"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Alright, so I've lifted this from the Statue of Liberty, but I think this does do some justice to what SSCPA Shelters do. From abandoned/given up horses through to small pets, they unfortunately have collected them all from different parts of the Edinburgh area. It's heartbreaking yet warming to know the shelter is there. We came here to look at a new hamster, feeling like finding one a forever home would be a better alternative to buying one from a pet store and here we met Rita, the only hamster in the place, surrounded by a lot of rabbits. Shy, but adventurous Rita, found in a wardrobe and almost mistaken for a mouse. After a gentle interrogation over our suitability of taking her home, she was with us, and hid in the corner for a while. That was then, now she chews the bars to get our attention to take her out running around our house, freely or in her ball. She doesn't freak out every time there is a sudden noise, and she doesn't regard us as strangers, we're as tolerated as a hamster owner can be. Happy the SSPCA was there to look after her, happy she is in our lives now. read more