Previous news stories and events

Congratulations to our marathon runners!

HULA would like to say a huge thank you to two HULA heroes.

Chris Simms and Susie Wallis both ran the London Marathon this year to raise funds for HULA.

To thank them for this fantastic achievement there is still time to show your support. Just click on the Virgin London Marathon logo and you will be taken straight to Chris's on-line fundraising page or on the photo of Buster the Beagle (adopted last year) for Susie's page.

To anyone kindly thinking of donating please know that every £1 will truly make a difference.

May Day Success

Thank you to volunteers Roy, Hazel, Jeannie and Rosemary for promoting the work of HULA at the recent Leighton Buzzard May Day event.

Thanks also to the generous people who helped the team raise a fantastic £286.03 during the day.

More great volunteer news

Congratulations to HULA volunteers who have been recognised by the Petplan and ADCH Awards and were nominated for Volunteer of the Year.

Pictured below are Ralph and Irene who have been dedicated volunteers for many years working at our Open Days in the cafe and bazaar and also helping to sort the generous public donations of used items to sell in our shop.

Also pictured is photographer Bridget Davey who dedicates much of her time and to take the fantastic photos you will see throughout the website. Her talent for capturing animals amazes us all and her photos have captured the hearts of many prospective adopters.

Photo of Ralph and Irene with nomination certificate

Photo of Bidget Davey with nomination certificate

DHL Helping HULA Help Animals

We would like to say a huge thank you to the wonderful team at DHL Snellshall, Milton Keynes.

They recently took on the enormous challenge of climbing Snowdon to raise funds for HULA. We are pleased to hear they all had a lovely day and everyone made it to the top to see the snow and enjoy the wonderful views.

Photo of DHL staff who climbed Snowdon for HULA

We are thrilled to have been picked to be the team’s charity partner for 2013.

Two very brave DHL boys have also taken part in a sponsored "Wax Off" to raise funds.

A big thank you to John Rice and Dave Chamberlin for being such good sports.

Thank you to the wonderful team at DHL for Helping HULA - we are so grateful.

Domino's Makeover

Everyone at HULA would like to extend a huge thank you to the wonderful staff at Domino’s Pizza head office. Angie Lawrence and her team spent the day re-furbishing our cattery, the results are amazing and we now have upgraded accommodation for our feline guests and a cattery to be proud of.

Here are some photos of the work and a message from Domino's

The team worked really hard painting, laying carpet and refurbishing and we all had a really lovely day working together and getting to know one another.

THANK YOU DOMINO’S WE ARE SO GRATEFUL FOR YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT.

Pets as Therapy

We would like to say a huge well done to Emily Stritser and her dog Candy who has passed her PAT dog assessment.

This means Emily and Candy will very soon be donning the special Pets As Therapy jacket and going out to hospitals and nursing homes to visit the residents and bring them cheer. Emily works tirelessly here at HULA as our volunter coordinator inducting and training our new volunteerrs in her own time. Candy is her beautiful Staffordshire bull terrier cross Ridgeback.

Congratulations Candy and Emily.

Easter Eggstravaganza 2013

We had some glorious Spring sunshine for the Easter Open Day. Thank you to all of our staff and volunteers for all their hard work in making the event a success.

And of course a huge thank you to all of our visitors, especially those who made a fantastic effort to make some wonderful Easter Bonnets - well done!

Some special thank yous

We would like to say a huge thank you to Blue Bell Tents for their wonderful donation of duvets and giant outdoor beanbags.

If you are looking for a 'glamping experience' we would recommend you take a look at their website.

We would like to say a big thank you to Vets for Pets in Bedford for their kind donation of veterinary diet dog and cat food. It will go a long way to helping the animals in our care and we are very grateful for their support.

We need to say big HULA thank you to Marshalls Amplification. For many years they have let us borrow a PA system for our fun dog shows and Fetes. This year they have gone one better and donated the PA system to us!

We are so very grateful to them for their kindness and very much looking forward to using our own PA system at our Fun dog show on the 12th of May.

A fabulous new trailer

We would like to say a big thank you to Pam and Dave Twyford for purchasing HULA a multi functional trailer. We are very grateful and can think of plenty of things to use it for in fact we have used it already and it had only been here for an hour, it will be a very busy trailer!

Thanks again Pam and Dave.

