Animal lover Norma, 79, shows she deserves title of a dog’s best friend
THEY SAY a dog is man’s best friend. But after a quarter of a century of taking in waifs and strays from the streets of Hull, Norma Anderson could lay claim to the title the other way round.
For years Carr House Rescue Centre has been the first port of call for the city’s dog wardens and it will continue to be for at least another three years after the city council recently awarded it a new contract.
At 79, the former computer trainer could have retired years ago. But she said: “I would love to give up, but who is going to do it? Anybody else would do it for money and have the dogs put down. My staff have been here 10,12, 13 years and it keeps them in a job.”
Sticking her nose up to the wire, is Nila, an affectionate cross Saluki, possibly a traveller’s dog, which came in with a leg fractured in two places, via the PDSA. The story behind it is murky, but a woman who later rang to claim the dog balked when told she would have to pay for the surgery, which cost over £1,000. Rather than seeing the dog put down, Mrs Anderson generously paid out of her own pocket.
”If she had been 12 or 13 we would have taken a different attitude,” she said. “But she’s young and she hasn’t had a life yet.”
Dogs who come her way are very lucky indeed. When she and her husband first came to Carr House, they leased the kennels out. She said: “The dog wardens used to come with two vans and have them all put down, it was awful.”
Mr Anderson, a retired chief superintendent, fell ill and a couple of years later Mrs Anderson took on the running of the kennels herself. Since then just three per cent of the dogs are put to sleep “and that’s because they are ill and the vets say so, or they are biters. We can’t home a dog that bites.”
The kennels are constantly busy, as people are always “slinging” dogs out, particularly after Christmas, usually to make way for a puppy.
As the fashions in dogs change so do the animals that are coming in. Some of them aren’t easy to rehome.
Jumping around boisterously, is the longest serving inmate, a “mad as a hatter” male whippet cross called Will, which came in July. “He needs a 16-stone bloke behind him on a lead,” said Mrs Anderson. Around a fifth are Staffies, one or two, grey round their muzzles. At one time they were an “awful” problem, because of their reputation.
Now they are seeing more American bulldogs, lurchers and Yorkies, Jack Russells and Shih Tzus. The biggest problem is getting people to pay. “We had a little Westie in, nine or 10. It was going to be £42 – £36 for the fine and £6 for the kennelling. He said you can keep the dog and put the phone down. You are never going to change people – you just have to learn to live with it all.”
You are never going to change people – you have to live with it Norma Anderson of the Carr House Rescue Centre