of course dont mind, but it would be nice if he had his own forever home.

love from Linda and Luke x

Luke helping out

Luke came along today to help us at the aircraft museum, we had a great day and there were some fantastic exhibits, model tanks and steam engines .we met some lovely people and lots of animal lovers who were very interested in the work pawz for thought does.
we are looking forward to the jets and jeeps weekend where we will have a chance to dress up 40s style and go to the dance in the evening.
once again many thanks to the aircraft museum staff for the generous donation to pawz.

Back to the Aircraft museum

we will be back at the north east aircraft museum tomorrow 15th June to let people know about pawz for thought, if your out and about please come and say hello, I think the museum charges £3 entrance but its worth it, the Guinness book of records is there tomorrow as they are trying to see how many mini coopers can fit underneath the vulcan bomber, that should be worth seeing. please keep fingers crossed for good weather.
Love from Linda and Luke x

our day at the car show

The weather was fabulous for our day at the car show, unfortunately we were in a big tent so were melting by the afternoon. Lots of people were interested in the work Pawz for thought does, and hopefully we have spread the word a little bit further.

Because face painters had already arrived before us, we werent allowed to do it today, but the event organiser at the Aircraft museum has very kindly asked us to go back next week where there is a special Fathers day event and she has promised us a prominent position to display the boards and face paint to raise funds for Pawz. This fantastic lady gave us a donation of £20 and we are very grateful.

So if you are looking for somewhere to go next sunday, please come along and support us, and have a look around the aircraft museum, its a fabulous place , with loads of planes to look at and you can even sit in a couple.

P.S spot the spelling mistake on the T shirts. !!!!

Love Linda and Luke

see you at the car show

This Sunday 8th June, we are having an information stand for Pawz for thought at the Sunderland and District classic car show , Dave is a member of the society and will be there with our Hillman minx Hilda :).
This year it is being held at Sunderland aircraft museum, near to nissan and the three horse shoes pub ( great sunday lunches there!! )
We are hoping the weather is good and would love to see you there if you can come, there are over 200 exhibits of vintage cars vans bikes etc quite a few of which have appeared on tv , last of the summer wine , heartbeat etc.
Myself and my daughters will be at the information stand, Louise is face painting cat, dog and rabbit faces and we will be on hand to spread the word about the wonderful work Pawz for thought does for the animals, so if you do come, and we really hope you do, please come and say hello, we would love to meet you .
11. am - 5p.m sunday 8th June
Special thanks to the sunderland and district historical vehicle society commitee for allowing us to have the stand free of charge , it is very kind please support their fundraising for the air ambulance too if you can , thank you
Also thanks to Hustler fashion in frederick st sunderland for the fantastic t shirt printing, if you would like your very own Pawz t shirt or any other design you wish, please go and see Sean there and tell him Linda sent you, :)

P.S, I am very happy to report that Lukes foot is now healed beautifully and the antihistamines and low pollen count have given the poor itchy boy relief at last , Hurrah !!!!

Love to you, from Linda and Luke xx

I wonder whats down there

one of our favourite walks

Oh the indignity of it all!!

As you have probably noticed Luke is probably crossed with a staffy somewhere along the line, which is great because thats probably where his super friendly nature comes from, although all our canine friends are wonderful staffies are known as the nanny dog because of the gentle caring character. unfortunately they can sometimes, like other Bull breeds suffer from little irritating health problems, and Poor Luke has one of them , he is allergic to certain types of grasses and just lately has been very miserable and sorry for himself because his tummy and lets just say delicate areas ahem ! have been very sore indeed. I tried everything from flannels soaked in cold water applied to his tummy to vaseline rubbed on to try and stop his skin coming into contact with the grass nothing worked, and after a couple of days Luke realised what was going on and thought it was great fun every time he saw the flannel or jar it was a case of chase me chase me!! untill I tried sudocrem, its a cream used for nappy rash in babies, and it was like a miracle, his skin really healed overnight, so we were very happy, untill!! Luke started limping, he did have a sore foot when he first arrived here but got better fairly quickly, but Luke naughty boy has been chewing it and made it very sore, the vet says its dermatitis that is connected to the allergy so now he is on medicine to take the itch away and has a head collar on to stop his biting antics through the night, he isnt a happy dog at the moment and I have to say his big sad eyes are working overtime every time he looks at us, Lynne very kindly loaned us a dog boot for when he goes for walks and it is very entertaining, we put the boot on when he gets out of the car to start his walk and he waves at all the birdies before he sets off, very funny.

