Merry Dogs news « Merry Dogs Blog

OK, so it’s only September! But we wanted to start our Christmas charity fundraiser early to make the most money for our charity.

Each year we support a dog-related charity by donating profits from particular items. This year our Hearts and Stars leather collars are supporting our chosen charity, Mayhew International. All profits from sales of these collars from today, up to Christmas Day will be donated to them.

Mayhew International does vital work training and supplying vets in developing countries to help dogs and cats.

So, buying one of these collars not only means your dog has a funky collar in beautiful Spanish leather collar, you’ll also be helping dogs in need.

Supporting dog charities is central to Merry Dogs’ business.  We regularly support charities throughout the year, and towards Christmas we choose one product in particular, to raise money for one charity in particular.

This year, from today until 25 December, we are raising money for Nowzad by donating a proportion of all profits from our Union Jack dog beds.

ABOUT NOWZAD

Pen Farthing set up Nowzad Dogs after his 2006 tour of Afghanistan with the Royal Marines, where he rescued a dog from a fight that Afghan men were arranging for sport. What started as a human desire to assist the small band of dogs that befriended the Marines in his compound, grew rapidly into an international charity to support and assist animals and their soldiers.  Nowzad now works in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

The support soldiers gain from local dogs that befriend them is immense. In such a hard, high-risk environment, a few hours or even minutes spent caring for the dogs brings soldiers some normality and reassurance.  And when soldiers are sent home from tour, it can be impossible for them to abandon these dogs.

This is where Nowzad can help. They arrange for these dogs (and cats!) to be transported from remote and dangerous regions to their holding shelter in Afghanistan. Nowzad’s generous supporters  then raise funds to cover the animals’ transport and quarantine costs, and finally the dogs make their journey to their new life in the West, to be reunited with their old companions. Experience shows that the dogs can be hugely therapeutic and help soldiers re-adjust to life back home.

Nowzad realizes, of course, that it cannot transport all of the stray dogs of Afghanistan and Iraq to loving homes, so it also works hard to promote animal welfare and to assist in vital animal aid work that is so desperately needed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Communities and individuals worldwide raise money to help both the dogs, and their soldiers. All money donated goes directly to helping the animals of Afghanistan and Iraq.

FIND OUT MORE

You can find out more about Nowzad by visiting their website (www.nowzad.com), and join their Facebook page for daily updates on their work and links to all the dogs’ and cats’ ‘chipin’ pages.

MERRY DOGS’ SUPPORT

We are proud to be assisting Nowzad’s animals and their soldiers this year by donating 50% of all profits from sales of our Union Jack beds, from September to December 2011. This bed is hand-made in the UK from separate layers of faux-suede fabric, cut and sewn in place. All colours of Union Jack bed will raise money for Nowzad.

Take a sun-warmed, pale blue Welsh blanket …

Sew it neatly with care …  add some squidgy duvet filling  … and the magic begins to happen …

Sssshhh …

I am sure these sleepy bundles would agree with Napoleon Bonaparte’s thoughts on his bed…

Welcome Sid, winner of Woof Factor 2001, to THE DOG FILES. In this interview we get behind the headlines to find out more about this dog star…

NAME: Sid

AGE: I can’t remember quite how old I am. My vet says I must be about 10.

My Woof Factor 2011 prize-winning portrait!

BREED: Lovable Labrador

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE WOOF FACTOR? It’s a photo competition run by the wonderful Oldies charity, which finds lovely warm firesides for us old boys and girls who haven’t got a home of our own. I won some lovely prizes, including one from Merry Dogs!

SO WHAT’S YOUR RESCUE STORY? Two and a half years ago I woke up in a vet’s, and I can’t remember anything before that. Apparently I had been in a dog pound for six weeks, becoming more and more poorly – I had pneumonia… A lady rescued me from the pound and took me to her vets. She was my guardian angel!  I spent five days there on a drip, and they didn’t think I was going to survive.

But I did, thanks to their care. My guardian angel asked the Oldies Club if they would care for me, and they took me to my foster home.  I had to share this house with two of the oddest looking dogs I have ever seen – they’re called Bassets. Anyway, my fosterers joined that popular society, the Failed Fosterers Club, and here I still am, two and a half years later, with the odd Bassets and my dear family.

On arrival at my new home - still looking poorly...

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT YOUR NEW HOME? Good food (especially the homemade stuff),  long walks and lying on my bed in front of the wood-burner.

WHO IS YOUR BFF AND WHY? Well, the Basset girls tend to gang up together – so I am friend to all the fosters who come to stay, big or small. It’s very sad when they leave to go to their new homes – but I know another confused soul will be along soon who will need my companionship. I do have a furry pheasant that I am very fond of – does he count?

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR PERFECT DAY? A cooked breakfast, a stroll in the countryside (with horse-poo treats for sustenance) and the pub for lunch. Home, nap, afternoon tea, nap, dinner, cuddle up with pheasant for nap. I wuf naps!

Running about enjoying myself!