Recycling for HULA

We would also like to say a big thank you to Suzy de Zilva for always thinking of us here at HULA for the used postage stamps from her workplace Johnson Controls in Luton.

Postage stamps are one of the many items that we are able to recycle for cash and collecting them can help to contribute to our work and of course helps the environment.

Other items we are able to recycle include mobile phones and phone batteries, used printer ink cartridges and washed plastic bottle tops.

Thank you Suzy for thinking of HULA

Cecil Schwartz Tribute

From Robin How, HULA Trustee

It is with great sadness that I have to report the death of Cecil Schwartz, the founder of Hula Animal Rescue.

Cecil died peacefully on March 6th in hospital. He had endured several years of almost complete paralysis and was bedridden for all that time.

When I visited him just one week ago I was able to tell Cecil of the many recent successes at Hula and of the very devoted team of supporters, volunteers and employees. He was quite clearly very happy to know that his beloved Hula is continuing in very safe hands.

From a young man starting work with an animal charity and throughout his life, indeed until his last breath, Cecil was completely devoted and dedicated to animal welfare. His bedside manner with humans was another matter and it was no secret to him.

I knew Cecil for over 40 years, first as a client and then for the past 29 years as a committee member/trustee of Hula. I likened Cecil to a stick of seaside rock, the name HULA would have been written right through him. He was probably one of the poorest veterinary surgeons in existence because he gave financially for animals in need and especially through his veterinary care and donations, to HULA. Cecil always acknowledged the untiring devotion to animal welfare that his late wife Margaret also gave.

I feel privileged to have known him. His work is now done and he can rest in peace.

CECIL SCHWARTZ MRCVS 1920 - 2013

Another HULA hero

We would like to extend a big HULA thank you to Beverley Tierney of the HR department at the Open University.

Beverley is a very clever lady when it comes to the kitchen and baked lots of scrummy cakes and treats for her colleagues including some treats for their canine companions. She held her bake sale with proceeds coming to HULA and raised a fantastic amount.

Thank you so much Beverley, without fundraisers such as yourself helping to raise funds and awareness of HULA we would not be able to help as many animals........plus you do it in such a tasty way!

Thank you Bridget

We would all like to say a huge thank you to Bridget Davey who gave up a lot of her time recently as a volunteer at HULA. Bridget always manages to capture the best side of all our dogs, bringing props and tasty treats along with her to tempt her models. Thank you for your time Bridget, we all really appreciate it and always look forwards to seeing the end results.

As you can see Kellah had fun with Bridget yesterday showing off her favourite trick.

Bridget is a very talented photographer and more of her work can be seen on her website www.bridgetdavey.com

Pets at Home

Everyone at HULA would like to extend a very sincere thank to Sharon Howell & all staff and customers from Pets at Home in Aylesbury. Sharon and her colleagues nominated HULA as their chosen charity for the Santa Paws Fundraising Drive which ran from Saturday 1st December to Monday 24th December. Sharon Howell (pictured here with HULA staff team member Gareth Pryce) visited us today and we were delighted to receive a cheque for £2,477.22.

We all visited the store in December and received a wonderful welcome from staff and customers and are so thrilled that once again Pets at Home Aylesbury have supported us.

Thank you Sharon - we are so grateful :)

Coffee Morning at Brantano

February 2013

Photo of Brantano staff and HULA's Sue Willett

A huge thank you goes to Brantano Milton Keynes for their fun and friendly coffee morning held on Wednesday 27th February in aid of HULA Animal Rescue. It was held as part of their Senior Savers promotion. A thank you also goes to Sue Willett who attended the event on HULA's behalf.

We are thrilled to have been selected as their local charity partner for 2013 and look forward to working with them on future events. The next being a ladies night, more news on this to follow.

Thank you to all the staff team and customers of Brantano.

The Hogsty End

We would like to say a huge thank you to Maria at The Hogsty End Handbook for all her support and work in promoting some of our animals looking for new homes.

The Hogsty End Handbook is a brilliant free monthly resource for Woburn Sands and the surrounding areas and their kindness ensures our animals and open days reach a wide audience and we get a great response as a result.

Community Matters

Photo of Heather Wren receiving cheque from John Lewis Partnership

We were lucky enough to be selected as one of the charities for the Community Matters token donation scheme in the John Lewis Centre:MK cafe.

The voting ran from November through to the end of January and we were thrilled to receive a cheque for an amazing £1367.10. This money will be used towards some refurbishment in our cattery.

