FNB Outreach May 2017

ARK ANIMAL SHELTER OUTREACH WITH FNB!

On 19 May a group of 20 FNB Volunteers representatives from CFT, Infrastructure & Operations,

DMT and ISS ventured out to the Ark Animal Shelter based in Fourways, Gauteng. Ark Animal Centre specialise in the rehabilitation and re-homing of puppies, pregnant moms and small breed dogs from all types of backgrounds.  Their aim is to change the consciousness in attitude of people toward animals through education.

On our arrival at the shelter, we were met by Tracy Otto, who is the owner of the shelter, and welcomed by a pack of excited resident dogs. She gave a brief introduction of what they do at the shelter and how they re-home puppies and other dogs. The shelter also collects dogs from the nearest informal settlement on a weekly basis to spay them and treat any wounds. Tracy said that they have seen a radical change in the behaviour of the dog owners in the informal settlement after agreeing to help them. Less and less dogs need to be spayed and owners are looking after their animals.

Their biggest expense at the moment is food and vet bills.  As a non-profit organisation, their survivability is dependent on the support of the public as well as the donations they receive.

Tracy put our team to work and we were tasked to paint an outbuilding and outdoor kennels. We had to apply various creative painting techniques to fill all the cavities in the walls, however we got the job done and the building looked fantastic.

The lunch team hastily assembled a mountain of boerewors rolls to feed the Ark employees as well as our volunteer team. After a quick lunch break, it was time to exercise the dogs and give (and receive) some puppy love. The team had so much fun walking the dogs through a park located on the property.

Not only did we Volunteer our time, the CFT team also generously donated a “walk-on” scale which will be used in the clinic to weigh the animals for medical purposes. CFT got a Medical Rep on board from Virbac to help with the much needed medical equipment. Virbac donated a box of “Backhome” microchips with 2 “Backhome” microchip readers. The very first puppy was actually “chipped” on the day. They also donated a box of Prazifen dewormers.

We will be supporting the shelter with various initiatives and we are all looking forward to the relationship with them.

Written by Teresa Wessels

31 May 2017

Get your pet professionally sketched!

In light of Mandela Day this year, avid animal lover, Christy, has decided to donate 67 minutes of her time EVERYDAY for a year to a worthy cause. “My mission is to create beautifully hand-drawn portraits of your ‘fur-babies’.”

At a cost of ONLY R250, you will receive a wonderful keepsake of your precious pet, and know that the money spent will go directly to Ark Animal Centre. “I am dedicating my time to a worthy cause as these little pups need all the help they can get.” says Christy.

For more information please email preciousportraitsproject@gmail.com. Please spread the word and share this poster… Lets do something good!!

What a wonderful world…

Every now and then something happens that is proof that showcases the good and kindness in the world… Marika Gothlin is an Swedish immigrant, and last year for the first time in her life adopted a dog; a beautiful 6 month old Biewer Yorkshire Terrier (Noah) from Ark Animal Centre. To her surprise Noah molded into her lifestyle and stole her heart.

Often speechless as words cannot describe how amazing it is to have him in her life, Marika expresses how wonderful Noah is with her 3 daughters and husband, Noah has become part of their family. In December she cancelled her trip to Sweden primarily because Must Love Dogs, boutique hotel was fully booked and she couldn’t bear to leave him with anyone else.

Ark was lucky to have received 3 Basset Hound Puppies on the 26 April they were quarantined and the little male (Goerge) had a very strange eye condition, after visiting Palm Gardens Vet it was clear that the puppy was in need of an expensive operation to remove a Dermoid in the eye. On the second of May Marika and her family popped into Ark Animal Centre, for a visit, they had booked another little Yorkie as they felt Noah needed a friend. However whilst spending time with the pups in the kennels, they noticed little George and Tracy explained the nature of his condition. Marika asked if she could foster little George for a week. On the 6^th May Marika returned to Ark and to our surprise had taken George for the operation on her account. An amazing lady with a very warm heart has given this little Basset Hound and opportunity to a beautiful life. He was adopted by a loving family and is now living in the lap of luxury. While Marika ended up adopting another one of our rescue pooches, Sammy.  Big thank you to Marika Gothlin and her amazing family!!!!!!!

