A dog with a rough start in life has been in a local shelter for almost 600 days, hoping someone would give him a forever home.
Now, Chester finally gets adopted to a family he can call his own and he did it in style.
After 587 days living in a kennel, Chester the pit bull left the Euclid Animal Shelter Monday morning to cheers and tears.
It has been a long and tough road for Chester throughout his life, but he now has a new “leash” on life.
“Chester was completely skin and bones, the dog couldn’t even lay down. He had his paw stuck in a prong collar and he was a mess. He had to be carried out after a little bit because he could not stand,” said Kyrie Brickman, kennel manager for the shelter.
Back in August of 2022, Chester, who was chained to a window, and three other dogs were found in an empty house, where they had been for over a week.
“He absolutely was so relieved to see people and to be honest, I don’t know how much longer he would have lasted,” Brickman said.
For about 10 months, shelter workers worked around the clock to bring him to good health.
But after a year and a half, no one was interested in adopting him until a special woman came along. Now, Chester was on the way to a forever home and in a limousine, donated by Lake Erie Limo.
Within minutes, Chester, about 4 or 5 years old, pulled up to his new home and family in North Royalton like a rockstar.
“Oh my goodness, did you ride in a limo to get here? Did you ride all the way in a limo,” said Chester’s new owner.
Lauren Reitsman instantly fell in love with him when a friend sent her an online post of Chester.
“He has all these people around him and he’s just bopping around just to see who he can get love from, so I think I won the lottery,” Reitsman said.
Chester is living the life of a happy dog who plays with toys, gets belly rubs and lots of doggie kisses.
Shelter workers recommended for Chester a home without other dogs or small children and someone who understands his past.
“I think adoption is so important, especially when an animal, now I’m getting emotional, an animal has had a rough start in life because they deserve it even more,” said Reitsman.
Chester’s name will remain the same, sort of.
“His government name, if you will, is going to be Chester William Reitsman the First, of Royalton,” she said as people in the home laughed.
Reitsman plans to make Chester meatballs, his favorite meal.
The other dogs discovered in the vacant house with Chester have been adopted as well.
Source: FOX 8
A team of seasoned industry professionals with a combined experience of over 140 years, is set to launch a brand new estate agency in Ilkley.
Spearheaded by Bill Dale, William Eddison, Ed Tranmer, Becky White, and Tracy Wardman; Tranmer White is poised to bring a wealth of experience and a fresh approach to the local housing market, with an emphasis on first class customer service.
Dale and Eddison previously ran a successful chain of estate agents with offices across Wharfedale and Airedale before deciding to sell in 2018, and will now reunite with Tranmer, White and Wardman, all of whom have forged distinguished careers in the Ilkley property market over the last decade.
Located at the former Pranzo restaurant on Bolling Road in Ben Rhydding, and operating across Addingham, Ilkley, Burley in Wharfedale, Menston and beyond, Tranmer White is open now with a wide selection of properties across all price points.
Bill Dale, co-founder and Director at Tranmer White said: “I’ve worked in the Ilkley property market for close to 45 years, but it’s incredibly exciting to be starting all over again and teaming up with the industry’s most talented estate agents. We’re launching with a great range of properties already on the market, and look forward to chatting with residents across Ilkley, Burley, Addingham and Menston to see how we can support them.”
Becky White, co-founder and Director at Tranmer White, said: “The response we’ve had from people around the Ilkley area to opening has been incredible. Our collective experience and dedication to the core values of good estate agency will set Tranmer White apart, ensuring a personalized and seamless experience for our clients in Ilkley.”
House prices have risen for the third month in a row, according to new figures from Halifax.
The bank said the average cost of a UK home was £287,105 in December. The figure is up 1.1% from the month before and is also the highest level since March 2023.
Halifax’s director of mortgages, Kim Kinnaird, said the market also beat expectations in 2023, growing by 1.7% on an annual basis.
However, this differs from analysis by other lenders. A similar report by Nationwide last week reported that average prices fell by 1.8% over the course of the year, with no change month-on-month.
Money blog: Calculate how your take-home pay is changing
Ms Kinnaird said Halifax’s figures, based on Lloyds Banking Group mortgage lending, showed that the average property price was now £4,800 higher than it was in December 2022.
