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"NEWSLETTER"
 
 

     We have recently received some wonderful letters and artwork from schools and children who have taken part in
our educational program.   Trish our education officer regularly either attends schools or holds tours of the
refuge teaching the children at a young age on how they should approach dogs, how treat them and look after
them and what we do at the refuge.






     



               This great drawing was created by
              
               Matthew Flinders Prep Class

27 - 10 - 2008

In late October a Special Community Meeting was held at the Caloundra Community Centre.  

The evening was a Collaborative Project involving
Caloundra Community Centre and the Sunshine Coast
Animal Refuge.  The purpose of the night was to address social isolation for older people through the placement
of a suitable pet, with the placement being supported
by a volunteer.  The volunteers' role would be not only to ensure that the pet is well cared for, but also to be a support for the older person through regular visitations and discussion of the pet's needs.

Attending the Meeting was (Scars) Mark Farrelly, (L-R) Fiona Malcom, Coordinator of Community Development, Robin Steinhouse (Scars - Project initiator) and Carolyn Nolan (Caloundra Community Centre)

 


The following letter is in memory of Leila, she was much loved by her owner Linda, who has been a part of the refuge for many years.  Not only as a Volunteer, but also as a committee member and friend to many of us at the refuge.

Leila's Story

I took Leila home from the Refuge on 30-8-05 the day after my old dog had died.  Leila was an eleven year old
and overweight Boxer/Staffi/Mastiff? X.  Jane Bright had asked me to care for Leila at home for "just two weeks" until Leila lost some weight.  My intention was to return Leila and get a little dog.

The first morning she woke up at my house she crawled across the floor on her tummy to greet me with such gratitude and affection in her eyes, that I was smitten.  Leila had something that I believe is common to all the dogs the Refuge saves from "death row" - great love and loyalty to the one who gives them a home and love.

Leila loved people, cats and babies.  She was very gentle with small children and elderly people. I had her for three wonderful years until she died quietly and peacefully only three weeks after being diagnosed as having a very aggressive stomach cancer.   The sadness that her death brought was eased a hundredfold by the great love, devotion, happiness and memories she gave to me and my family.   

There is no better place to get your dog than a Refuge. 
And don't dismiss an older dog (or cat) - they have a lot to offer.

  P.S.  Since Leila's death I have adopted another Refuge dog, "Angel". 

Thank you Sunshine Coast Animal Refuge for the good work you do.

   

          
 18 - 09 - 08     A quick update on the progress on the building of our Veterinary Hospital.  
The Building plans have been drawn up and the soil testing has been completed by Cardno Bowler.  
The results have been passed on to the Engineer to design the footings for the new hospital.

  
    26 - 08 - 08     Austral Business Machines kindly installed a P.A. system in our office.  We can announce messages and ask individuals to attend certain situations, instead of chasing them around the Refuge.  
A great time saver.
August has been a busy month for the Refuge.  New exercise yards have been created by halving our excessively large yards to create 2 more user friendly pens.  The dogs still have plenty of room to run and play, which means more dogs can go out for exercise at one time. This reduces the time the Volunteers have to spend swapping dogs over and all the dogs get to have longer play/exercise time.  Also a puppy / small dog exercise yard was created, this allows all our dogs a chance to roll in the grass.
    

  10 - 08 - 08   Once again another one of our dogs will go on to have a
career in the Army.  Tusker impressed the Army on first sight and
she will work along side of them as a sniffer dog. 

The Refuge is now a lot easier to find, thanks to our new sign, which runs along the dogs exercise yards.  
     06 - 07 - 08     Our Garage sale / Open Day was a huge sucess.   With the public's support we raised
just under $20, 000.  An outstanding effort, and we THANK everyone who suppported us over the
weeks it took to set the day up and on the day itself.  The proceeds will go towards the building of our new Veterinary Hospital.   So watch this space for more information on the buildings progress.

    
More Open Day / Garage Sale Photo's can be found HERE

 



      27 - 03 - 08   Nova, a 3 year old Border Collie x Australian Shepherd, is           another one of our dogs that have been selected to under go Explosive
           Detection training with the Army.  She is a highly intelligent girl, who
                                        loves to chase a ball or stick.  

 

14 - 03 - 08       On Sunday 9th of March, the Annual General Meeting was held for the year,
and a new committee was voted in.

  • President - Rosy Symons
  • Vice President - Virginia Watson
  • Treasurer - Leesa Neilson
  • Secretary - Leisa Balmer
  • Geoff More
  • Kym Sloman
  • Mark Farrelly
  • Marilyn Higgins
  • Vicki Hansen
    Congratulations to all who made it onto the committee.
25 - 02 - 08      Earlier in the month of Febuary the Refuge received a bequest to look after three animals,
a pony "Bonnie", 36 years old, and two old donkeys, Sarah and Danny, both over 30 years old.  The
refuge will be building them a shelter and making regular vet checks and Geoff will make regular
hay deliveries.
  
  29 - 11 - 07      All the volunteers would like to send out a huge hug of THANKS to Geoff More.  Geoff has kindly donated a dry food bin that will stop any nasty creatures from snacking on the dogs dinner.  The
small lifting door it makes it easy for volunteers to get the right amount of dry food needed at meal times.  
Geoff had it custom made by Jamie Johnstone at Southeast Stainless.  And as you can see Geoff is
quite proud of his donation.....THANKS AGAIN GEOFF
  
   29 - 10 - 07        SHANNA     Not all of our dogs go to family situations. Recently the Army came
to us and put a few of the dogs through their paces in the hope of training them in explosives detection.  
In the end, a red Kelpie called Shanna  stunned them with her enthusiasm.   They took Shanna to the
training facility to really test her ability and in Dave's (her handler) words " We set her up to fail and
she passed every test and looked at us as if to say "is that all you've got".  She has been in training now
for 5 months and  is one month away from graduating 3 months early.  Shanna is considered to be the
2nd top explosives detection dog in Australia and is worth her weight in gold. Shanna can expect to work at
venues such as the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, and other high security functions.  A lot of people
think that it's a hard life for dogs in the Army, but Shanna gets the best food, medical, dental and housing
that money could buy.  They get regular days off from training and the handlers head down the beach with
the dogs for some well deserved fun.  Shanna will work for 8 years in official duty, then she will
become a role model for new dogs in training for 2 years, after that she retires with her handler. We all
wish her the best of luck in her new job.



We are pleased to report that SHANNA has graduated, and is now awaiting
assignment. She has even had the pleasure of meeting our out-going  
PM John Howard.   Again we wish her well in her new adventure.
             
Shanna and Dave, who is one of her trainers.                        Shanna showing us her Army doggie buddies.          
 You may of heard in the news recently of two bomb detection dogs which were killed while serving with the Australian Troops in Afghanistan.  One of those dogs name was Merlin, a blue heeler.  Merlin was recruited from the refuge by the Army about 2 years ago. He was accidently run over by a Light Armoured Vehicle while resting in the vehicles shade.  Merlin had sniffed for explosives at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and in East Timor.  His handler Sapper Peter Lawlis was distraught at his death, as were the other taskforce members, he is the first army explosives detection dog to die on operations.  
Because of Merlin and Razz's passing a memorial at the  School of Military Engineering in Sydney, where the  dogs were trained, will be expanded to pay tribute to the dogs.  They have also named the housing facility for the dogs in Afghanistan "Merlin's Run" in his honor.

         

"Sapper Merlin" checking the local markets for explosive materials.