Special Appeals

Meet Jimmi

Jimmy has been in foster now for 3 weeks, and we are very pleased to say he is doing really well.He has gained so much strength and has been nursed back to health by his devoted fosterer.

Our fosterer hasn’t had much sleep though, bless her, as she has been giving 24hr care for our little Jimmy.

When we picked Jimmy up from the vets he was very weak, from his illnesses,

He hardly seemed to weigh anything, he was as light as a feather and was soon nick named '1 ounce'

We took him to his foster home, set up his cosy bed, gave him a toy and he jumped straight in, ready for a good sleep, he was so sweet.

His foster home provided a safe warm place for Jimmy to gets lots of rest and TLC. He was totally lethargic, weak and needed a lot of love. Our fosterer was with him throughout the days and nights, so he got all the care he needed.

For the first 2 weeks, he was coughing day and night, with really bad coughing fits lasting an hour at a time. He was very uncomfortable and completely exhausted, the poor lad. He kept all the neighbours up at night with his coughing.

While in foster he continued his medication with one more week of antibiotics for his kennel cough. We were really worried about him at first but felt reassured that the vet was only a few miles away and always available on the phone.

By the end of the first week we were seeing signs of progress and his coughing fits were starting to lessen. Once the Antibiotics had finished we liased with the vet on his progress and although he was still coughing, most of his other symptoms had stopped, so we were advised to start him on some children's cough medicine (reduced dosage) to help ease his cough.

Because Jimmy had been on a drip at the vets for 2 weeks, we were also very observant of his water intake. In the first 2 weeks in foster he wasn’t drinking enough water, so we thought of other ways to increase his water consumption. We added water to his food, which went down nicely. We made a game up so that he would drink water after we had pretended to, and he copied us drinking.

We made some ice sticks for him chomp on, which refreshed him on the hot days and we had managed to get him to drink some more water, in a chomping frozen way. (They were bone shaped too, that’s how dedicated our fosterer is, bless). We added a little honey to his water to help ease his sore throat, and surely enough the honey made the water taste nicer so Jimmy drank more, yippee.

For his delicate tummy, we feed him on a great natural brand, Natures Diet Lite wet food, and James Well beloved sensitive dry food. He likes to have a few dishes of each choice for him to peruse and munch on. None of this mixing in one dish, he likes it all separated. He has been a good eater throughout his foster time, as long as he has a few dishes laid out with goodies. He soon started to put on much needed weight.

We had to limit his outside time to the small front garden only as he would still have been infectious to other dogs. He could only watch the park from his garden wall. He also watched the park and the birds from his chair by the window, this is one of his favourite places.

Jimmy tried to be really active going up and down the stairs in his foster home, but this took most of his energy, so he spent most of the first 2 weeks eating, drinking, resting and watching the outside world go by from his window seat. He was also spotted basking on a green cushion in front of a cosy fire, munching an ice stick.

As Jimmy grew from strength to strength, his personality soon came out, he loves to chew, chew and chew, he has some squeaky toys he chews and he loves his soft toys. He is also a little collector, often seen bringing all the toilet roll inners to a small pile in the living room before shredding them all in one mass shredding exercise. He also likes a good root in the paper bin to see what he can find. His fosterer says he is a little chancer!

 He loves cuddles, and he is a very affectionate little boy, he loves to bury his body under the blankets on the sofa and likes to get himself wedged in somewhere nice and warm near you.

On one of his missions Jimmy selected his own brush, from a brush drawer and claimed it for his own grooming! He also chews his brush.

Jimmy is not food aggressive, he learns very quickly, and has been learning some basic commands such as sit, give paw, and wait. He has had lots of visitors and gets on with everyone he meets.

This last week Jimmy has made even more progress, for the first time in 3 weeks, the fosterer is now actually having mostly undisturbed sleep, Jimmy now sleeps through most of the night. Yippee.

He hardly wakes up with those bad coughing fits he had in the first few 2 weeks.

When I visit Jimmy he always likes a good cuddle, he jumps straight up to sit on your knee and stares longingly at you. You can really see how thankful he is, when he looks up at you. He is such as sweetie, a sensitive little fellow, needing a lot of love and affection. He is a pleasure to be with and we are so looking forward to finding him his new home, we know he will be loved very much.

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has donated to help pay for Jimmy's vet fees, without this treatment he wouldn’t have made it. We have taken very good care of him since he left the vets, he needed so much one to one care, and our lovely fosterer has given him all the support and care he needs.

He is well on the way to a full recovery and it wont be long before Jimmy is marching his way into his new loving home.

Thanks again

xx

We are still fundraising for Jimmi as still have to pay the vets bill of £680!!, any donations would be greatley appreciated.

If you would like to register your interest in rehoming Jimmi once he is ready please call Chris 07971578963