Call for volunteers to walk dogs for disabled Inverness woman
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PET care charity The Cinnamon Trust has made an appeal for more volunteers in Inverness to help a local woman with walking her dogs.
The national charity, based in Cornwall, help people over retirement age and those in the latter stages of a terminal illness with various kinds of pet care. The organisation has made an appeal on behalf of Suzan Reid (59) who suffers from scoliosis.
The medical condition causes a the spine to become twisted or curved, while often the condition remains stagnant, in some cases it increases over time and can cause back pain and interfere with breathing.
Scoliosis has meant that Ms Reid no longer has the ability to walk her dogs herself without ending up “jack-knifed” she has said.
“I have a garden that they run around in and I let them out as often as I can, but there is nothing like a walk for a dog,”said Ms Reid.
The Cinnamon Trust has over 15,000 volunteers nationally who provide practical help when caring for an animal poses a problem for the owner.
Sally Collins from the Cinnamon Trust said: “We’ll walk the dog for a housebound owner, we’ll foster pets when owners need hospital care, we’ll fetch the cat food, even clean out the bird cage or litter trays”.
The Cinnamon Trust also provides a fostering service for pets whose owners face a spell in hospital where volunteers take pets into their own homes. Long term care can also be provided by the trust for pets whose owners have died or moved to residential accommodation which will not allow animals.
Ms Reid has said she is desperate for someone to take her dogs out as they require more regular walks than they are currently getting. “I definitely need someone to come and walk my dogs, it’s very important to me,” said Ms Reid.
“Their groomer is a lovely girl called Bronwyn and she walks them when she’s passing by for about 15 minutes at a time. The Cinnamon Trust have got in contact with me to say they have organised another girl to take them out but that will probably be on a weekly basis and they need more than that,” said Ms Reid.
Ms Reid is looking for some dog walking support for her two dogs; Tyler her 12-year-old Lhasa Apso and Sooki her one-year-old Chihuahua.