We were made to feel very welcome at John Lewis and had a lovely morning with Anne Dodds the Community Liaison Coordinator and representatives from the two other charities in the Community Matters Scheme Macintyre and Age UK Milton Keynes.

Toy Appeal

March 2013

We are in need of more dog toys for our resident pooches.

We currently have a lot of toys that can be used for supervised play with a person such as tennis balls and tuggy ropes. However, we are running low on harder, rubber toys that the dogs can have in their kennels with them to have a nibble on when they are bored.

They do not need to be new, second hand rubber toys go down just as well with our residents.

Willow Veterinary Centres in Newport Pagnell and Olney have kindly offered to act as a collection point if that is more convenient to drop them off instead of HULA.

Animal Charity Awards

Petplan UK and the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes have kindly decided to recognise the outstanding work of staff and volunteers and to say thank you to those who have made an exceptional contribution to animal charities across the UK over the past 12 months.

The Petplan and ADCH Animal Charity Awards 2013 are now open and you can place your votes.

There will be a gala evening in Stratford Upon Avon when presentations will be made to award winners across the following categories:

Animal Charity Employee of the Year
Animal Charity Volunteer of the Year
Animal Charity Team of the Year

For more information and to vote please visit the awards website?

The Cat's Whiskas

February 2013

Whiskas Pet food on line Facebook community is aptly named "The cats Whiskas" and their Facebook page brings together cat lovers up and down the UK. Whiskas decided to run a volunteering day and HULA were thrilled to be picked. On Monday 18th February five wonderful people came and spent the day with our feline guests and what a day they had.

Katherine Maling HULA’s Animal Welfare Team leader said "During the day our visitors helped to assess five of our newest guests Bon Bon, Freddie, Billy, Skye and Jazz which has really helped us here at HULA. They also socialised all the cats, this included socialising with people and other cats. It was great to see nearly all our cats mixing together and having great fun. Our Cattery outside pen has had a revamp and the store room is looking tidier than ever. Freddie cat allowed everyone to see him being health checked and vaccinated and Jeff cat was very brave for his micro chipping. The day was a great success and we hope to see everyone again soon".

More pictures from the day can be seen here on The Cat's Whiskas Facebook page.

HULA would like to sincerely thank Charlotte Large for organising the day and of course everyone who worked so hard during the day – THANK YOU ALL.

Lifestyle Show

February 2013

HULA were once again invited to attend the Lifestyle Show at Centre:MK

Pauline Warren organised a stand for the four day show held in Middleton Hall from 21st to 24th February. Our thanks go to Pauline and all the other HULA volunteers for their hard work and dedication in ensuring that HULA was represented for the whole of the show.

This was a wonderful opportunity for us to spread the word about the work of HULA and of course raise funds for the animals.

ADCH

February 2013

HULA was delighted and honoured to host the February 2013 meeting of ADCH members.

The Association of Dogs and Cats Homes promotes best practice in animal welfare for dogs & cats. Member organisations come from all over the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands and include national rescues such as the Dogs Trust, Cats Protection and the Blue Cross plus many independent organisations such as HULA.

Representatives attended the meeting in Milton Keynes and took the opportunity to visit HULA to see the many recent changes and hear about future plans for the charity.

Once again our staff, trustees and volunteers showed what a great charity HULA is by providing a very warm welcome to visitors (including a vast selection of delicious home baked cakes!).

Special thank you's

January 2013

We would like to say a big thank you to all the staff and customers of Bailey's Travel in Leighton Buzzard.

They did a fantastic collection of dog and cat food, toys, duvets, dog coats, wool blankets and some lovely hand knitted blankets for the cats.

It is so lovely of them to think of us and we had a well stocked van for the drive home!

We would also like to say a huge HULA thank you to Lucy Watson of the Curriculum management and monitoring office at the Open University.

Thanks to Lucy and her colleagues we had a bumper crop of donations for the new year including bedding, towels, lots of dog and cat food, dog treats and even rabbit and guinea pig goodies.

Thank you so much to everyone at the Open University for their donations and to Lucy and her team of helpers for bringing them down to us.

News & Stories from 2012	Fun Dog Show May 2011

Summer's End Fete 2010	Oscar (formerly Kaiser)

Dog Fun Day May 2010	Bury Lawn School Visit