She added: “While it’s encouraging that we saw growth in the last three months of the year, this was preceded with property price falls for six consecutive months between April and September.”
The bank also cautioned that recent growth was likely driven by a shortage of properties on the market, rather than by the strength of buyer demand.
But Ms Kinnaird added: “With mortgage rates continuing to ease, we may see an increase in confidence from buyers over the coming months.”
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Halifax also said house prices could fall by between 2% and 4% in 2024 but said there was high uncertainty over its forecast “given the current economic climate”.
It comes after several high street names reduced their rates earlier this week, including Halifax and HSBC, with experts predicting other lenders will soon follow suit.
Imogen Pattison, an assistant economist at Capital Economics, said Halifax’s figures “confirm that falls in mortgage rates are translating into renewed increases in house prices”, with rises expected to continue in the first quarter.
She added year-on-year house price growth could increase by 3% in the third quarter, in contrast to Halifax’s forecast of a fall.
Alice Haine, an analyst at Bestinvest, said: “While house buying activity was sluggish in the second half of 2023 as many movers put their buying and selling plans on pause while they waited for conditions to improve, the new year has delivered fresh optimism for the year ahead.
“With inflation on the retreat and mortgage rates on the decline from their summer 2023 highs amid hopes the Bank of England (BoE) will push ahead with rate cuts this year, confidence appears to have returned to the market.”
The BoE is expected to cut interest rates later this year following recent easing in the rate of inflation.
Interest rates are currently at a 15-year-high of 5.25% after being held steady three times in a row.
(c) Sky News 2024: House prices ‘rise for third month in a row’ as buyer confidence increases
Two redistricting consultants hired by the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority will be paid up to $100,000 each to evaluate new legislative maps ahead of the November elections.
Contracts for University of California, Irvine Political Scientist Bernard Grofman and Carnegie Mellon University Political Scientist Jonathan Cervas were posted by the court Thursday. The consultants will each be paid rates of $450 per hour. The $100,000 cap on expenses can be exceeded with approval from the director of state courts.
Those costs will be paid by parties to Wisconsin’s redistricting lawsuit “as determined by the court in a future order.” With state lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers involved in the case, the fees could fall to state taxpayers.
Taxpayers are already funding attorneys representing both Republican and Democratic state senators named in the redistricting lawsuit, where fees could total around $2 million.
Both Grofman and Cervas have served as consultants in redistricting cases before.
Grofman worked for Wisconsin Republicans during two previous rounds of redistricting, in 2011 and 2001. More recently, he was hired by the Supreme Court of Virginia in 2021 to help with redrawing legislative districts after a bipartisan commission failed to agree on how lines should be drawn.
Cervas was hired by a New York State judge as a special master last year to draw new legislative districts following a lawsuit by Republican state lawmakers there.
As consultants for Wisconsin’s highest court, the two will submit a report by Feb. 1 evaluating legislative maps submitted by parties in the state’s ongoing redistricting lawsuit per a court order. If Grofman and Cervas find those maps don’t meet requirements set out in the Wisconsin Constitution, federal law and partisan impact guidelines issued by the court’s liberal majority, the consultants will be tasked with drawing their own remedial map.
On Dec. 22, the state Supreme Court’s four liberal justices ruled Republican-drawn legislative maps violate the Constitution’s contiguity requirement, because multiple voting districts contain separate, detached pieces located within other nearby districts. The court’s three conservatives dissented, accusing their colleagues of pre-judging the case with political ends in mind.
The current legislative maps, which were originally drawn by Republican lawmakers in 2011 and signed by former Gov. Scott Walker, bolstered GOP majorities in the state Assembly and state Senate. They were tweaked slightly under a “least changes” approach adopted by the Supreme Court’s former conservative majority during redistricting litigation in 2021, giving Republicans an even bigger advantage.
Currently, Republicans have a 64-35 majority in the Assembly and a 22-11 supermajority in the Senate.
Republican lawmakers have asked the court to stay its order and reconsider their ruling, which is unlikely.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, hinted at a federal appeal, stating that the U.S. Supreme Court will “have the last word.”
The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s conservatives have also criticized the hiring of Grofman and Cervas to critique proposed remedial maps or draw them themselves. They claim the liberal justices’ decision to contract with the consultants raises legal questions.