Capricorn Animal Rescue
Welcome to the website for Capricorn Animal Rescue, a registered charity based near Mold in North Wales. From this site you can find out information about Capricorn and the animals that they care for. You can make a donation online, or find out how to contact Capricorn if you want to help out in some manner.
Capricorn's website currently receives around 3000 unique visits each month. That's almost 55000 page views! Thanks to its visitors, Capricorn have been able to rehome many animals, a lot of which were spotted on the website first. So be sure to bookmark the site and come back soon (but don't be in a hurry to leave just yet, there's plenty to read).
NEWS
Site update
News about the building work at Capricorn and some of the recent issues Sheila and the team have had to deal with can be found here.
Capricorn Animal Rescue
First, may I invite you to our two Coffee Evenings being held in July, the first in on Wednesday 7th July at Bistre Schoolrooms, Spon Green at 6.45pm until 8.15pm with a Bring and Buy table, raffle and refreshments, the second is on Wednesday 21st July at 54 Greenbank Road, Hoole, same times. We are also having a Jumble Sale at the Daniel Owen Centre, Mold on Saturday 26th July at 9 am until 12 noon.
I would like to thank two wonderful people for their valiant efforts to raise much needed funds for Capricorn, Lin Dodimead who did a parachute jump to celebrate her 60th birthday and has raised £500 so far and Eric Davies who ran the London Marathon on his 53rd birthday and raised £700 for the Sanctuary. Well Done and many thanks to these fantastic people.
Our shop in Mold is going from strength to strength with hundreds of happy satisfied customers each week getting quality items at bargain prices. We sell everything from books, bric-a-brac, clothing (some new) to all kinds of furniture, but we are now beginning to notice our share of theft from the shop. One chap changed his smelly, old, holey boots for a pair of nearly new mens shoes. CDs and DVDs have also been taken but the most unusual item to have been taken was a rabbit hutch and large tub of rabbit food!
All of the puppies mentioned in last months Living Magazine have now been booked and are going to good family homes. We have had in a newly hatched mallard duckling from Grosvenor Garden Centre, a seagull that had to have his wing amputated as he had been shot and his wing shattered and a seagull fledgling that was found on a building site are just some of the many waifs, strays and orphans brought in to us.
We need a special home for a special needs kitten. She is a very pretty fluffy tabby kitten who wobbles. She was thrown into a skip and left to die, but was found and taken into our vet who asked us to take her in. We do not know if she sustained trauma to the neck or head when thrown into the skip, so causing the wobble or if she was thrown into the skip because she was born with the wobble. Maybe something happened to the mother cat during pregnancy, we just don't know, but she needs a home where she can be an indoor cat with no children or dogs. She gets around okay, will wash herself, use a litter tray, eats and plays like other kittens, she just wobbles!
Sheep Shearing
The sheep shearer came today so we brought Todd, Minty and Buster into the yard for their annual hair cut. I cannot say that they enjoyed it, but I am sure that they will feel better without their great fleeces in the warm summer weather.
Buster and Minty "before".
Buster during shearing.
Todd and Minty after being sheared.
Upcoming Events
Saturday 19th June at the Penyffordd Carnival Capricorn Animal Rescue will be having a tombola stall and our now well known Ferret Feature. Come along, have a great afternoon, lots to see and do, fun for all ages.
Capricorn Animal Rescue, Padeswood is holding their annual dog show at Wepre Park on Sunday, 20th June. There will be lots for all the family, fun fair, car boot, stalls, refreshments, morris dancing, football, a visit from the local Subaru car club who will be displaying their cars. All inoculated dogs are welcome, come along and enjoy the fun and help raise much needed funds for the Sanctuary.
Wednesday June 23rd there will be a Coffee Evening at the Bistre School Rooms, Spon Green, Buckley starting at 6.45 pm. 50p admission, bring and buy table, raffle in aid of Capricorn Animal Rescue
Saturday 26th June there will be a Jumble Sale at the Daniel Owen Centre, Mold 9 am until 12 o'clock in aid of Capricorn Animal Rescue. 20p admission. There will be lots of good quality bargains. Everyone welcome.
Sunday 27th June at Quaystone Chapel, Connah's Quay (opposite the Boathouse public house) there will be a Pet Blessing. Starting at 3 pm. Refreshments available after the service. Everyone welcome, especially pets!
Recent News
We have had a varied couple of weeks. We had a call from moneysupermarket.com asking if Capricorn would like to take part in a video promoting pet insurance, as they are now having pet insurance on their comparison site. We said yes, and a team came along and interviewed and videod the various animals, dogs, kittens, cats, ferrets. It was quite an experience and of course, we are only too happy to promote pet insurance. As a reputable and responsible animal rescue charity we neuter, inoculate, identi chip, worm, flea treat and insure the pet dogs, cats, rabbits and fettets that are placed in new homes.
