Nutmeg again assists Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home

 

For the second time in 2018, Nutmeg Animal Welfare has fulfilled one of its founding promises: to provide continued support to partner organizations around the world.

Earlier this calendar year, we made a material gift to the Jerusalem SPCA in Israel, our third consecutive year doing so for them. Shortly thereafter, we purchased a few new requested materials for our friends at Scotland’s Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home.

One of the most satisfying aspects of our charitable work across the globe, in addition to the acts of kindness themselves, is the making and strengthening of friendships with like-minded animal welfare advocates we meet in our travels. Such is the case with the wonderful people who do a marvelous job running the Home in Scotland’s capital city.

No two places are exactly the same. That fact becomes clearer to us every time we visit a location and learn its specific animal welfare needs. What’s needed in Israel, for example, is entirely different than Scotland.

We first met the Home’s staff in May 2017. At that time, Nutmeg was able to provide gifts of leashes, collars, non-skid food and water bowls, pet toys, and other supplies specified by the Home. Since then, we’ve kept in touch with them to stay informed about what they’re doing and what else they require to continue caring for the neediest animals in the Greater Edinburgh area.

This year, the Home asked for a few new products: cordless pet fur clippers for use in their veterinary clinic and grooming room, plus sand pits and swimming pools to enhance the Home’s dog paddocks.

“Many of our dogs and cats come to Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home with matted, tangled fur or skin conditions which require treatment,” explains Alanna Kibiloski, the Home’s Special Gifts Fundraiser.

“In order to care properly for these conditions, our staff must trim down their fur. Efficient, battery-operated clippers {pictured at left} would make this process much faster, reducing the amount of time that our cats and dogs spend in our vet clinic.

This also enables our staff to spend more time providing quality health checks to other animals.”

As Alanna points out, many of the dogs that come to the Home require trims in the warmer months of the year to ensure they stay cool and healthy. Grooming can also enhance the appearance of a cat or dog, improving their chances of finding loving forever homes in Scotland.

While the word “paddock” is usually associated with horses, it can apply to dogs as well, as is the case at the Home. The dogs in the organization’s kennel system enjoy the Home’s paddocks – large, grassy, fenced spaces overlooking the water. Many of those dogs can experience a variety of stresses and strains from their previous lives before arriving at the Home or from struggles associated with adjusting to kennel life.

A place to run around freely and safely is great and necessary for the dogs to feel like they’re living normally, not just existing. In an ideal world, though, those spaces alone aren’t enough.

“The two smaller paddocks,” Alanna continues, “do not contain any enrichment aids or training equipment, resulting in a lack of stimulation for our dogs. Installing items such as sand pits and pools will vastly improve the mental wellbeing of the dogs and enhance their experience while at the Home. Our staff will be able to use the garden and enrichment areas to provide training and treat stress and behavioral issues in some of the dogs.”

Nutmeg is happy to have been able to provide Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home with more than £830 (or $1,200) in fur clipper, sand pit, and pool gifts. The pit and pool are part of a larger project to add sensory gardens to the Home’s paddock spaces – safe, welcoming, engaging spaces for the Home’s animal residents to enjoy for years to come. As you can see from these photos provided by the Home, our canine friends have already spent much of this summer doing just that.

To help Nutmeg provide further assistance to the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home in the future, please consider a financial gift in any amount today.