The SPCA’s five “jailbirds” managed to collect almost R40 000 for the local animal care givers on Saturday.

A rather miserable-looking lot arrived at Mike’s Kitchen in Louis Trichardt early on Saturday morning to take part in the annual Jail & Bail project. The group included a teacher, a businesswoman, a pig farmer, a politician and a journalist (in order of importance). They were told to brave the cold weather and wait for the inspector.

A very friendly Inspector Lawrence Khodobo arrived promptly at 09:30 and escorted the group (some armed with coolboxes) to the SPCA’s van. After a short trip to the local kennels, the “convicts” were taken to their holding cells. They were to stay there until they had each collected at least R5 000.

It quickly became clear that the politician, Brian du Plooy, knows how to get himself out of any situation. He arrived well prepared with a vast variety of “medicines” in his coolbox to fend off the cold weather -  enough even to offer “incentives” to friends to donate money. How many promises he made and how many babies he kissed cannot be determined, but he managed to collect R9 351.

The jailbird who ended second in the “race” to collect money, was the local farmer, André Coetzee. He came prepared with his own “sleeping tub”, expecting to spend some time waiting for the (money) crop to grow, but this was not necessary. Word has it that André, or “Varkie” as he is more commonly known, spent time canvassing at the Reformed Church’s function the previous night. He apparently made off with quite a few donations that could have been spent on buying food from the congregation. When the money was counted on Saturday, his tally stood at R7 855.

Third place went to the popular deputy headmaster at Laerskool Louis Trichardt, Irene Adendorff. In a teacher-like manner she shifted the burden to the children and they very conscientiously collected money on her behalf. She proved to be one of the dogs’ favourites on Saturday morning, because the children who came to visit her in “jail” volunteered to entertain the animals. The dogs were walked, the cats were stroked and all-around it was an enjoyable day for young and old. Irene collected R7 451.

The race for fourth and fifth spot was quite tough. The newspaper man, Anton van Zyl, made an emotional plea to all 14 of his Facebook friends to support the cause. When that did not work, he asked them to contact their friends and pretend that they needed the money. After a lot of half-truths, subtle blackmailing and false promises, he collected R6 950.

Candice Terink arrived as a late replacement and was only informed of her fate the day before. She started with a “clean slate” with very little time allowed for canvassing support. As the morning progressed she smiled, waved and even put up a “puppy face” to get more people to put money into her bin. Before the morning was gone, she had collected R6 600. It is scary to think how much she could have collected if they had given her a few days’ prior warning.

The local SPCA’s organising committee was ecstatic about the success of the day and also the funds that were collected. “The funds we generated on Saturday will be put to use to secure our grounds and also go towards upgrading our puppy kennel to prevent the spread of diseases,” said Yolanda Cronjé, chairperson of the committee.