- 29/11/14 ~ The trustees are deeply saddened by the death of Lady Herries, the sister of our patron, Lady Mary Mumford. We offer our sincere condolences. Our thoughts are with Lady Mary at this sad time.
- 11/11/14 ~
The trustees of the Digglers Charitable Trust have nominated Manchester Vet Centre as veterinary establishment of the year 2015. To see our nomination click here.
- 08/09/14 ~ It seems quite a while since there has been an update, so here goes. It has been a wonderful summer at The Digglers weather wise. The sheep were sheared late June and as well as having their usual vaccinations, we added 'foot vax' hoping to cure Buster of his frequent bouts of mild foot rot and touch wood it seems to have worked.
At the moment there are no cats at Diggle and due to expense no more will be introduced until funds allow. We have acquired another little lamb-female. She was wandering along the road in apparent distress. Her mum had been killed in a traffic accident and she has now joined the crew and has been named Mirabelle.
The trees have shown quite a growth and hopefully I will take some photographs and place on the website. We have two new trustees – see minutes AGM. You may remember the on going sage of gift vouchers and The Willows. Unfortunately due to economic reasons they will not be taking them on board, however, they have placed our charity on the Cheshire network of charities that they administer so it is more publicity.
Thanks goes to Nicky for organising a car boot sale that produced £153 that went to buy cat food. We hope to organise some fund raising events in the future. Our charity is now on facebook, but there is nothing I can do regarding the upkeep as I am hopeless with technology so it is left to others.It has been a poor year for the students, many have joined but very little funding has been received -see minutes of our AGM.
Will be in touch with further news when it happens.
- 23/07/14 ~ You can now read the minutes of the AGM meeting online.
- 19/05/14 ~ It seems such a long time since I updated the happenings at Diggle, so here goes.
Some sad news, little Mavis passed away the other week. She was a very old girl and was diagnosed with liver problems in 2012 so she did very well to survive so long. Farewell, Mavie Mo you were a grand little character and will be sadly missed. She had full honours at Rossendale Crem.
There has been an ongoing problem with rats at Diggle. I have had to secure metal containers to store the corn for the sheep, but they have been eating the food I have left for the cats. I have therefore, decided to close Diggle for the cats and I have brought them home. Thank goodness I have a big house!! On the other side of our drive there is a large septic tank belonging to people across the road. This has been leaking for some time and is the possible cause for the infestation. I informed the environmental health authority from Oldham and the problem has been dealt with. There are not as many rats but being in the country it is a problem that is not going away. The answer is to control. I will not return any of the cats to Diggle once they have settled in a home enviroment but to start a new colony of four cats in the future.
Money is very short at the moment as I suppose it is with all charities. I am trying to arrange a 'sports night' in Autumn. Looking at all the differnent types of sports in the Manchester Area and hopefully, get contributions to auction on the night. I will keep you informed of progress.
I am very pleased with the number of trees that have survived the winter and hopefully, take some photos to place on our website.
Myself and the other trustees have been extremely upset by reports in the press on how many animals are being killed for human consumption inhumanly. We hope this is rectified and as soon as possible.
- 10/03/14 ~ New details about student eligibility for bursaries is now available.
- 06/02/14 ~ Today I received confirmation that Sparkle, the guide dog puppy we were sponsoring has graduated and her new owner is Ella. Brilliant news, well done, Sparkle!
- 04/02/14 ~ FIP update. After more research, I have come to the conclusion that this is as far as I can go. It appears that FIP and the coronavirus is more complex than I thought, certainly compared to the retrovirus and it is now beyond my comprehension. I would like to thank Ann from Manchester Vets in helping to gleen more information and of course Dr Addie. Apparently, there needs to be more research into both the test and vaccine. Certainly, at this moment in time I would not use either on our cats. If more information becomes available, Ann kindly said she would keep me informed and I will let you know.
The stable yard is now treacherous due to accumulation of algae, therefore I have opened the field gate to allow the sheep access into the yard so that I can feed them in safety. I don't want to be in the situation of skidding past them with my bucket of corn like something out of Shaun the sheep!!!
The answer is to power wash the yard but this is something I cannot do as our generator has been stolen. I suspect that it has been removed by someone who knew where it was kept. They also knew where the petrol was housed and used it to fill the generator and left the petrol cans in the middle of the yard! Nothing else was taken and there were many tools in the same area. I have alerted the locals and informed the police, it is also on Farm Watch. I'm hoping it has been 'borrowed' and may be returned. If not a new one will have to be purchased. That's my Miss Marple bit!!
I would like to thank Damian, he has been a star helping with the heavy work, stacking the corn and haylage for the sheep and sacks of cat litter and wild bird food from Cash and Carry and general heavy work at Diggle. Damian has been helping for a few years now and is hoping to join the trustees at our next AGM in summer.
The weather is a bonus as the grass is still growing and I have not needed to feed haylage to the sheep. I don't think the sheep are too tickled as they like 'room service in their pent house'. That would make a good title for a film!!!!
Will keep you update re: generator.
I'm also trying to encourage large veterinary practices to introduce a gift voucher and possibly saving scheme. I shall start with The Willows group. Will update on this in our next bulletin.
I would like to offer condolences to Gary and Caroline who have just lost their beloved Suzki due to lymphoma. I know what they must be going through.
- 03/01/14 ~ A reply to Dr Addie was sent. You can read this correspondence here.
We would like to wish all our browsers an excellent 2014.
Unfortunately, we did not have a good start to the new year. Herbie, one of our rams suffered from a 'mud button' and Joel kindly came to remove it so at
least he is back to normal.
Sadly on New Years Day we lost Elma. She had been ill for some time and living with me at Denton. On Tuesday she went for a check-up with Carole our vet and seemed fine. However, the following day, her health deteriorated rapidly and as it was a bank holiday our local vet was closed. I contacted a local vet hospital that was dealing with emergencies but was refused as we were not a client. It therefore meant a longer trip for Elma to Cheadle - Woodcroft who were brilliant and she was seen straight away. It was sadly decided that the kindest thing for Elma was to stop her suffering and she was put to sleep. Tomorrow, I shall take her to Rossendale pet crem for full military honours.
Hope for better news in my next bulletin.