We have had two litters of kittens in, one from Deeside College and one a couple of weeks later from a garden of an empty house in Wrexham, which were new born. Both litters have needed bottle feeding.
A call came in to us from a social worker to ask if we could take in a complete family of dogs, a litter of 7 puppies only 4 weeks old and their mother and father. We said yes and arranged to collect them all the next morning. The owner of the dogs re-homed four of the puppies that night, even though they were only four weeks old and should not have been homed until they were nine weeks old. I explained this to her and she managed to get one puppy back but said that she didn't know where the other puppies had been re-homed! So we have four puppies now five weeks old and their mother and father. All are now putting on weight and doing very well.
At the moment we have 27 guinea pigs and more expected any day. This is a result of taking in unwanted multiples of guinea pigs from their owners who could no longer cope or who no longer wanted them. 9 from one owner, 14 from another owner, 7 from another owner. We have homed some in pairs, but the last intake had been kept with a male guinea pig and so we have not been able to home any of the females that came in with him. One has already produced two babies and there are four more females who are going to add to the numbers shortly.
Thirty one young ferrets, all neutered and now fit and healthy, are still looking for pet homes. These friendly little animals are handled every day, go for walks on harness and leads, they are great little companions.
Two More Ponies Rehomed
On Wednesday we took two of the rescued ponies over to Anglesey to their new adoptive home. They travelled well and arrived quite calm and relaxed. They were a black and a bay, these two had teamed up as chums and were virtually inseparable. On arrival their stable and enclosed pen was ready for them with two buckets of water and two buckets of food. They unloaded from the horsebox, strolled into their new home, had a bit of a drink, wandered around the back of their stable, came back around and sniffed at the food then decided to explore the stable instead. They kept coming over to us and their new owner for reassurance and treats of carrot but soon settled in. When we left they had not yet met the resident donkeys and pet sheep, but as they were housed at night in the adjoining stable and pen they would soon make friends.
These photographs show the ponies in the horsebox, settled and not stressed at all by travelling and then making themselves at home in their new stable and pen.
They have both been helalth checked by three different vets, as have the rest of the ponies we rescued and all have been pronounced fit and well. They are now losing their winter coats and beginning to look quite smart.
We have been experiencing vandalism at their field, fences being cut, electric fencing switched off, ponies appear to have been driven through these fences, fence posts burnt, main gate for field has been rammed and bent quite badly, plugs have been removed from their water troughs, but luckily these are now no longer necessary as the ponies have access to permanently flowing water from the springs in the field. Hay and feed has been stolen as well as 2 wheelbarrows. The police have reports of these incidents and are now investigating as this has now gone from being a nuisance to being malicious and dangerous, both to the ponies and public, after one pony, the little bay who has just been homed on Angelsey, seemed to have been driven through the fences onto the road.
Charity Shop Opening in Mold
On Saturday 20th March we had a Grand Opening of our new Charity Shop in Mold. The Rev. James Thompson, the Animal Padre who is our Patron, did the official honours, but as we were in the shop from 9 a.m. (the opening was at 10.30 a.m.) the shop was full of customers, who were all very good about being asked to go outside and queue to come in again once the official opening had taken place! The shop is going from strength to strength as more and more people get to know about us. It has only now been 2 1\2 weeks but we are already getting a regular clientelle.
Grateful thanks go to all who helped get the shop ready, especially Robbie, Holly and Pauline, Dave, Sarah, Moira, Lin (and Lin's other half), and welcome to all of the new volunteers who are going to help sort stock, serve customers, fill the rails and shelves and keep the shop being successful.
Planning Permission
On Wednesday 7th April our planning application for Retrospective Change of Use was passed by the Planning Committee, Flintsire County Council. It has been a long, hard battle with many upsents along the way, but we are finally there. We can now start to rebuild and refurbish the Sanctuary, each type of animal having housing suited to that species.
Housing to be built includes ferrets units, rabbit housing, colony style, small animal housing, cattery and kennels, paddock for sheep and goats and aviaries for the many types of birds that are brought in to us for care and rehabilitation.
Eric Davies is running the London Marathon!
Capricorn supporter Eric Davies is running the London Marathon in support of Capricorn. Read all about it here.
Cat Found at Social Security Office, Wrexham
This little, very old cat was found at the Social Security offices in Wrexham. We were called to collect her after she had been locked in the gents toilet.
She has no teeth, is quite thin (probably due to age), very fluffy and has a pretty purple collar and bell. She is extremely affectionate and is, or was, someone's much loved pet.
