New Year reading suggestions

Happy 2010!

Happy Christmas!

Many thanks to everyone who helped during 2009. Have a wonderful Christmas and we hope to see you in the New Year.

Opening Times and Phones

The National Control Centre will still be working 24/7 over Christmas: 0300 1234 999

Branch emergency contact number will be answered (but please, as we are all volunteers, only ring if something is genuinely urgent): 07742 658 086

The clinic will be closed on Saturday 26th and Wednesday 30th December, otherwise open as normal between Christmas and the New Year. For emergencies, phone the number on your clinic registration card as usual.

The Cambridge shops will be closed from about 3 pm on Christmas eve. 188 Mill Road will reopen on 4th January; 61 Burleigh St will reopen on the 5th.

Obligatory begging message—don't forget our shops can make good use of unwanted presents and any clothes you've discarded from your wardrobe to make space for new ones.

Dawn over Coldham's Common from the path to the clinic

Mistletoe on Saturday

This was the last of the donation of mistletoe and we'd sold out by mid-afternoon. Very many thanks to the imaginative donor for a fantastic addition to our Christmas fundraising.

Is it snowing right now in Derbyshire, check out the live webcams to see.

This image is from one of the many live webcams we have in Derbyshire.
This webcam is located at Grindleford Village in the Peak District.

As we fast approach Christmas day you may be wondering if its going to snow on the big day. Well using the many live Derbyshire webcams you can see what the weather is like around the County without having to venture out.

If you want to see if its snowing on the day then check out my..
Derby and Derbyshire Webcams page.

I also list lots of other webcams at the bottom of the webcam page.

Here are a few other webcams in the UK
so you can see where it is currently snowing :

UK Map with many webcams on it, simply click on a webcam to view it:
A full UK map showing webcams.

Snow cams:

Castle Street, Dornoch, Sutherland, Northern Scotland.

Swaledale, North Yorkshire.

Andy

Path to Cherry Hinton last night

Took this on my way back from dropping off some pet food to one of our fosterers. It was even more spectacular looking back up the hill from the railway bridge end, but by then the wind had got up too much for photography.

Please remember that cats and rabbits can cope with this kind of weather provided they have food, dry shelter and their water is kept unfrozen, but guinea-pigs come from South America and need to be brought indoors—either into the house or at least inside a shed or outhouse where their hutch is protected. Avoid bringing animals into your garage because of the danger from fumes.

Wild Animal Casualties

Statement from the national RSPCA:

"There is no truth whatsoever in the alarming rumour that the RSPCA has changed its policy regarding wildlife animals and that due to the credit crunch it automatically puts every animal it picks up to sleep.

Wildlife counts for a huge proportion of calls made to the RSPCA every year. Our inspectors and officers regularly respond to calls regarding injured or sick wild animals and birds. Every effort is made to ensure that these are taken to one of our own specialist wildlife centres, to a vet or one of the independent organisations that we work with and that they are rehabilitated and released where possible.

The RSPCA takes the decision to euthanise wildlife on a case by case basis, with the welfare of the animal in mind and to alleviate suffering."

On the current situation concerning non-native wild species, see DEFRA's review and the government's non-native species website (neither of these is controlled by the RSPCA).