NEWS

SPRING THING NEWS DESK

As the site and the forum continue to grow I have created this area for those of you that want to keep track of what's going on, please continue to check back here now and again to see details of our fundraising efforts and any other fun events we have.

March 2008 - Sprufts 2008, out Springer Crufts, was great fun again. This is the 3rd year and each time the standard of photo's causes the judge alot of deliberation - well done to everyone that entered, we raised £232 for Jackie and her work with Irish and English Springers.

February 2008 - A secret auction to raise funds for Magda, a Springer in rescue in Ireland who needed extensive vet treatment after being hit by a car and fracturing her pelvis, we raised £100.

January 2008 - The 2008 ST Calendar was another great success and coupled with an auction for Totes Toasties organised by member Marie we raised £515 which went off to NESSR, SWSW, Jackie and SYESSR, great job everyone

August 2007 - The 2nd Spring Thing Fling in Angelsey, another wet one, but everyone had a great time with some old faces and many new faces who braved the elements to have some fun with their dogs. Thanks to Kelly for taking lots of photos and fundraising by selling them off as photo CD's to members who attended, the fling raised £95.

July 2007 - Who are you, who who, who who??? A chuckle was had as we tried to guess what items we were bidding for in a secret auction - clues were posted and you bid without knowing what you bid for. £150 was raised for the vet bills of one of Jackie and Rogers new fosters who is called Dr Who, he came in to Jackie's in a terrible state and needs alot of treatement, we were all only to happy to help such a great cause - keep up the good work Jackie, we all appreciate it.

May 2007 - A fantastic auction which raised the great sum of £825, split between Springer Rescue Ireland, NESSR and SYESSR, all the money will be spent on Springers needing so much help in the UK and Ireland

March 2007 - We had great fun hosting our very own Sprufts `07, a photo competition with some fantastic winners and best in show going to Sandy's beautiful bitch Zante. All in we raised £204 which was a great amount and also marked the opening of the official ST bank account which means that all money can be tracked and we can therefore help alot more rescues in an emergency. If you would like to make a donation to Springer rescue's across the country then this is now possible by sending a cheque made out to "It's A Spring Thing" and sent to the address on the contact page.

February 2007 - We raised £132 to help Selina and ESSW rescue an Irish poundie about to be put to sleep, she is now safe in the UK and called Flo in memory of Selina's Irish rescue who passed away last year.

December 2006 - the 2nd ST Panto, Spring White and the 7 Pups, took place! Jo's script was wonderful and Millie was a wonderful Spring White with Mary's very naughty and grumpy black cocker Misty terrifying everyone with her wicked witch pictures. It was great fun and thanks to everyone who took the time to join in.

October 2006 - Thanks to Val, one of our forum members, we auctioned off some Cliff Richard concert tickets, the tickets raised £65 which was donated to South Yorkshire Springer Rescue - thanks Val

September 2006 - We had 2 fundraisers this month. Firstly we raised a whopping £352 with an auction run by one of our forum members, Jill. She personally spent hours and days e-mailing companies and e-bay sellers asking them to donate items and we received lots of great things from some very generous people. The auction was run in memory of Jill's Springer Bobby who came from Warrington Animal Welfare, so £252 went to Jackie who runs a small Springer rescue bringing dogs over from Ireland, and £100 went to WAW to help with the vets fee's of the next Springer they get in.

We also raised £84 from a funny secret auction where nobody knew what they were bidding for, and an auction for a portrait by one of our resident artists brought in £70, to go the Gypsy Fund. Gypsy was rescued by member Sandy, she was skin and bones and pregnant and about to be shot. Sandy quickly got her to full health and after days of suspense she produced a beautiful litter of healthy puppies which are being rehomed through ESSW. The money raised is being used to get Gypsy neutered so that this is her last ever litter and she can finally enjoy life - she's staying with Sandy who rescued her.

August 2006 - First ever Spring Thing Fling. On the 19th of August a hardy bunch of Spring Thinger's (22 people and 45 dogs) descended on Angelsey for our first formal Spring Thing Fling, which was a training and camping weekend. We had a wonderful weekend of fun training including agility, flyball, hay bale scurries, searching and tracking. The weather did not dampen our spirits as we had evening BBQ's (thanks to Matt and Gary), a grooming demo from Mary, a TTouch talk from Tracey and a pub quiz run by Rhyannon. We had a bring and buy stall and a book stall which allowed us to raise some money and have fun - Totals for the weekend were £110 for Chris at Springer Rescue Ireland and £220 for NESSR - well done everyone

