Our beautiful Toby...
All of them sleeping together...
Timothy saying "Goodbye"
Dogs all seeing Timothy off, together one last time...
Toby and his new necklace... What a cutie...This is a post I have been dreading, I don't mind admitting it... Here is the whole story...
Where we live we are considered to be Rural. This means that I don't have to register my dogs. Before moving out here and on two other occasions, I rang Council and made sure that I was allowed to have three dogs. We had only Bailey at that stage. On their advice, which each time was... "Yes you can have as many as you like as you are Rural and on 8 acres"... we then went ahead and adopted Nova and Poppy... We came out here and all was wonderful.
As you know Poppy passed away May 2009 and so then it was just the two, Bailey and Nova... In May this year before adopting Toby, again I rang and they said the same old story...
Well there is new Dog and Cat State Legislation coming in from 10 December 2010 and so I went into the Council office a couple of weeks ago to see about getting some registration forms. I would never dream of going against the law so knew I had to fill out forms for our three babies.
While there, I am told that I can't have three dogs. I never should have had them in the first place. They tell me that because I am rural I can get away without registration but can still only have a maximum of two dogs... So here I am in tears as I don't know what to do. They have my name and address. I feel hunted and very, very hurt as I had done the right thing in asking three times as it was. Why were they changing their minds now???? It was not fair.
I ended up the next day, through blurs of tears, talking to a Planning Officer in the Council who I should have been put through to in the first place when asking about numbers of dogs... There this lovely lady proceeded to tell me that I either had to rehome a dog or apply for a Kennel Licence. This entails me displaying a sign at my gate that I want to have Kennel Licence, announce it in the paper (which I have to pay for), apply to council for the permit ($950) and then it goes to planning. If it is approved and no unreasonable objections are lodged and all my neighbours agree, I can then have the three dogs for a cost of $200 per year, as long as they keep agreeing with me keeping them... I mentioned that I had enquired about this on three occasions and have suggested, strongly, that their staff that answer phone calls be trained better. This is just not good enough... But unfortunately I just don't have those sort of funds...
A friend of mine had offered to adopt Toby and then he holiday with us but I didn't really feel good about that either. Me and my having to be a rules girl...
So in the end we have put Toby up for rehoming... Why Toby you ask? Because Bailey has back issues that he will need medication for eventually. Nova on the other hand is 10yrs old, is blind in one eye and has backward ear canals so also on frequent medications... Toby on the other hand is in perfect health and only 3yrs old... He would have a much better chance. But was not letting him go just anywhere...
To say that we are devastated is an absolute understatement... All along we have done the right thing and yet Timothy and us too are being punished. I can understand that a crackdown on loose dogs and cats has to be done. There are allot of owners out there not doing the right thing. But we are not one of them. We have done nothing wrong. We are enjoying the company of our four legged friends...
A place like Warwick I never thought this would happen in that's for sure. We are on 8 acres and not bothering anyone. They are inside dogs that only go outside to do their business and to lie in the sun...
I am encouraged that he will go to a friend of mine who not only lives in Warwick but who has three kids and another small doggy. They will get on fine and this way Timothy is really relieved that we can still see him. Toby will also be able to come and visit us sometimes. Toby will love their company and love being loved.
We wish we could keep him... We will truly miss him... Toby, you will always be in our hearts...
Cheers Damaris
Where we live we are considered to be Rural. This means that I don't have to register my dogs. Before moving out here and on two other occasions, I rang Council and made sure that I was allowed to have three dogs. We had only Bailey at that stage. On their advice, which each time was... "Yes you can have as many as you like as you are Rural and on 8 acres"... we then went ahead and adopted Nova and Poppy... We came out here and all was wonderful.
As you know Poppy passed away May 2009 and so then it was just the two, Bailey and Nova... In May this year before adopting Toby, again I rang and they said the same old story...
Well there is new Dog and Cat State Legislation coming in from 10 December 2010 and so I went into the Council office a couple of weeks ago to see about getting some registration forms. I would never dream of going against the law so knew I had to fill out forms for our three babies.
While there, I am told that I can't have three dogs. I never should have had them in the first place. They tell me that because I am rural I can get away without registration but can still only have a maximum of two dogs... So here I am in tears as I don't know what to do. They have my name and address. I feel hunted and very, very hurt as I had done the right thing in asking three times as it was. Why were they changing their minds now???? It was not fair.
I ended up the next day, through blurs of tears, talking to a Planning Officer in the Council who I should have been put through to in the first place when asking about numbers of dogs... There this lovely lady proceeded to tell me that I either had to rehome a dog or apply for a Kennel Licence. This entails me displaying a sign at my gate that I want to have Kennel Licence, announce it in the paper (which I have to pay for), apply to council for the permit ($950) and then it goes to planning. If it is approved and no unreasonable objections are lodged and all my neighbours agree, I can then have the three dogs for a cost of $200 per year, as long as they keep agreeing with me keeping them... I mentioned that I had enquired about this on three occasions and have suggested, strongly, that their staff that answer phone calls be trained better. This is just not good enough... But unfortunately I just don't have those sort of funds...
A friend of mine had offered to adopt Toby and then he holiday with us but I didn't really feel good about that either. Me and my having to be a rules girl...
So in the end we have put Toby up for rehoming... Why Toby you ask? Because Bailey has back issues that he will need medication for eventually. Nova on the other hand is 10yrs old, is blind in one eye and has backward ear canals so also on frequent medications... Toby on the other hand is in perfect health and only 3yrs old... He would have a much better chance. But was not letting him go just anywhere...
To say that we are devastated is an absolute understatement... All along we have done the right thing and yet Timothy and us too are being punished. I can understand that a crackdown on loose dogs and cats has to be done. There are allot of owners out there not doing the right thing. But we are not one of them. We have done nothing wrong. We are enjoying the company of our four legged friends...
A place like Warwick I never thought this would happen in that's for sure. We are on 8 acres and not bothering anyone. They are inside dogs that only go outside to do their business and to lie in the sun...
I am encouraged that he will go to a friend of mine who not only lives in Warwick but who has three kids and another small doggy. They will get on fine and this way Timothy is really relieved that we can still see him. Toby will also be able to come and visit us sometimes. Toby will love their company and love being loved.
We wish we could keep him... We will truly miss him... Toby, you will always be in our hearts...
Cheers Damaris
4 comments:
I am so sad for you all. It's very frustrating when you try to do the right thing and it all goes wrong. I was going to say that he could come and live with our little cavvy, Abbey, but it's far better that you have him nearby.
I am so sorry Damaris! How awful for you and your family.I didn't realize such a law existed "down under"...I am really surprised that it would pertain to someone who owns a good sized piece of land. I could understand more if you lived in heavily populated area.I live in rural NH,and we do have to register any dogs,though we have no limit on how many we can have. We have two-a little chocolate lab named Sasha,and a big old tank of a dog named Samson,a black lab/bull mastiff cross. I would be devastated if I was told I couldn't keep both.Sending hugs to you!
Oh that is incredibly sad. It is so frustrating when dealing with councils and other Governement institutions when given incorrect information especially in regard to treasured members of family.
Thank you for your lovely and caring thoughts... I know that he is in a good place now which is what we needed for him. Timothy is slowly getting used to not having Toby around. We still call for him when we have the dogs go out for their business but that will slowly decrease too I am sure. It has been a tough week for all of us but at least we know that we will be able to visit him and him us which is nice. :)
Cheers Damaris
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