As is usual we have been very busy - I started this blog on March 7th, and am just getting back to it today, April 4th!
I'd like to thank everyone for the wonderful support we've had lately: those who donated feed directly through our local feed supplier, Mountain View Feed Company; Costen Insurance for donating $1330.95 to Bear Valley, their charity of choice for 2014; Johlian for selecting Bear Valley as your charity through Parkland Industries; Pomegranate.com for partnering with Bear Valley over Christmas with your lovely advent calendars; donations through The Tack Collector which raised $2924.22 in 2014; sales through Bear Valley used tack, organized by our wonderful volunteer Mary Ellen, which brought in approximately $9,000 in 2014 and an additional $800 through the Balzac 4H tack sale. Most recently, we'd like to thank: the Calgary Stampede Queens' Alumni; Val and family for the feed donation after the passing of their old pony; donations through donor's choice/workplace donation programs of The United Way; and for care of donkeys, Hands of Hope Students' Club and Four Feet Companion Foundation.
A big thank you to everyone who has donated aeroplan miles to the Rescue - so far we have been able to redeem miles for $3,000 in Home Depot gift cards which we can use to purchase materials to finish the seniors' shelter! Here is the link if you'd like to donate miles - https://beyondmiles.aeroplan.com/eng/ There are lots more thanks due, too many to list, but we appreciate you all very much!
I never want to hurry time along as life is too short as it is but I am so glad to see the tail end of March as it was a very tough month. We've had to say goodbye to a lot of special friends over the last while, including lovely Heathcote in January, Winky the donkey in February, and beautiful Penelope, and Emmy, Twenty and Prince, 3 of our seniors, all in March. Condolences as well to the families of Ronin, Fonda, and Quill's foal Kit, all 3 of whom passed from colic over the last little while. Between injury, illness or simply old age catching up, life ends and we are left to carry on. We are always happy that we are able to provide loving care while they are here with us but letting go is hard. On top of it all my mom passed away in March. Although her passing was a relief because of her illness, it was still difficult. With diseases like alzheimers and dementia you lose the person way before they die but you still grieve for them in the end. For those friends who made donations to the Rescue in my mom's memory, thank you, that was so very thoughtful.
There is always some good news too. Boston, Powder, Donovan, Raffles, Blossom, Inky, Pinky, Tucker, Leo and Rasta have all been adopted. Salsa, Estelle and Tivio are back from Edmonton and still awaiting that special someone to adopt them. Thank you so much Lara and Trendsetting Stables for your efforts on behalf of the horses, and the adoptions of Boston, Spitfire and Powder attest to that. Roche, Snickers and Twix came back from 'winter school'. Roche and Snickers, along with Inky and Pinky were gelded, and Beth, Wanda, Mr.Goat, HIghway, Kokanee, Cash and Missy got their teeth floated. Mr.Goat has a new foster home, joining 2 other of our adoptees, Story and Odyssey, with Linda and Tim and their menagerie. We have some new sponsors for some of the horses as well! Sponsoring is a great way to contribute towards the Rescue and the animals that reside here.
In the first part of this year we took in the 3 donkeys, Inky, Winky and Pinky, and about 80 red hens and 1 rooster. We were able to find good homes for most of the hens and even a number of our roosters! We took in 1 rabbit named Rambo, but when she was fixed she turned out to be a Rambette instead. Sebastian has gone out for some handling, thank you Katrina for taking him on. Vita has also gone out for training, thank you Michele for sponsoring that for her. Mac and Plume both had abscesses but they've cleared up well. Sasha, who is fostered at Janine's and fortunately close by, had quite the injury in February. She slashed open her neck right at her throatlatch on the edge of the metal roofing on her shelter. It was quite the gaping wound (graphic photo, sorry!) but for all that it could have been a lot more serious as she just missed her jugular and her trachea. It took quite a few stitches to get her put back together again!
I'd like to thank everyone for the wonderful support we've had lately: those who donated feed directly through our local feed supplier, Mountain View Feed Company; Costen Insurance for donating $1330.95 to Bear Valley, their charity of choice for 2014; Johlian for selecting Bear Valley as your charity through Parkland Industries; Pomegranate.com for partnering with Bear Valley over Christmas with your lovely advent calendars; donations through The Tack Collector which raised $2924.22 in 2014; sales through Bear Valley used tack, organized by our wonderful volunteer Mary Ellen, which brought in approximately $9,000 in 2014 and an additional $800 through the Balzac 4H tack sale. Most recently, we'd like to thank: the Calgary Stampede Queens' Alumni; Val and family for the feed donation after the passing of their old pony; donations through donor's choice/workplace donation programs of The United Way; and for care of donkeys, Hands of Hope Students' Club and Four Feet Companion Foundation.
A big thank you to everyone who has donated aeroplan miles to the Rescue - so far we have been able to redeem miles for $3,000 in Home Depot gift cards which we can use to purchase materials to finish the seniors' shelter! Here is the link if you'd like to donate miles - https://beyondmiles.aeroplan.com/eng/ There are lots more thanks due, too many to list, but we appreciate you all very much!