ANY DISLIKES? Having my ears cleaned and my feet washed – yuk!

WHAT WELL-KNOWN SONG COULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN WITH YOU IN MIND? My family chose this – ‘Simply the Best’ by Tina Turner. It’s made me blush..

WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT HAVING YOU AROUND? The fact that I am just perfect! My family love it when I join them on walks, and I have a large repertoire of tricks. Oh and I follow commands (the bassets are rather wayward!). They cannot understand how I ended up in the pound.

IF YOU WERE HUMAN, WHAT JOB WOULD YOU HAVE? My family always insists than I have been in the RAF – one of the loyal hounds who sits beside the runway counting the planes out and back in again. I even have a cartoon of myself in uniform, and very dashing I look too!

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Meet Cesky, one of our furry customers. She recently won a Creature Clothes plain leather collar in a Facebook competition, and she looks so smart in it that we just had to include her in our DOG FILES.

CESKY WEARS: Plain leather Creature Clothes dog collar in chocolate/brass.

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NAME: Cesky – pronounced Chesky.  It’s from the Czech Republic, apparently.

BREED: Go on, have a guess!! (answer below…)

AGE: 14 months.

FAVOURITE SNACK: Bananas.  I know it’s strange but it’s true.  I can sniff them from a mile away.

NICKNAME: Fruit Dog (obviously).  Because if I smell banana, tangerine, apple, mango, plum, peach (the list goes on) that new meaty bone doesn’t stand a chance.

TALENTS: I’ve been known to climb trees and scale high vertical walls.  I try not to do it anymore because it seems to upset my people, and I often get stuck.  I’m also very good at running, bouncing and twirling at very high speeds. I have a sideline in yoga, and like to amaze my friends by adopting impossible positions.

WHAT TRICKS CAN YOU DO, AND DO YOU ENJOY THEM? As well as the boring ones like sitting, lying down and begging, I can spin, lick, crawl and touch things on command.  I suppose I enjoy having new challenges but I definitely enjoy being given treats when I do tricks well.

STRONGEST RESEMBLANCE TO FAMOUS PERSON: Imagine Roadrunner crossed with Pepe Le Peu – cuddly and amorous, bouncy and fast, with a large dollop of cunning on the top.  In terms of famous people, I’m probably most like Einstein:  slightly mad, rather loveable and obsessed with reaching the speed of light.  I’m working on the hairstyle but my people keep trimming it.

“If Einstein were a dog, he’d look like me!”

BEST DOGGY FRIEND: Every dog is my friend, even the growly ones that my people seem wary of.  I woo them all with my bouncy, happy energy.

INTERESTING FACT: I love the great outdoors but I really don’t like camping.  I don’t care if I’ve got a whole beach and woodland to myself – camping is cold, it makes me miserable and I absolutely will sulk.

OK, SO WHAT BREED ARE YOU? Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier crossed with a Standard Poodle-Greyhound. Also known as a Mutt-With-Style. TA-DAAA!

NORMAN WEARS: Paco Collars Li’l Pickles collar and Red Star Tags sterling silver tag. He lounges comfortably on his Dotty feather dog bed.

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NAME: Norman

BREED: Dachshund

FAVOURITE ACTIVITY: Llllicking – I lllove it.  Lllloads.

BEST FRIEND: Mummy, of course. There are no secrets between us.  Though a pair of long-legged bitches of my acquaintance, Urchin and Wurm, have to come a close second.

BAD HABITS: Do I look like I have any bad habits?!  No, I do not eat anything that’s bad for me…honest!

GOOD HABITS: A little Dachs-y grunt if something really pleases me. Always popular with the ladies!

ACTOR WHO WILL PLAY YOU IN THE FILM OF YOUR LIFE: Has to be Taylor Lautner – like me, he’s black and tan and buff and young.

FAVOURITE DACHSHUND QUOTE: “Being the owner of dachshunds…a book on dog discipline becomes a volume of inspired humor…I would rather train a striped zebra to balance an Indian club than induce a dachshund to heed my slightest command.” (E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web)

Our new, occasional series, The DOG FILES, features Merry Dogs’ furry customers and tells you all about their likes, dislikes, friends, attitude and ambitions.  If you’d like us to feature your dog, send a picture to info@merrydogs.co.uk, and we’ll be in touch!

Our first entry in The DOG FILES will be listed here tomorrow!

Bullies have THE most fantastic doggy smiles!  Merry Dogs recently sponsored a photo competition on the Bull Breeds Online web forum, for which the theme was ‘Biggest smile’.  The winner, shown above, was Captain (owned by Lynn and Jim Caswell), who was sadly lost in an accident in 2009.

As a tribute to Captain, the prize (a Celtic leather collar) is to be worn by their bitch Nealie, who looks particularly beautiful modelling it here.

The Caswells, based in Georgia, USA, bring all their dogs up following a natural rearing programme.  You can read more about their dogs, and their approach to breeding, rearing and caring for Staffordshire Bull Terriers, at Wavemaker Staffords.

Posted by Merry Dogs