Noah and Sammy adopted from Ark Animal Centre, September 2014 and May 2015.

Life with Hayley an Angel in Disguise

Hayley on the day she was adopted from Ark Animal Centre

A lovely update from Diane on her Ark baby, Hayley, who she adopted a year ago from Ark Animal Centre, and how she filled the lives and hearts of a family in mourning…sometimes the “rescue dog” isn’t the one being saved. Read their story below 🙂

Hey all… So it’s nearly a year since I adopted Hayley. At first she was a major pain and chewed my bed, Oakleys and more…. But she has crept into the heart of her big brother, granny, aunties, uncles and pretty much everyone. Most importantly, my heart.

Unfortunately she has irritable bowel syndrome which had earned her the nickname: Princess Poopy Pants. When she farts and you are driving, you find a park. FAST!! Hayley got her Bronze Canine Good Citizen in November despite everyone (including me, excluding the KUSA judge) thinking she could not do it. She is excelling as an obedience dog and will be doing her first obedience completion next month.

Training aside… She has become my cuddle bug and K’s best friend. KD has lost a load of weight with having her around and hates when she has school cause she is not around. For my family, Hayley has been a healing tool after the loss of my dad. I fostered her a week after he died and she crept into our hearts. My sister in law is a cat person and actually had to get a dog after Hayley came into our lives!!!

Mom often says how much Dad would have loved her. I think she would have adored him and think he may have stollen her from me. Thank you for recommending this very special girl to me. She has changed my world and refocused my whole family at a time when we needed something more than sympathy.

Written by: Diane Logie

Tuks Engineering Students Give Back

We were lucky enough to find ourselves surrounded by the very brainy and enthusiastic 2^nd year Engineering students from the University of Pretoria, who came to the shelter to complete their community service for Tuks. They took it upon themselves to designand build our drainage system for our Puppy Central kennels.  They even cleaned the kennels beforehand to understand exactly what problems we were encountering. Below is a few words from Michael Garvie, on why this project was so important to the team 🙂 Photo’s below.

“We are a group of Engineering students from the University of Pretoria. As part of one of our modules, we are required to complete a community service project of our choice. The group decided we wanted to be able to use the knowledge we had obtained thus far in our degree while aiding a needy organisation. We stumbled across Ark Animal Centre thanks to one of our members having recently adopted a puppy from AAC. With the chance to not only test ourselves but also aid needy animals, we agreed that this would be the project for us.

Due to the slope of the land AAC is situated on, heavy rains are a danger for the bottom kennel which had been flooded before, due to rain. We decided we would design and build a drainage system in each kennel, which would allow the rain to be channeled away from the puppies and their kennels, and into the drainage system. It took us a week of hard thinking and even harder work, but we managed to finish. We had put the drainage system into action and secured a mesh over it to prevent puppies getting into the drains. Every test we tried showed the drain to be fully operational and more than able to handle heavy rains, even with the slope of the land. We would like to thank management at Ark Animal Centre for allowing us the opportunity to aid them. We would come work again in a heartbeat. “

From all of our puppies and staff at the shelter, we would like to say a massive thank you to this team of young South African’s for their time, commitment and passion they had during this project. They came in with a fully mapped out plan, followed it to the tee AND completed everything on their own, leaving nothing for us to “clean up” afterwards. We are so grateful that we have a fully functional drainage system now that is working phenomenally well. We are so thankful and appreciative of all your efforts, and you are all most welcome to come back at anytime 🙂

Andreia’s Birthday Experience at Ark

Andreia who is a Grade 3 student at Assumption Convent took it upon herself to raise funds and awareness for the abused and abandoned puppies at our rescue shelter. This is her story…

Firstly, I just want to again say thank you for making Andreia’s day so special, and definitely something she will remember always!!! She was absolutely exhausted …struggled to get her up for school this morning, and I can definitely hear the conversations around the playground at school today!!!

Just though I had to share her story!! I have a really special little girl. Andreia calls herself the “Dog Whisperer” … and she says that she can talk “Dog”!!!

