2007 GARDEN PARTY

The annual southern garden party took place on Sunday, 26th August down in Tring, which was extremely well attended with over 60 guests.  The party started around 12.00 noon and with such relaxed and friendly  surroundings the last guests didn’t depart until 10.00 p.m!  We especially thank those guests who travelled a long way to offer their support. There was plenty to eat and drink and lots of activities (tombola, raffles, auctions, games etc) going on all of which helped raise a massive £2,156.   

Special thanks too to Dawn and Glyn for all their hard work, warm welcome and hospitality on the day and most of all to everyone who came and gave so generously on the day.

All funds from this garden party will be going to meet the fees we incur on the current large rescue we are undertaking.

THE RAGDOLL WORKSHOP

The recent Workshop held in Chorley, in conjunction with TRCS and the Progressive Ragdoll Breed Cat Club, was a very informal, enjoyable and successful day.  We had anticipated around 40-45 people but it ended up with 67!   The weather was abysmal but it didn’t stop our Raggie devotees with people coming from as far as Bournemouth and Scotland to attend.

The Workshop covered all aspects of caring for your Ragdoll – from buying your pet to breeding as well as health issues, practical demonstrations on how to cut claws. grooming and even the best way of giving your cat a pill.  And, of course, an update on the Group’s rehoming to date; the numbers of which surprised many of the attendees.

There was an endless supply of tea, coffee and soft drinks and biscuits and a buffet lunch laid on.

Candice Prowting provided us with a selection of beautiful Raggies for the day who were as good as gold when submitting to various demonstrations during the talks.

On leaving everyone was handed a goodie bag and our sincere thanks for their support goes to:

FUNDRAISING NEWS

THE NATIONAL CAT SHOW

The Ragdoll Rehome Group visited The National Cat Show at Olympia London on Saturday the 9th December. We had our table up in the gallery next to the World of Cats. Dawn was stewarding and showing her cats so she left Darren and I in charge of the table.

 What a wonderful day the group had. We were quite overwhelmed by the good wishes and interest from the public. Many, many people commented that they knew of us and the work we do, many offered help and donated articles to sell. Dawn who really should be known by the title of "Mrs Fundraiser" sourced some wonderful cats toys and accessories and Marion excelled herself with her cat beds which completely sold out. We actually sold nearly all the toys and beds that were supposed to be shipped to Cianne in Scotland! sorry Cianne! 

Darren was chief merchandiser and he had his work cut out keep re-arranging the stall to maximize sales. He left me to do the talking (I wonder why!?)  I am so happy to report that through the generosity of those visiting our table we took in excess of £540 on the day!

 A big thank you from the RRG goes to all the people who helped us on the day and special thank you's go to our friends at the TRCS  for directing people wanting to re-home to us and for their continued support and generosity, and to Bev who helped us   source the cat items, donated toys and although she was busy on the day came and offered us loads of support and encouragement.

It was such a lovely friendly day and although we were in need of a new pair of feet at the end of it, it was a huge success for the RRG.

Linda and Darren (Dawn's trainee fund raisers)

On behalf of the Group we would just like to say a big thank you to Linda, Darren and Marian too for all their hard work at the National and raising such a tremendous amount of money.  Well done!

AZZIE (OUR FIGUREHEAD) MADE
HIS “SUPREME” DEBUT ON
SATURDAY, 25TH NOVEMBER 2007
AT THE GRAND AGE OF 11½  YEARS OF AGE.
HE GAINED A PREMIER CERTIFICTATE
AND THEN WENT ON TO TAKE
THE BEST OF BREED
AGAINST SOME VERY STIFF COMPETITION.
WELL DONE TO HANS AND EILEEN AND OF COURSE TO
“OUR AZZIE”!

In July of this year we unfortunately heard of a large number of Ragdolls which required rehoming and because of the sheer number involved we, as a group of friends, decided we would form a Ragdoll Rehome Group to meet the need.  We recognised this would be a real challenge as we had to start from scratch from finding people willing to undertake homechecks, help with travelling arrangements, fostering and above all fundraising but due to the fact that many of us had been involved with Ragdoll rescue/rehoming for many years this didn’t in any way daunt us.

We were indeed very fortunate in that we had a vet waiting to help with neutering the older cats prior to rehoming but we also had a group of younger cats in need of some TLC before they could be considered for placement.

We quickly set the wheels in motion to find the right homes for the younger group when they were ready to leave their foster mum which was no small task.  However the support that came our way was overwhelming.  People were extremely generous in their offers of money and practical help (moving of cats/homechecks etc).  We were so touched by the generosity of people when they heard of the plight of these cats.

