Behind the scenes at Bliss Cavalier Rescue

Bliss Cavalier Rescue is made up of the most wonderful group of people. Everyone plays their part and without each and every one of them, we couldn’t exist.

So who are these awesome heroes and where shall I start?

Ok, so we have the admin team who are around 7 days a week from early until late, we answer messages, private messages on social media, emails and phone calls. We apply for funding, fill in forms, write letters, arrange meets, book venues, order food, pay bills and deal with rescue finances. We also speak to people who need advice or need their dogs to come into us, we arrange collections and organise the right foster home for that dog.

The admin team follow the groups, often having to monitor them for the odd spammer or scammer and sometimes step in when things get a little heated.  We have our main page, an auction group, a supporter’s group, an adoption group and a dedicated foster support group. The latter 2 are closed groups and are only available to adopters and fosters.

We also try our best to do educational content for Cavalier owners or potential owners.

Our Auction

The Bliss Cavalier Rescue Auction Group is a Facebook group is the busiest and the team work tirelessly behind the scenes. We have live prize Bingo, bonus cards, games and raffles- sometimes these go crazy and following them can be really hairy at times!

Auction items need to be sourced and purchased, people also send us items to auction or raffle, they send gifts for the foster dogs and items from our wish list. These all come into rescue headquarters where they are unpacked and stored but at the moment our storage unit is actually someone’s home. We are hoping to convert a barn in the new year, so that we can use this as a storage area, office and groom room.

I warn you now, we will be trying to raise funds and asking for your help ?.

Every evening after an auction has finished, the spread sheets come out, messages are sent and addresses found. Items are packed, labels printed, and parcels are ready to be posted off the very next day. Just before special occasions such as Christmas, the work is tripled, this is all amazing for funds but I won’t lie, it’s time consuming and for some physically hard work. It also brings lots of boxes and packaging that needs to be disposed of, so we have two rather large ugly bins on the drive, but there is nothing else we can do, such is the life of a dedicated rescuer.

I need to mention here that we do have some amazing members who also add items to our auction page, this is such a great help to us as they deal with the packing and postage also, so a big thank you to you all.

Adoptions

When dogs biographies are posted as available, we are absolutely inundated with applications and questions, another job for the admin.

Enter, our Adoptions team. All applications are sent over to them where each and every form is looked at very carefully. This process can take a few days as there are many, each one has been lovingly filled in and the applicant is so hopeful that they will be the perfect home, the chosen family. We are very aware of this and it upsets us to know that many people are going to be disappointed and some feel heartbroken.

Cavalier Fat Club

Bliss Cavalier Rescue Fat Club was sent up in 2019 by our admin team. We realised that so many Cavaliers were overweight and it really was impacting their health and wellbeing. We wanted to offer an encouraging, supportive group where owners could share their stories and celebrate losses. Each month a ‘Loser of the month’ is crowned and a prize trophy is awarded with a gift to the Cavalier that has lost the most during that month.

We are very passionate about Cavalier health and maintaining the correct weight is so important for conditions such as Syringomyelia, Mitral Valve Disease, knee problems, hip dysplasia etc. If a Cavalier is overweight there is no doubt their lives are shorter and painful conditions are exacerbated. The group members have achieved so much and we are so, so proud of them all!

We were very lucky that Burns Pet Nutrition jumped on board and their nutritionist offer advice, support and even weight loss prizes too.

Transport

Transporters, we are so grateful to any help that we are given because this often falls on one person, she travels up and down the country collecting rescue Cavaliers or taking them to see specialists. A few of the admin team and friends do help when they can and again, we are truly thankful to them.

As you know we are a Cavalier rescue based in England but we do cover Scotland and Wales also so some journeys are long but we are more than happy to do this to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the Cavaliers needing us.

Fosterers

Foster carers, well what can I say, these are the most amazing people. The dogs come into rescue HQ where they are assessed, groomed and have their initial vet check, they are then either collected by the foster carer or taken to their home. They are introduced carefully to the resident dogs. Some of these dogs can initially be aggressive, these usually stay at Bliss headquarters but in the home, we do not have kennels and they are treated just like the other dogs. Usually the aggression eases and they begin to settle but some are not so straightforward, these little guys tend to stay at HQ because they are the doggy whisperers at Bliss.

Prior to fostering there is a lot of training to complete, so many things can go wrong that it is imperitive we do this. Cavaliers have some tricky health problems including neurological conditions, the symptoms can be subtle so the foster parents must learn how to spot these signs. There are also life threatening emergency conditions they must be very aware of such as Pyometra and heart failure- not uncommon at all. Due to the many hours we put into training the fosterers they are not allowed to adopt their foster dogs unless they will be staying under the rescue as a Forever Foster, at times this is heart wrenching for them but we couldn’t continue without foster spaces so this is explained before starting.

We also have a few foster homes who are not phased by growly and snappy guarders, and are super at dealing with this behaviour, training them so that they can be rehomed and go on to live happy lives. Most of our foster carers are retired or work from home, some of the dogs need round the clock care and lots of trips to the vets, we are extremely grateful to these amazing people.

When the dogs are ready to move on to their new forever homes, it can be upsetting for the foster family, some dogs come into us in such a sad state, they may have been with the foster family for quite a while. Adoption day comes and our amazing foster angels are often in tears, but they know the new family are perfect and will love and care for their new furkid. We get to follow their progress in their forever homes and stay in touch with all adopters which is lovely.

Thank you

I would also at this point like to say a huge thank you to the fantastic vets, specialists, nurses and all the staff who work tirelessly to fix our furkids and put right whatever is wrong to the best of their ability. These amazing people have saved lives, limbs, and the sight and hearing of many of our dogs. They are an extended part of us and we couldn’t do what we do without them.

Then of course you, our amazing followers, you play our games, you bid on auctions, you buy our goods, you send us gifts, food, toys, beds, collars leads, medication and more, but most of all you are here to support us and many of you have become our friends.

So who are we all?

We are Team Bliss.