His foot is so much better allready so all being well he wont have to put up with the indignity of it all for much longer.

take care all

Love from Linda and Luke x

Come and play

Teaching an old dog new tricks

Luke is really intelligent, he is very quick to learn and is very keen especially if there is food involved as a reward.
He sits beautifully , fetches and leaves his ball or toy, and can now lie down and also roll onto his back . His walking on the lead is much better too, he really is a good boy.
he does most of his commands now to just hand signals, he really is a joy to teach and always looks so happy , look at his face on the photo !
yesterday while we were out shopping we came upon a stand with volunteers from he north east springer spaniel rescue, they do brilliant work too and were selling home made dog treats all different flavours, like peanut butter and banana , tuna and many others, well I bought some for Luke and wow he thought they were delicious, so if anyone has any recipies for these I'd be very grateful, then I can make him some.
Enjoy the good weather everyone and remember our animals need protection in the sun just like us, so its sun block on noses time :)
Linda x

Lukes friend Shane

This is Shane Lukes little yorkie friend, I tried to get a photo of them both together today but they werent still long enough and raced around like a couple of whirlwinds, He is a gorgeous little chap and greets me with the most wonderful smile at first I thought he was growling but he isnt, its so funny to see.The strangest thing is that we lost our own little yorkshire terrier last october, Georgie was 14 years old and was a treasured member of our family untill heart failure took her from us, little shane is very much like her and it is a bit wierd to see him running in our garden like Georgie did, maybe Georgie has sent him to keep an eye on us, its a nice thought.

When we collected Luke from the kennels, even though we were glad to see him, he really needed a bath, usually the first thing we do when we get a new foster dog is bathe them mainly to treat them with a flea repellent but also it does seem to settle them really quickly.

This time though Luke wasnt having any of it and no matter how much I persuaded , cajoled and bribed him into the bathroom, he seemed really scared so we didnt pursue it. It has been a bit of a problem though because when he goes out he loves to roll in the earth and wade in the mud, so as you can imagine cleaning a dog that is scared of water is difficult. I manage to clean him with a sponge and wet wipes although he thinks this a great game and its a case of catch me if you can when he sees the sponge arriving. It was suggested we try a paddling pool in the garden and we thought this was a great idea, so after digging in the shed we found one we had bought for the kids a few years before, we pumped it up and filled it with water, Dave thought I was crazy because I was adding hot water as I didnt want it to be too cold for him, (as if he was going to get straight in? YEAH RIGHT !)

I threw his ball in , thinking he would jump in to get it, NO ! I splashed about hoping he might think it was fun NO ! I blew bubbles over the top of it , nothing worked, so after a week of it on the grass we have decided that the only purpose the paddling pool is serving is to actually kill the grass underneath, so tomorrow it is being emptied and returned to the shed.

So, It is back to the drawing board, Luke isnt really so smelly anymore, I grab him when i can and rub tea tree oil lotion into him, which makes him smell lovely and is really good for his skin, and he quite likes that because anything that involves us stroking him is fine by him as long as no water or spray is involved.

I took a short video of him prancing around the pool , bless him he is such a happy dog

Linda x

Luke has a new friend

Now Luke is a really lovely boy, and has many excellent qualities but, he just doesn't know yet how to behave with other dogs.
We have tried to introduce him to others, sometimes he does ignore them but because I think he is a bit scared of them he tends to be on guard when he meets them.
He is getting much better though and today was a huge step forward.
We live in a small cul de sac, and there is just around the corner a tiny little yorkshire terrier, this little scrap is a typical latch key dog and trots around all day on the loose, he has never really shown much interest in our previous foster dogs, and would just have a quick sniff and then go merrily on his way. However yesterday when Luke was out for his walk little shane the yorkie started to follow very, very interested indeed, he followed part of the way and then returned home., when Luke returned shane was outside our front door yapping , like he was calling for Luke to come out and play.
we ignored him and after a long while he gave up and went home, but today he was back and he just wouldnt give up, we have a gate to our back garden and the two dogs were nose to nose at the fence tails wagging like crazy it really was as if they knew each other, very strange indeed.
we decided to take Luke out on his lead to meet little shane just to see how they got on , out he went into the square outside and they sniffed and wagged and pawed each other and wagged some more, but absolutely not one bit of aggression, so Dave decided to let the little yorkie into our garden, well, I was a nervous wreck, Luke is really sturdy now and this yorkie is a tiny thing, but in he trotted and they ran around and played and shane was showing Luke just who was the boss around here . It was so wonderful to see and just proved to me what I had suspected all the time, our big bad Luke was in fact just a scaredy cat, today has done wonders for his confidence, so tomorrow we are going to ask Shanes owners if we could take him with us on our walks, and also invite him in again to the garden to play, awwww isn't friendship a fabulous thing.