The older cats were the first to be rehomed with the help of another rescue group (not a breed rescue) and we cannot thank them enough for all their efforts – a massive thank you to them.

The younger group was going to take rather longer due to many problems.  We had to hold onto them for rather longer than we had anticipated which meant so much extra work for our main foster “mum”.  This lady was fantastic and unflagging in her efforts.  Nothing was too much trouble.

MARGARET WALKDEN

THANK YOU SO MUCH

Margaret has been brilliant over the past months and now at last it has come to an end and all our little Raggies that you cared for have all now gone to their new homes. All are doing well; all are very much loved by their new families and all the new “parents” have said these Raggies are a credit to you and all the care you have given them.

Last Sunday was a real busy day for us.  We had to move 7 cats in total the move started in Scotland where we had 2 Raggies from 2 different homes to come down south.  Their move started at 5.00 a.m as they travelled across  Scotland to meet Cianne in Dumfries; they then all travelled down to Lancaster where Sue Jones was waiting to bring them down as far as Cheshire and there meet Margret Walkden with the five she was bringing to meet me in Solihull. From there we travelled down to Guilford where they would meet all their new families.

The Group would like to thank everyone that helped on the day:

Ann Power & Sue Jones & Margret Walkden and Liz Percival

The move went like clock work many thanks to you all for everything

Just a note to say all the cats that was moved are doing well we are just waiting for some up dates on how they are doing watch this space

Dawn Davies

FUN NIGHT

LANARKSHIRE

This was a great success attended by some 70+ people who, by all accounts, had a thoroughly enjoyable evening – thanks to all the hard work put in by Yvonne and Bill Skilling.  Their efforts raised our Group the magnificent sum of £300 and we all cannot thank enough Yvonne and Billy plus all their family, friends and friends of friends, who contributed.

Your kindness and hard work is really appreciated.

GARDEN PARTY

Sunday, 27^th August

The Garden Party held at the home of Dawn and Glyn was a huge success and we would like to thank everyone who attended and who helped make it such an enjoyable relaxed day.  There was plenty to eat and drink, a photo competition, raffle, and auction as well as tables selling cakes, jewellery and cat toys. 

We are very pleased to report that the Garden Party raised a whopping £1,390.  We were overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone.  We would like to say a special thank you as well to those people who took the time to send donations but were unable to attend on the day – your kindness is appreciated.

Below a few photos taken on the day.

THANK YOU!

We would like to thank the people named below for supporting us at the garden party and even though some of them were unable to be there on the day they were kind enough to make donations to the Group. The others just want to help with our work for the Ragdolls that need our assistance.

                          Paul & Maureen Laverman

                          Alan & Lyn Stone

                          Mr PA Derry & Miss M A Lynch

                          Mr G & Mrs J Aitkin

                          The Bard Veterinary Group

                          Mr M & Mrs M Beal

                          Mrs M Pidd

                          Mrs T Alexander

                          Mrs L Benterman

                          Mrs M Clarke

                          Mrs A Fowler

                          Mrs Sue Allen

                          Mr C Eveniss

                          Mr & Mrs Scheepstra

OFFICIAL LAUNCH

The Ragdoll Rehome Group made their “official and public” debut at The Progressive Ragdoll Cat Club Show on Saturday, 29th July 2006. 

We had two tables at this very friendly Show, having been generously given many donations of cat orientated items to sell, and these together with cat bedding and beautiful homemade cakes made for a very successful day’s fundraising - £223!  So a very BIG THANK YOU to all those who so generously donated items to sell  and to those who gave their time in making bedding and baking cakes.

The biggest draw of the day to our table was Azzi.  Azzie is an 11 year old ex stud boy, who was a rehome and whilst he was not rehomed by our Group, Dawn was very much involved in his resettlement.   Azzie is a great ambassador for the breed and rehomes in general, being very laid back (horizontal most of the time playing with his toys he was so relaxed!) and hamming it up much to the amusement of the people who came over to see him time and time again.  He really enjoyed himself (not least we think as by the end of the day he had been inundated with lots of new catnip toys!).  He prompted many enquiries and his new doting slaves  oops, we mean owners were on hand and were more than happy to explain the benefits of taking on an older cat.

The co-ordinators of the RRG take this opportunity to thank everyone at the Progressive Ragdoll Show on Saturday, both show management and exhibitors, for all their support and interest and especially to Eileen, Hans and Azzie.