Twenty dogs rescued by Donegal Animals in Need already in 2024

In what is turning out to be another busy year for the volunteers at Animals In Need (AIN), more than twenty dogs have already been rescued since the beginning of 2024. Last week alone, AIN took in five dogs that had been left in the Letterkenny Pound and had not been reclaimed or adopted.

The five dogs have now received their first vaccinations, microchips, and rabies shots, in preparation for getting their Pet Passports.

The dogs will need to have EU health checks, a process that requires 30 days in AIN’s care, plus much organisation behind the scenes, paperwork, scheduling and of course a lot of TLC for the dogs.

When the dogs arrive at AIN, many are confused and frightened and in need of understanding and compassion.

ABOVE: More than 20 dogs rescued by AIN so far in 2024

Some dogs require extra care, which can take months to provide.

For example, last year AIN rescued a 6-month-old, emaciated collie pup.

He was so underweight and scared, it took six months of handfeeding by his dedicated fosterer to nurse him back to health.

But the good news is that last week, he found his forever home and will go on to live a fantastic life, and that is what makes all the hard work worthwhile.

It has been a good week for rehoming cats and kittens and most of the felines still in foster care are those who are recovering from various ailments or injuries.

These include cats such as Evie, who had to have teeth removed, Selena, who has a broken pelvis, Misty had a throat infection and swollen glands and Elliot had a nasty cut on his face when he was found wandering on a housing estate.

Tabby kitten Misty was rescued along with her father on Friday last.

Sadly, her father was in an extremely poor condition and could not be saved.

Misty was also sick when she arrived but has started to recover. Even though she was only born last summer, it was discovered that she was also pregnant.

The first newborn kittens of the year have arrived at AIN.

The two kittens still had their umbilical cords attached and were abandoned when their mother was disturbed during giving birth, causing her to run away and not return.

ABOVE: Two newborn kittens are being handreared

Luckily for the kittens, a local lady witnessed what had happened and brought the kittens indoors to keep them warm until they could be transferred to AIN.

The kittens are now being fed special kitten formula milk every 3-4 hours around the clock by their fosterer, who is highly experienced in hand raising kittens.

This an extremely tiring job and involves weeks of disturbed nights for the fosterer, so many thanks to her for such dedication.

AIN were also called out to help five injured adult male cats in separate incidents this week.

The tomcats were unneutered and sustained various injuries, mostly from fighting with other cats.

It is equally important that male cats are neutered, not only females.

Neutering male cats reduces anti-social behaviour such as spraying, straying, fighting and yowling and also prevents the cat developing a number of health conditions or catching diseases such as FIV (Feline ‘Aids’) which is generally transmitted by a deep bite from an infected cat during a fight.

If you would like further information on neutering cats in your community, please contact the cat helpline.

AIN has humane cat traps that can be used to catch the cats, transport them to the vets and then return them to their area, which is known as Trap/Neuter/Return (T/N/R.).

The charity carries out T/N/R of cat colonies throughout Donegal, but as there are only a handful of volunteers, it is important for local communities to get on board and help with this in their own areas.

Finally, AIN has several young adult cats looking for homes. They are all neutered, vaccinated and microchipped.

If you are thinking of adding a feline friend to your home, please check the rehoming album on AIN’s Facebook page for available cats.

For further information on adoption, fostering, volunteering etc, please contact the main helpline on 087 1356188. For cat/kitten enquiries please call 087 7644420. Animals In Need Donegal is also on Facebook and has a website at http://www.animalsinneeddonegal.com.

To help AIN’s animals, please donate €2 to AIN’s ‘Help Us To Help Them’ fundraising appeal via your phone by texting the word ‘KITTEN’ to 50300. Every cent goes directly to the rescued animals for their food, bedding, vet bills, worming treatment and vaccinations.