COMMUNITY

R170 000 - now THAT’s community care! That’s what we have donated, since January, to your local animal welfare and the schools within your communities. Pet Pool and Home (and Warehouse) has had an exciting 2021! In June our new Cat Carnival fundraiser initiative enabled us to sterilise 200 cats. In July, we were honoured to be involved with the hugely successful spay-a-thon initiative by Pet Community Outreach (www.petcommunityoutreach.co.za), in which they sterilised and dewormed 116 dogs as part of Mandela Day. Our crowning achievement this year is surely the success of our growing Loyalty Club programme. Pet Pool and Home (and Warehouse) began as a small family business focused on traditional values, which have remained at the core of our business as we have grown. These core values, such as quality education and caring for animals, are at the heart of any community. In line with this we run a successful Loyalty programme benefiting both local schools and animal welfare organizations. In the interest of supporting local communities, we have also grown our range by stocking products from local artisans, and small business owners. These ranges include natural handmade soaps, body lotions and bath products, and gorgeous dog and cat baskets made with locally sourced materials.

We give back to our communities! Pet and Pool’s unique Loyalty Club programme offers customers everyday cash back rewards, allowing contribution of those rewards to a selected local beneficiary or school. The programme gives the Loyalty member access to unique offers and special pricing as well as promotional campaigns. Customers earn cash back rewards and not points. For more information on how to become a Loyalty Club member, contact support@petandpool.co.za or pop into your local Pet Pool and Home store to sign up at the kiosk, whereby your Loyalty Club card is issued to you immediately.

NOT JUST A LEASH

Made in South Africa

A leash may appear insignificant, but it is one of the most crucial things you will use with your dog during his life. We must want to keep our dog safe and under our care especially when we go walking.

Bizzy’s Corner highly recommends our custom made Bizzibabs Adult Lead and Bizzibabs Puppy leads because it is getting raving reviews from customers! 1,8m long - a fantastic length to give your dog just enough freedom to move away from you to do some serious sniffing to make his walks or training sessions enjoyable. The leash is flat. Kind to hands. Cotton web fabric. Double stitched for safety. Available in 2 sizes - Puppy lead (R150) with a width of only 11mm to make it lighter for a puppy and the adult lead (R160) with a width of 21mm. The off-white colour, the only colour available serves a purpose. It is highly visible - a safety +++ feature. More good news - the leads can be washed in the washing machine!

Available online www.bizzibabs.com

Meet Polly

the 50-something year old Congo African Grey

Hi everyone, my name is Polly and I am a 50-something year old distinguished African Grey lady who was surrendered to Cheeky Beaks Parrot Rescue in 2021 after my owners who loved me very much were forced to move to the UK and were unable to take me with them. They originally left me with some really nice people who looked after me so well and truly loved me as their own, but they then unfortunately had to move into a retirement village where my singing in the shower was not appreciated by all. This was when all involved made the extremely difficult decision that I needed to be surrendered to the amazing people at Cheeky Beaks Parrot Rescue where I could find the home where I would spend the rest of my days.

As soon as the process started, Cheeky Beaks realised that while my caretakers absolutely loved me, they were not educated on proper parrot care and diet, and so I had a severely overgrown beak which made it difficult and painful for me to eat, which in turn lead to me being extremely skinny as well. They immediately made a booking for me to be seen by the amazing Dr De Beer at Centre for Avian, Reptiles and

Exotics in Klapmuts, who gave my beak a trim and he even cuddled with me wrapped in a blanket to help warm my old and weary bones.

“After I got the “all clear” from Dr De Beer, I was allowed to move into foster care with an amazing set of fosters who later turned into my adopters where I was treated like the fabulous older woman I am. We worked on diet conversion because I was on an extremely unhealthy diet of only sunflower seeds that led to health issues that require me taking medication for the rest of my life and now I’m eating very healthily with a varied diet of vegetables, grains and pellets, fruit, sprouts and healthy seeds. I also absolutely adore cuddling up in my owner’s bathrobe (it feels like I’m at a spa). My owners have also realised not to try wearing their brightly coloured socks around me. I feel that their fashion sense is quite gauche, and I’ll quickly get them sorted out.

As soon as my fosters met me, they fell in love (who can blame them, I’m fabulous), and decided that they wanted to be my final home. Because Cheeky Beaks is very serious about picking the perfect home for their birds, they vetted my fosters very well to ensure that they would be able to care for me for the rest of my life and afford my medication and regular vet checks with Dr De Beer. I was also introduced to a few other potential adopters to ensure that my fosters were the best possible match for me, but I only had eyes for my fosters.

If you would like to follow them to read more stories or surrender a parrot you can contact Cheeky Beaks

Parrot Rescue on Facebook (Cheeky Beaks Parrot Rescue), Instagram (@cheeky_beaks_sa), Email (cheekybeaksparrotrescue@gmail.com) or by phoning one of their team members who are located in most major cities https://www.cheekybeaks.org. za/contact-us/.

If you would like to adopt a feathered friend from them, you can do so by going to their website www.cheekybeaks.org.za and go to your specific province to view the parrots currently available in your province, at which point you can complete the adoption application which is located on that same page (available in both English and Afrikaans), after which a team member will contact you regarding your application. Please note that they are a volunteer run organisation, so it might take them some time to get to your application, but they should get back to you within 3 months. If they don’t, you can just pop them a message to ask them to check out your application, sometimes they do slip through the cracks. ”

Parrots are the third most popular pet worldwide, but the most commonly re-homed.

Cheeky Beaks Parrot Rescue is a registered NPC (enterprise number 2019/633/199/08) and NPO (246-693) that was founded on 1 October 2019 when the need to have a national parrot rescue and re-homing network was realised to provide a safe and reliable system for birds generally being offered as “free to a good home” on social media and classifieds.

We encourage re-homing (with strict adoption protocols), because this reduces the risk of birds being sold to breeders, or given to people who do not know how, or have the time to care for them properly. We encourage re-homing because this discourages potential adopters from supporting the pet trade if they cannot find a bird to adopt in any of the local sanctuaries or rehabilitation centres across South Africa. We also aim to raise awareness about the plight of surrendered parrots and educate the public on proper parrot care. We at Cheeky Beaks Parrot Rescue believe in the 5 freedoms outlined by the NSPCA. 1. Freedom from thirst, hunger, and malnutrition. 2. Freedom to express normal behaviour. 3. Freedom from discomfort. 4. Freedom from fear and distress. 5. Freedom from pain, injury or disease. We aim to raise awareness about our network at veterinary clinics and pet stores around the country in order to assist more parrots in need. We work with various private and public sanctuaries to find the best possible environment for each individual parrot that comes into our care.

We work alongside private and public rescue and rehabilitation entities and focus on providing a support structure for parrot owners in need of guidance and training.

We also aim to provide a safe haven for stray parrots found across the country until they can be reunited with their rightful owners.

Visit www.cheekybeaks.org.za for more information