Having fun with our Springers, Angelsey 2006

June 2006 - The 3rd Spring Thing auction was a great success with so many kind donations, thanks to all who donated some brilliant items, the money raised is being split between Cynthia at NESSR and Jacqui and Roger who work tirelessly using their own funds to rescue Springers in Ireland and the UK, and whose work we often see making such a difference. Without the hard work of these people the Springers in the UK and Ireland would be alot worse off so we are very grateful. Total is £820 which is alot more than we have managed before so thanks to all the forum members who bid for and won their items

March 2006 - Brilliant Flo update, she is now living in England with one of our forum members, Selina, and is doing really well.
Here she is modelling her new jumper, which was knitted by some lovely ladies who are knitting to raise funds for Many Tears dog rescue and Dog's Trust so if you have any wool you can spare please contact me and I will let you know where to send it, or if you want a jumper knitted (doesn't have to be a George Cross)

Flo making herself at home in England after travelling from Ireland following lots of vet care and TLC with Chris at Springer Rescue Ireland

Also in March Zoe's kids made Scoobie keyrings to raise funds for an extremely overweight Springer called Ashley that was being cared for and put in a life saving diet by NWESSR, they raised a fantastic £73 - well done Luke, Joe and Jay

Feb 2006 - We held a photo competition on the site to raise some much needed funds for Springer Rescue Ireland as they had just had a large vets bill for a lovely Springer lady called Flo who needed surgery. All in all we raised £260 which is an amazing amount and could not have been done without the wonderful spring thing members, and also thanks to Annie for coming up with the idea and also sorting out rosette's etc and thanks to Linda for donating a goodie bag to the best in show winner.

December 2005 - We had what we believe to be the first ever online Panto, Cinderella, and what a great success it was. Everyone made such an effort with the photo's - the panto is now on the website so follow the links on the index page.

September 2005 - We held the 2nd Spring Thing auction on the forum, it was a great success this year and loads of fun thanks to a pig war that kept the laughs coming. We raised a whopping £432 this time which will be split 3 ways between English Springer Welfare, Welsh Springer Rescue and Irish Springer Rescue. Thanks to everyone who donated items, and especially those who donated their artistic talents, our 2 artists Glynis and Sandra who offered to paint pictures, our jeweller Penel, and not forgetting a lovely collar from Jules, tags and keyrings engraved by Tony plus so much more - we had 3 pages of items - please check out the links page and support those sites that do so much to help us.

August 2005 - Spent the weekend camping to raise with a large group to raise funds for dog rescue, Mr Crazyspaniels, my hubby, organised the BBQ with the understanding that any money raised by the BBQ went to Springer Rescue Ireland, great news, he raised £35

The wonderful Jules held an auction on her site www.caninedesigns.co.uk to raise funds for Springer Rescue Ireland and the winning collar was won by Paddy and he will model it once it arrives, he paid £15 of his pocket money so no pigs ears for a few months but he will look dashing.

June 2005 - We held a photo competition on the main site to help out the small Scottish rescue, Clovenvines, after they took in a litter of puppies that had parvovirus. We raised £115 and that included a donation for a lovely dog collar that was donated by www.fashionfourpaws.co.uk .

May 2005 - We managed to save a beautiful Springer boy, who we called Murdoch, from being put to sleep. He is a stunning big boy who just needed a chance that he wasn't going to get. We have raised the money to rescue him by having some great fun on the forum - a quiz, a guess the baby competition and a how many biscuits in the jar competition. He has just been neutered and is having some training in his new home so we really wish Murdoch well and we are grateful to all involved - you know who you are!! All in all we raised a brilliant £74.

Murdoch

May 2005 - A cheque for £81 went to English Springer Spaniel Welfare. We had a photo competition on the forum to win a cross stitch chart of the winning dog, this was kindly donated by TRPD , the winner was Ailsa's picture of her Springer Scampi and the chart will be going on sale in the shop to raise funds for ESSW. We also had great fun on the forum with a guess the ball thief competition which kept us all puzzled for weeks - thanks Rob! and Mary has been busy baking dog biscuits and selling them at work which is continuing to bring in donations, she has all the dogs addicted to the biscuits (she is baking the biscuits using recipes from Willow's Kitchen) so hopefully they will keep coming back for more - well done Mary!

March 2005 - On the forum we had an auction, and thanks to some very generous donations from ST members we raised a massive £450 for Springer Rescue Ireland. Chris at Springer Rescue Ireland is the only dedicated Springer rescue in Ireland which has a terrible record for rehoming strays and unwanted dogs, and many healthy young dogs are destroyed because no homes can be found for them. This auction marked Paddy's Gotcha Day, it was one year since we adopted Paddy from Chris and I felt he had given us so much in 1 year I had to give something back. Chris is putting the money towards building some quarantine kennels as many of the dogs that come to her come directly from the pound and carry a high risk of infection such as parvo which would devastate a small rescue so its great to know the money raised will do alot of good.

Paddy, 1 year on, a wonderful boy who has brought alot of fun and laughter to our busy home