A Brief Newsround - Week Ending 7/3/21

Lucy here this week to bring you a few recent highlights about life at LIFE. 

The month of March in Bulgaria is represented by a granny figure called Baba Marta. She may be old but she blows hot and cold like a capricious lover, frosty at dawn, hot in the afternoon! Events at LIFE tend to echo the extremes in temperature, giving cause alternately for joy and sorrow. This week has certainly seen its quota of ups and downs.

Sunday saw delightful progress in the gentle training of some of our recovered rescued horses, but Monday brought a shock when Ilia and I were heading back from a special visit to the bank in town. 

 

No one stopped to help this poor old man and his horse except another very old man who could not lift the horse. Ilia knew exactly what needed to be done and had old dog collars in the car to patch damaged parts of the harness. The horse was shaken and must be bruised but looked relieved to be back on her feet. She'd slid on shale. We've offered to get her hooves trimmed as they are very long and the shoes ancient and worn. The owner was hugely grateful for the help and patted his horse with real affection.

Once on our way again I told Ilia how many friends of LIFE want to congratulate him on an important development in his own life and that of his young family. Our special visit to the bank was all about that. Ilia is LIFE's driver and hands-on under manager. He has been helping us for years, while living first in a hand built home on unofficial land, then in a property from which he could be evicted without notice. He has a young family now and desperately wants security for them. But because a lot of Bulgarians don't want Roma near them, his applications to buy local houses have all been turned down - except for one. Finally he has not only found a suitable property but has the backing of the local Mayor and will be a neighbour of another former Mayor - in the heart of the Bulgarian community. A serious step towards integration.

LIFE is helping Ilia by transferring an interest free loan to him, of £1,500, which he will repay out of his monthly LIFE wages over a period of 15 months.

Please join all of us here at LIFE in congratulating him on this major and most positive move 🙂

Cats and dogs for sterilisation and dogs needing passport updates for rehoming filled LIFE's little car on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Ilia also picked up a second cat who'd been shot. I'm happy to report that little Malin, the first cat with pellet wounds is well on the way to recovery at LIFE, but the latest victim remains at the vet. Both his femurs were broken and he'd lain suffering for days before a kind passing villager contacted us. Good news is that a first operation to repair the damage to his hind legs went well.  

Our regular man for work with the rescued horses has been taking a break to repair recent fire damage to his home. Local lad Vasco has been standing in, grateful to be able to earn a little. Despite not being very experienced with horses he's done well. Peterkin, the pretty colt pictured here, certainly likes him.

On Thursday we dewormed 17 horses, on site and during Outreach rounds

'Is that apple flavour, by any chance?'

LIFE is always most grateful for donations of quality deworming treatments, and not only for horses. We need them for dogs and cats, too. If you'd like to send a parcel please contact us here. Donations for medicines we can buy from our vets can be made here.

Dedicated volunteers behind the scenes continue working tirelessly to find homes for our rescued dogs. It is more urgent than ever now to ensure safe and happy futures for them as new laws are due to come in soon, further restricting the number of dogs we can keep on site. 

Marta, who simply adores being taken for walks 

Great news is that next week 10 of our rescued dogs travel to new homes in the U.K. Look out for more on this here as the excitement mounts.

Daily news about our resident rescued cats, dogs and horses plus those we encounter on Outreach rounds can be found here.

I must get back to hands-on work with the animals now, donning layers of clothes to feed the horses outside my caravan at dawn, then stripping off half by mid morning as the up and down weather continues, conducted by feisty old Baba Marta. 

Wishing all our friends a good week ahead. I can bet ours here at LIFE will be another emotional rollercoaster but with your encouragement and support, we can handle that. It's all part of life in animal rescue.

Lucy Irvine

https://www.lucyirvinefoundationeurope.org/support-us/donate