Let me begin at the beginning … It all started a few weeks ago when I came home from work and told Andreia about a friend of mine at work, Simone, who had just fostered and then adopted a puppy from the Ark Animal Centre. In this discussion I mentioned how important it was to try and adopt a puppy instead of buying one as there are so many rescue dogs in need of a home. I also told her that volunteers can go and spend time with the puppies and play with them at the Centre. She immediately asked if we could go through one Saturday to volunteer to spend time with puppies. I said that maybe we can donate some puppy food to the Centre …and that is how it all started!

She got very excited and said that maybe she can ask her friends at school, Assumption Convent which is in Malvern East, and all her family for donations for the puppies too and to also make them aware of rather adopt a puppy instead of buying one. I was amazed at her as she is currently only in Grade 3 … and said that that was a good idea and that we would see what we could do. She mentioned nothing further after this and I thought that she would just forget about the idea. Let alone did I know how serious she was about this .. two weeks later she brought up the subject again and asked me if I could help create pamphlets for her to hand out at school and for a box to set up in her classroom. I think that she had even spoken to her teacher about this but I told her that before she can do any of this, she would need to ask permission from her school principal first. She was so passionate about getting this up and running that she burst into tears at the prospect of having to wait for permission. It took me about half an hour to calm her down and then I help her (here and there) to write a letter to her principal. Attached is her letter that she wrote to her principal and also the pamphlet that she asked me to help her draft to hand out at school. Unfortunately her school only gave her permission to collect donations from the two Grade 3 classes and not the whole school. She was happy with this because as long as she is able to collect …even the little bit that she can, this makes her happy that she has achieved something for the doggies.

Two weeks later, after asking permission, her principal called her aside (and I received a call from the principal) to tell her that they had decided to do a Civi’s Day at school and all the proceeds from the Civi’s day collected would go towards Andreia’s drive for collections for the Ark Animal Centre. She was so excited and happy and when I got home couldn’t wait to tell me her news. The two Grade 3 classes collected R390,00 which was then handed to Andreia by the principal for the Ark Animal Centre. A number of girls in her class also gave her some food donation or dog bowls or doggie toys for her to start her collection with and every day when I got home from her she would show me the donations she received.

We even went further …her birthday was coming up and Simone suggested the Ark Animal Centre for her birthday party …which was just the cherry on the top of the cake. I got home and mentioned this and she was just over the moon. The next day the talk on the playground at school was all about Ark Animal Centre and her party. I got girls coming up to me asking please can I go to Andreia’s birthday party …and how much does it cost to adopt a puppy etc. Well she said that whoever comes to her party must please bring a donations of doggie food, puppy food or puppy treats. She was eventually able to raise R541,00 and a R100,00 of which was one of her birthday gifts that she insisted gets donated toward Ark Animals.

She would like to send thanks to her school, Assumption Convent, for granting her permission to fulfil this dream that she had and a very big thank you to Mrs Zambon, her primary school principal who helped give permission. She would also like to thank the Grade 3K and Mrs Keller and Grade 3M and Mrs McCormack as well as all her school friends, family friends and her special family for helping her with this project which was …and still is so close to her heart.

As her mother …well I am so blessed with this little Angel that God blessed me with 9 years ago and my heart is so full of thanks for this special gift of …Andreia!!! She teaches me and her dad and her older siblings things every day that we never thought such a young soul can teach us!!!!

THANK YOU ANDREIA!!! From all the Ark puppies!!!

 

 

 

Dainfern College Students Help Ark

We decided we wanted to help Ark Animal Centre. We have volunteered at the centre on many occasions andcame to understand that rescuing and taking care of abandoned puppies is an ongoing task. Each day the puppiesneed to be fed and cared for. We decided to help by raising funds to help take care of the puppies.

We asked fellow pupils at our school to please bake and donate cup cakes and brownies. On one of ourschool Derby days we sold the baked goods and donated all the money to Ark Animal Centre.

The event was very successful and we also raised a lot of awareness for the centre.

To follow on from this we are organising a group work party to go and work at Ark Animal Centrein our next school holiday.

