August 2019: St Vincent’s school is thrilled to announce and to welcome a new member to our school community. His name is Finn and he is a former Dundalk dog rescue puppy who was abandoned with his mother and siblings at just 8 weeks old. Dundalk Dog Rescue rescued Finn and put him with one of their wonderful foster families who cared for Finn until we met him. Dundalk Dog Rescue was founded in 2005 by Ann Moore and since then with volunteers has worked tirelessly to ensure dogs who are abandoned or neglected find a second chance in life and a forever home. We are very grateful to them for allowing us to become Finn’s new family.
Finn will be trained throughout this year by the very experienced and knowledgeable Joanne Byrne from Problem Paws, whose advice and help to date has been invaluable. In future years all going well Finn will be an emotional support dog in our school community. This year he will also play a role in the Caring for Animals module as part of our Junior Cycle Wellbeing programme. The aim of this programme is to teach students responsible ownership of pets and all that having a pet entails in order to ensure in future years they make correct choices when considering pet ownership. The module also teaches life skills which are transferable to many situations. We are aware of students in our school who may have fear or allergy to dogs and have taken appropriate measures.
In his short time so far in St Vincent’s, Finn’s charm and personality has already worked on all who have met him. He has a wonderful temperament mixed with some puppy madness. He is very sociable and loves being around people. Finn comes in and out to school with one of our Deputy Principals, who also cares for him at weekends and during the holidays. He has a number of areas in the school to ensure he is not overwhelmed. We will keep you updated on Finn’s progress throughout the year and we are very much looking forward to many happy years to come with the newest member of our school community. Please click on the links below for further updates of Finn's journey in St Vincents.
- Finn makes the headlines:
https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/louth-principal-hires-adorable-rescue-20572245
https://www.dundalkdemocrat.ie/news/home/485315/st-vincents-students-welcome-school-mascot-from-dundalk-dog-rescue.html
https://www.independent.ie/regionals/argus/news/meet-finn-the-rescue-dog-that-goes-to-school-38593367.html
https://lovin.ie/louth/this-dundalk-secondary-school-has-a-labrador-puppy-as-a-mascot