I never want to hurry time along as life is too short as it is but I am so glad to see the tail end of March as it was a very tough month. We've had to say goodbye to a lot of special friends over the last while, including lovely Heathcote in January, Winky the donkey in February, and beautiful Penelope, and Emmy, Twenty and Prince, 3 of our seniors, all in March. Condolences as well to the families of Ronin, Fonda, and Quill's foal Kit, all 3 of whom passed from colic over the last little while. Between injury, illness or simply old age catching up, life ends and we are left to carry on. We are always happy that we are able to provide loving care while they are here with us but letting go is hard. On top of it all my mom passed away in March. Although her passing was a relief because of her illness, it was still difficult. With diseases like alzheimers and dementia you lose the person way before they die but you still grieve for them in the end. For those friends who made donations to the Rescue in my mom's memory, thank you, that was so very thoughtful.
There is always some good news too. Boston, Powder, Donovan, Raffles, Blossom, Inky, Pinky, Tucker, Leo and Rasta have all been adopted. Salsa, Estelle and Tivio are back from Edmonton and still awaiting that special someone to adopt them. Thank you so much Lara and Trendsetting Stables for your efforts on behalf of the horses, and the adoptions of Boston, Spitfire and Powder attest to that. Roche, Snickers and Twix came back from 'winter school'. Roche and Snickers, along with Inky and Pinky were gelded, and Beth, Wanda, Mr.Goat, HIghway, Kokanee, Cash and Missy got their teeth floated. Mr.Goat has a new foster home, joining 2 other of our adoptees, Story and Odyssey, with Linda and Tim and their menagerie. We have some new sponsors for some of the horses as well! Sponsoring is a great way to contribute towards the Rescue and the animals that reside here.
In the first part of this year we took in the 3 donkeys, Inky, Winky and Pinky, and about 80 red hens and 1 rooster. We were able to find good homes for most of the hens and even a number of our roosters! We took in 1 rabbit named Rambo, but when she was fixed she turned out to be a Rambette instead. Sebastian has gone out for some handling, thank you Katrina for taking him on. Vita has also gone out for training, thank you Michele for sponsoring that for her. Mac and Plume both had abscesses but they've cleared up well. Sasha, who is fostered at Janine's and fortunately close by, had quite the injury in February. She slashed open her neck right at her throatlatch on the edge of the metal roofing on her shelter. It was quite the gaping wound (graphic photo, sorry!) but for all that it could have been a lot more serious as she just missed her jugular and her trachea. It took quite a few stitches to get her put back together again!
 Sasha's injury |  Beautiful sewing job by our wonderful vet. |  A few weeks later, nicely healing up. |
Winky, Inky, and Pinky
We had our annual general meeting in February. The main focus of the meeting was on fundraising and volunteer development. We'd like to welcome Baudina Slikker to the fundraising committee for the Calgary/Cochrane area. She joins Stephanie and Laura Schmidt who are focused on the Red Deer area. If anyone would be interested it handling fundraising for the Edmonton area (or any other area for that matter!) please email us about it at bearvalleyab@aol.com. A number of the volunteers attended a fun clinic in March hosted by Joerg of Flowing Manes Equestrian on equine communication. I think we all learned a lot! We hope to have another similar clinic in the near future as space was limited and not everyone was able to attend.
Speaking of fundraising, Mary Ellen just wrapped up an online auction on facebook benefiting the Rescue. Grand total raised was $2135! If you have used tack or other items you'd like to donate at any time please email Mary Ellen at melick39@hotmail.com.
We had a really fun fundraising event for Valentine's Day. Thank you to everyone who bought a valentine for their favourite(s)!
Speaking of fundraising, Mary Ellen just wrapped up an online auction on facebook benefiting the Rescue. Grand total raised was $2135! If you have used tack or other items you'd like to donate at any time please email Mary Ellen at melick39@hotmail.com.
We had a really fun fundraising event for Valentine's Day. Thank you to everyone who bought a valentine for their favourite(s)!
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It took six months but finally, since January, Beth has been staying outside with the seniors group! She still occasionally needs help getting up if she lays down but she has been doing really well. It is really nice to finally get to sleep through the night again. Here is a link to a video of Beth doing some gallivanting! - https://www.dropbox.com/s/bjqkdz42wbze1tz/beth%20videos%20002.AVI?dl=0
Coming up, we will have a booth once again at The Mane Event in Red Deer - April 24 - 26. Stop by and visit!
Also in the planning stage, we have an event lined up for July 4th at Horse in Hand Ranch in Blackfalds. There is a website set up for the event -http://bearvalleyevents.wix.com/bear-valley-events#!events/c1h6a- please check it out and share with your friends and family! We are looking for sponsors for the event along with vendors for a country market we'd like to run in conjunction with the dinner, dance and silent auction. It will be a great way to support the Rescue and have a fun evening out at the same time!
Be sure to look at the events and fundraising pages of the website for current news on what is happening or coming up.
Coming up, we will have a booth once again at The Mane Event in Red Deer - April 24 - 26. Stop by and visit!
Also in the planning stage, we have an event lined up for July 4th at Horse in Hand Ranch in Blackfalds. There is a website set up for the event -http://bearvalleyevents.wix.com/bear-valley-events#!events/c1h6a- please check it out and share with your friends and family! We are looking for sponsors for the event along with vendors for a country market we'd like to run in conjunction with the dinner, dance and silent auction. It will be a great way to support the Rescue and have a fun evening out at the same time!
Be sure to look at the events and fundraising pages of the website for current news on what is happening or coming up.
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