A Brief Newsround - Week Ending 21/03/21

In stark contrast to the bliss felt the Sunday before, I woke shivering in pre-dawn dark on Mother's Day. My beautiful caravan home's electrics had burnt out. At least there wasn't a blaze this time. A few years ago I lost a caravan to poor wiring; just got out in time,  barefoot in snow with a cat under one arm, laptop under the other. Mother's Day's fizzle out was nothing in comparison. It was just cold and damp and would have been depressing if I'd let it be. Former desert island dwellers, however, don't do the blues. That's what I say, anyway. Plus, there were all the animals waiting for me to start their normal morning routine.  No time to indulge in gloom. I got dressed by wind-up torchlight singing "Get up and boogie." With only one satsuma-sized breast who needs a bra anyway? Jumpers and trousers went straight over pajamas. 

Knowing it would be hopeless to call out a local sparky, who's often fuelled with rakia, (Bulgarian firewater) by 9 a.m., I got organised during the day for more cold nights until I found someone with caravan electrics savvy. Being prepared consisted of filling a flask with boiling water for a hot drink last thing and tepid tea first thing, and placing torches and candles where I could put a hand on them without groping about in the dark. Still, I managed to give myself a small black eye, blundering about.

Monday and Tuesday saw a little newcomer, Rexy, from a Roma area, taken to the vet for an eye op.; and we had super news about tiny rescued poodle Babichka bring pampered in her new home.

Babichka

Rexy, before (L) & after (R)

Babichka's makeover!

Ilia and I took two local street dogs to be spayed before they fell pregnant and we got lots else done but there was a shadow over everything......We were all so elated last week after 10 dogs from LIFE, some who'd been with me for years, set off for the U.K. and the promise of wonderful new futures. Then it all went awry. The van carrying the precious cargo reached Calais all right but was halted there. Only 5 dogs out of a total of 15 travelling were let through and went on to the U.K. and the adopters eagerly awaiting them, dear Dolly and magnificent Mondzho among them. 

But what of the rest? Was something wrong with their passports? How could that be? Ilia and I'd taken all of our dogs to the vets countless times for checks and double checks. Questions buzzed in my brain. Had new rules due to come in since Brexit finally been implemented? Was there something suspicious about the van to the authorities in France? Snippets of sparse information trickled through. One of the drivers had to have a second Covid test; the dogs must stay in kennels overnight: they'd travel after the weekend. But the delay went on and on. I found that if I thought about the dogs individually and dwelt on how they must be feeling - Benji who'd we'd pulled back from near death with a blood transfusion, William who we took from where two other dogs had died, little trusting Vincent.., I wasn't able to perform my daily tasks for LIFE properly. So I took a leaf out of my Scottish grandmother's book - she believed hard work cured all emotional ills - and plunged into cat van cleaning, re- organizing animal food storage and Outreach work with something like manic energy, driving LIFE's helpers to do more than usual, too. As a result we carved out time to bring two teenagers from the next village to spend an afternoon observing LIFE helper Daniel's remarkable rapport with horses, both on the ground and when riding.

Then at last good news came about LIFE's travelling dogs. While issues thankfully unrelated to passports were ironed out, the dogs stayed in decent kennels in Calais. The week's delay was caused by incorrect paperwork on the part of the transporters.

Late on Thursday, the dogs could finally cross the channel and on Friday they were all delivered safe, if exhausted and bemused, to their relieved adopters.

It's been all good news since then, with delightful tales about waggy tails, smiles and snuggles.

Mr. Blossom with his new football partner

 

Bliss out on arrival for Benji

As a bonus to happy endings for the rehomed dogs, experienced horse woman Joanna Heeney and her husband galloped to the rescue of my caravan's electrics. While Paul made the repairs, Daniel learned from Joanna how to release tension causing mild but irritating pain to some of our rescued horses. He'll be carrying on the good work on his own, he's already established relaxed connection with the horses making for contented informal physio therapy sessions. 

Daniel learning from Joanna

I'm signing off this week filled with relief and gratitude. Teamwork and the sterling efforts of friends saw our precious cargo of LIFE dogs safely delivered to their destinations, despite a major hitch en route, and the goodness of more friends has meant I'm warm and dry again, too - my batteries recharged to continue LIFE's work with renewed vigour.

For daily updates about life at LIFE, look on my personal Facebook page.  For information about dogs available for rehoming, and more, look HERE. And we'd be most grateful if you'd consider donating or supporting our work.

Thank you.

Lucy