Written By: Hadley Dickinson and Tammy Venter ( Dainfern College).

SS – Pooch Boutique & #Smoothies Now Open!

Awesome new pet supplies and boutique human shop launched this past weekend at Ark! Our own blog will follow shortly! ❤

Making you blush

Launching with bang! This past weekend The Sequin Stylist – Pooch Boutique & #Smoothies (Freezocinno Bar) opened with massive success. Officially now a blog to brand name “The Sequin Stylist.” 

Enlighten yourself to a world of dog loving, fashion obsessed individuals at the SS Boutique as you sip on one of the delicious #Smoothies signature Freezocinno (Chocolate, Coffee or Mocha) sodas, coffee, hot chocolate + much more guaranteed to have you feeling great from the inside out. Whilst shopping for both yourself and your pooch, accessories, apparel, collars and leads as well as designer ranges and lots lots more.

 

Visit “The Sequin Stylist” store and enjoy the out of town experience. Situated on the Ark Animal Centre premises in Chartwell. Spend the day or just for a quick pop-in for a takeaway and some puppy love SS & #Smoothies welcomes you.

 

 

The Sequin Stylist – Pooch Boutique…

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Pennies For Puppies – Comrades Marathon

Gloria Pucciatti who adopted a little puppy from Ark a couple years ago, has decided to run the Comrades Marathon in aid of our animal shelter!! This is her story…

Two years ago, I was blessed with a gorgeous little girl, Lily, who I adopted from Ark Animal Centre. She had never had human contact and the last two years have been a journey to hard earned love and trust from her.

My Comrades journey started in December 2009 when I was told that training for the Ultimate Human Race could not be done in  six months, especially since I had never run a kilometre before. But despite the odds I completed my first and Comrades and  have been hooked on long distance running ever since.

Comrades 2012 was a tough year, blood, sweat and many tears later, I came in with 1 minute to spare, a broken woman. It was with this in mind that I realised it was nothing in comparison to the journey of survival of my Lily and many dogs like her.

Ark Animal Centre and Comrades have changed my life in their own unique ways and this is why I ask of you to support the Centre through my journey to help raise funds and awareness for this amazing charity!!

Gloria is aiming to reach R10,000 for the Ark puppies – click below to donate and help her accomplish this amazing adventure!

Click here to donate via the BackABuddy website.

Gloria running the Comrades in 2013

Gloria and her fur children, Lily and Rafael

Lily and Rafael posing for a picture 🙂

My Adopted Puppy by Hazel Hynek

A lovely story from one of our Ark parents and their journey of adopting a rescued puppy 🙂 

In Febuary of this year my dear uncle Ken, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. They determined it was terminal and that he had, had very little time left. In the March, the love of my life and baby girl, Dalmation, Sidney, was poisened and unfortunately did not make it. Although we still had two amazingly beautiful doggies, Queenie and Trixie, I didn’t have MY doggy sleeping next to me anymore.

By June, I decided I NEEEEDED a puppy. After BEGGING my mom for 3 months solid, eventually she decided we could get ONE puppy. She thought it might help bring some positive energy into our home.

In August we adopted my baby boy, Tyson and after seeing her naughty boy ,Eddy, my mom couldn’t resist taking him home too.

These two puppies helped so much in creating such beautiful memories with my uncle Ken. He was constantly giggling at their little antics and they both loved him dearly. Uncle Ken passed away 29/10/2013. Uncle Ken lived with us, throughout the remainder of his days. Eddy was by his side even in the last few days of his life.

I just wanted to take a second of my day to share with you all, just how wonderful this organization, the Ark Animal Centre is and just how much impact they have in our every day lives. They give you, not just a puppy or two, but rather, a beautiful bundle of joy and abundant love.

You helped bring a bit of light into our home, when I didn’t think it possible. On behalf of uncle Ken and the rest of the Hynek family, I just want to say thank you!!!

Adopt today guys. It was the best decision we’ve ever made! 

Written by: Hazel Hynek

Little Tyson sleeping like a baby 🙂

Eddy – Hazel’s Mom’s beautiful rescue boy

Tyson – too much cuteness! 🙂

It’s a dog’s life!