Does anyone know the owner of this little cat? They probably live close to the Social Security offices in Wrexham.
Larry the Lamb
Last Sunday afternoon we had a visit from a lady who had picked up a tiny lamb from the pavement outside the Pontblyddyn Cricket Club. She found it lying on its side, wet and muddy and thought it had been hit by a car, he was just alive and she brought him into Capricorn. I immediately took him to the vet, as he had no body heat and was extemely weak, he could not even lift his head.
The vet found that he had a temperature, a snotty nose, probably a chest infection and was scouring (the runs), he had not fed in quite some time. After receiving treatment we took him home, named him Larry, and tried to get him to feed, but it was quite literally a couple of teaspoons of milk every half hour. This went on until Monday night when he managed about three tablespoons, then he started to take milk from a bottle, very little at first but he is now taking about a half litre over a day, not enough but more than he was taking and now he can stand and wobble about.
Larry likes to share the hearth with Mitch our resident Chihuahua guard dog. They wash each others faces, nibble each others ears, and curl up together to sleep.
We have tried to find the owner, but no one seems to know the owner of the sheep in the nearest field to where he was found.
He has a long way to go before he is fit and halthy, but we are taking one day at a time with him and even a little progress is good.
Ponies Update
The good news is that quite a few of the ponies have now gone to new homes, three more are due to go this coming week. There are eight ponies left unbooked, still waiting for new homes. We will deliver.
Rescued Ponies
Here are some photos of the rescued ponies that we recently saved from slaughter. There are twenty-one altogether, all colts, all 18 months old and of various colours such as bays, black, dapple grey and chestnut. We brought them in from auction before Christmas and although some were booked to go to homes we do not home animals during the Christmas period until after New Year, then we had the bad weather so it is only now that we are about to get the first seven out to their new homes.
We have been going down to the fields in Wrexham every day, taking hay (£30 a day in hay), giving fresh water and clearing up their poo. 21 ponies make a compost heap a day! The ponies are being offered for permanent loan, with an adoption fee of £100, and what with chipping costs, feed and petrol costs it is going to cost us more than we will be getting back in donations. The ponies will have an adption form, which states that the ponies cannot be sold on or given away. If for any reason they cannot be kept they must come back to Capricorn, they can not go for slaughter for the food chain.
To have one of our ponies you must be experienced, have a field, paddock or good sized orchard. Be prepared to gentle him, castrate him and generally care for him.
New Charity Shop
There is a wonderful lady named Avril Clements of Ruthin, who finding time on her hands decided to set up a Charity Shop in Ruthin with all proceeds for Capricorn Animal Rescue. She chose the shop, stocked the shop, organised volunteers, and has now opened the shop which is 9 Clwyd Street, Ruthin, where there are a lot of wonderful bargains to be had.
We cannot thank Avril enough for her warm hearted generosity and very hard work, this will really help us ensure that our work continues as it is very hard going at the moment due to the recession.
So if you find yourself in or near Ruthin, pop along to this great shop and grab yourselves a bargain.
Capricorn Inundated with Unwanted Pets
We have 48 kittens, 31 cats, 38 rabbits, 3 guinea pigs, 28 ferrets and more are still waiting to come in. Pets are not being adopted at the moment, have not been for the past three weeks. We are full to overflowing. Its odd but dogs are going out so quickly that we haven't been able to send photographs to put on the web site.
Kittens - We have all colours: tabby, tabby and white, black, black and white, ginger, ginger and white, tortoiseshell, tortoiseshell and white, we even have a beige kitten. We home them at the age of 9 weeks and over when they have had their first inoculations, been wormed, flea treated, insured and have a neutering voucher for when they are 6 months old.
Rabbits - We have all types, sizes and colours from 8 months old. They have been neutered and well handled.
Ferrets - We have jils and hobs from 16 weeks of age, albino and coloured. All neutered and well handled. Our ferrets only go as pets, they are not for working or breeding.
Please see the Homeless pages for photos of the animals waiting to be rehomed.
Book Sale
When books are donated to our charity they go to our charity shop, any not sold then go to the coffee evenings and again any not sold then go to our jumble sale, after that I get them for my book sales.
I am trying to have a book sale once a month. I book space on Mold market on a Saturday and have about 10 or 12 tables selling lots of books at 20p each. Last month we raised £320.00, which is a lot of books.
If you are spring cleaning, decorating or having a clear out please give us a ring. We will be glad to have your unwanted books, bric a brac and any unwanted Christmas presents, e.g. the beauty products, hankies etc that you will never use and hide away in a drawer or a cupboard. We would love to have them for our tombola stall.
Please telephone us on 01244 547938 if you have anything we can use to raise funds.
Thank you.
