As well as running RescuePet, I work for a wonderful rescue organisation that saves dogs from death row in pounds and transports them to rescues all over the country. It's demanding and heartbreaking work at times. This week, one of the most notorious pounds in the country was closing down - and it was up to us to get the dogs out and to safety. It was hardly a straightforward matter, but we got all but a couple out. One died (probably due to cold and lack of care). The other got put to sleep.

Everyone on the team works so hard and puts everything on the line to save dogs. It's an honour to work with such dedicated people. There are long nights, insanely stressful days, long drives for the drivers, difficult decisions to make at times. I am always aware that I have a little furry person's life, welfare and destiny in my hands. I pray a lot - for help, for strength, for guidance...and for the angels to clear up anything I haven't quite managed to get right. Our organisation has snatched about 80 dogs from deaths jaws in the last couple of weeks. I'd throw a party if I had the time and energy!

When a dog gets put down by the pound, it comes as a crushing blow to the team. I was all up for holding a memorial service for litlle Lucy this week - but couldn't both spare the time to organise it as well as do the rescue work.  So a private prayer is all it can be...for now.

 I adore my dog, Sascha. I have adored all my dogs - Shelley the 3 legged lurcher, Lucy the muppety greyhound and Minstrel the geriatric puppy. It's never far from my mind that every dog sitting on death row is as special and valuable as each of the dogs that have directly shared my life, my sofa, my heart.

I expect the BBC also thought Auschwitz was a holiday camp... 

Any blog, almost inevitably, starts to tell a story partway through that story. This is no exception!

I first launched RescuePet in 2002. At the time, it was the first database website for rescue animals in the UK. Now of course, web database technology is a lot  more accessible and a lot of rescue organisations are able to have their own database - still not all though. Even those that have their animal lists on their website - whether a static page or a database - also find it helpful to put their animals on RescuePet too. This mad world of the internet is all about advertising, exposure and reaching people. So RescuePet still has a big part to play and free assistance to offer.

 I lost count of how many animals RescuePet has helped home way back. I remember a lot of the little furry faces though! I still have the photos of the first 3 dogs that went on RescuePet. 

This is my blog - so I hope you will forgive a long ramble. I want to share the story of RescuePet and my ongoing adventures...