Practising my "Look how cute I am Please take me Home" look !

Litle Missy

All of the dogs that have stayed here with us were hard to say goodbye to, although we know they will be loved and cared for brilliantly in their new homes , we miss them, but Little Missy will always be extra special to us.

She came to us after we got a call to go pick her up as she was due to be put to sleep in 2 hours.

She was so nervous and would have crawled inside of the wall if she could have to get away from Dave she was so terrified of him

It was heartbreaking to see her in such distresss, but after only a couple of days she was a different dog. Dave said I should ignore her and let him do everything for her, walk, feed etc, if he was busy in the garden he would take her with him and not let her back indoors she had to spend the time with him,he took her out walking for hours and boy did that work, she became his best buddy and followed him around showering him with kisses whenever he stood still. Then she decided she loved everyone so I got the most gorgeous cuddles and our grandaughter Sophie was fussed over and mothered everywhere she went by this once petrified little dog.

Little Missy was here with us for a month, and she was adopted by a great couple who we know will love her , but more than a few tears were shed the day we said goodbye to her.

After visiting the blogs of other rescue dogs and thoroughly enjoying them I decided that I would give it a go myself, so first of all let me tell you a little of myself and my husband.

I'm Linda and hubby is Dave , we live in the north east of England and have two grown up daughters and a gorgeous grandaughter.

We have always been mad on animals especially dogs and when our little yorkshire terrier passed away last october aged 14 we decided that instead of having another dog of our own we would try to help those who might need some help.

So , in December 2007 we approached Pawz for thought a local rescue and asked if it would be possible to look after a dog just for over the christmas period, even a dog deserves a nice warm fireside at christmas right?

A nice lady from Pawz (Lynne) came to visit us and explained everything and checked that our home was suitable, and then we were told we could go to the kennels and choose a dog to bring home temporarily, we were thrilled and next day went to collect a cute little furbaby ( yeah right) what we did bring home was Bobby .. ( see link for his blog) he was so happy to see us and wagged his tail in excitement. he sat in the back of the car with my daughter who very bravely put up with the extreme odour that was coming from him and all went well untill 10 minutes into the journey home, when he decided to let us know that he wasnt going to be putting up with any funny business and grumbled and snapped for the rest of the journey !!

Once home however , and after a nice warm shower and a bowl of food he showed us how sorry he was for his bad behaviour and sidled up for a cuddle.

Bobby is such a cutie although he was a bit grumpy, we grew very fond of him. about a week later an offer of a new home came up so Bobby went off to be introduced to a member of another fosterers family. unfortunately it didnt work out so John and Brenda kept him with them untill a new home could be found, Bobby is very happy there so everything worked out for the best in the end, although we were dogless for christmas after all .

I was due to go away for a month in January, and just after christmas i got a phone call to ask if we could take in a stray dog that had been found wandering in a distressed state in a housing estate, of course we said yes hopefully the poor dogs owners would report it missing and they could be reunited. half an hour later In walked Katy and barely greeted us she was so tired. She lay down and except for eating and going into the garden for the loo, she slept solidly for two days .

She soon made herself at home but as I was going away and Dave works long hours she had to go into the kennels, we were heartbroken and I worried about her and couldnt wait to get home and bring her out of the kennels .Although the dogs are very well looked after there

In February home she came and it was as if she had never been away, she settled in right away and was a joy Her favourite thing was to run around the garden head down and eating grass, she never suffered any ill effects from this so we think she just liked the taste, . after about 3 weeks a lovely couple came to see her with their daughter and they fell in love with Katy ( its very easy to do) so off she went to her new home a week later and she is very happy there, and is loved and pampered as she deserves to be .