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!!

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

What is Ark Animal Centre?

This incredible 4 minute video will give you an inside understanding of who and what the Ark Animal Centre is, and how you can get involved and help make a difference 🙂

Click this link to view it: https://youtu.be/sovmFsna_NI

Big thank you to the following people who made this video possible:
Eilidh Goosen
Rick Joaquim of Duck Rabbit Studios
Andrew John Lonie
Kasmario Fankis
C.A. Van Aswegen of FiX Post Production
Adam Lomas & Brian Mullany of Fireball Productions

Dogs In Heaven?

An old man and his dog were walking down this dirt road with fences on both sides, they came to a gate in the fence and looked in, it was nice grassy, woody areas, just what a ‘huntin’ dog and man would like, but, it had a sign saying ‘no trespassing’ so they walked on. They came to a beautiful gate with a person in white robes standing there. “Welcome to Heaven” he said. The old man was happy and started in with his dog following him. The gatekeeper stopped him. “Dogs aren’t allowed, I’m sorry but he can’t come with you.”

“What kind of Heaven won’t allow dogs? If he can’t come in, then I will stay out with him. He’s been my faithful companion all his life, I can’t desert him now.”

“Suit yourself, but I have to warn you, the Devil’s on this road and he’ll try to sweet talk you into his area, he’ll promise you anything, but the dog can’t go there either. If you won’t leave the dog, you’ll spend Eternity on this road.”

So the old man and dog went on. They came to a rundown fence with a gap in it, no gate, just a hole. Another old man was inside. “S’cuse me Sir, my dog and I are getting mighty tired, mind if we come in and sit in the shade for awhile?”

“Of course, there’s some cold water under that tree over there. Make yourselves comfortable”
“You’re sure my dog can come in? The man down the road said dogs weren’t allowed anywhere.”
“Would you come in if you had to leave the dog?”

“No sir, that’s why I didn’t go to Heaven, he said the dog couldn’t come in.
We’ll be spending Eternity on this road, and a glass of cold water and some shade would be mighty fine right about now. But, I won’t come in if my buddy here can’t come too, and that’s final.”

The man smiled a big smile and said “Welcome to Heaven.”
“You mean this is Heaven? Dogs ARE allowed? How come that fellow down the road said they weren’t?”

“That was the Devil and he gets all the people who are willing to give up a life long companion for a comfortable place to stay. They soon find out their mistake, but then it’s too late. The dogs come here, the fickle people stay there. GOD wouldn’t allow dogs to be banned from Heaven. After all, HE created them to be man’s companions in life, why would he separate them in death?”

Author Unknown

What is Ark Animal Centre?

Ark Animal Centre's Proudly South African Logo

♥ Ark Animal Centre ♥

Specialists in puppies and small breed dogs

Ark is a non-profit, no-suffer centre. Ark rescues, rehabilitates and re-homes abandoned, abused and neglected puppies and dogs. Wecare for them physically and emotionally in a caring, loving, non-institutionalised environment.

All our puppies are homed to approved, well suited homes and sterilisation is mandatory.
Ark’s main focus is education and awareness. Our aim is to createawareness and adjust the public’s perception of their responsibilities to animals. If education, legislation and welfare unite, we can alter the future of all animals in South Africa.

Where do our puppies and dog’s come from?

We get our animals from all over Gauteng. Some from other shelters who have no space or cannot handle a problematic puppy or dog. Some are literally from the side of the road, a few make their way to us all the way from the Vaal Triangle, and often we get those late night calls, “I found a puppy on the highway,” “I rescued a dog from the guy trying to sell him on the side of the road” etc. We get a lot of new born babies (bottle feeders) that come in, either from vets or that are surrendered to us by families whose dog had puppies. We then care for those puppies and home them when they are about 8 weeks old. We also make sure we sterilise the mommy dog of the puppies.

In the end if we have space, we will take them – we do not discriminate. If Ark can help we will go to the ends of the earth and do our best to make a difference to that dog’s life. Any dog that is in need of help is worth our time.

Our Animals:

We take great pride in every dog and puppy that comes to us. We welcome them into the Ark family and even once they are homed, still consider them as extended family.

We spend time in capturing the best possible picture of our animals to promote them on Facebook, Twitter and our website. A good picture is where our responsibility starts, from there we do home checks on possible homes and once we have met the new parents, been to their future house and seen the kind of lifestyle we will be homing them into and are satisfied only then do we give them their Proudly South African Ark Baby bandana and send them off to their eagerly awaiting new family.

While in our care, they are kept in sheltered runs, furnished with plastic beds and warm blankets, with access to shaded grass area’s for them to run and play in with their friends. We feed them Montego puppy small bite, as we specialise in puppies and small breed dogs. They get fed twice a day and are given treats at least once a week. Our shelter is cleaned out and F10’ed everyday as hygiene and cleanliness is one of our top priorities next to the animals happiness.

Every Saturday is “Ark Saturday’s” where volunteers come around to play, walk and socialise with our animals. They get bathed and dipped when necessary and also have a weekly puppy training lesson with Nicola van As from Thinking Pets. Below are pictures from a usual Saturday spent at Ark.

The Ark Team:

Our team consists of Tracy, our amazing Manager. She knows each dog by name and spends time daily loving, cuddling and playing with our animals. She drives around all day fetching rescues, doing home checks and making sure each dog is sterilised and happy in their new home. Candice, is our Social Media and Fundraising lady, she promotes our dogs on every social media platform, networks with other shelters, creates awareness through fundraisers and campaigns and makes sure the Ark brand is kept alive.

Lynne, Kristen, Cara, Nicola and Fiona are all dedicated volunteers with a passion for animals some do not understand. From training our dogs, to creating fundraisers, rescuing dogs from less than cosy environments and assisting with the enormous amounts of admin and paperwork – we are all animal lovers working towards a common goal, and with a passion that runs through our blood we make an exceptional team and look forward to the years to come and the animal we will save.

Contact Ark Animal Centre:

Email: info@arkanimalcentre.co.za

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArkAnimalCentre

Twitter: www.twitter.com/ArkAnimalCentre

Website: www.arkanimalcentre.co.za

Call: 082 334 7596

Address: 122 Summit Road, Midrand JHB.   GPS: 25°55’25.23″S 28° 2’28.76″E

♥ Love Your Country, Love Your Animals ♥