Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe

The Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe (LIFE) works to improve the welfare of dogs, cats and horses in Roma communities and we reach out to people in need, too. I've known Ratka for years. In 2009, she drove a horse and cart into my property the day after my house here in Bulgaria burned down.  She'd come to offer help by taking away rubbish and old iron. One man's rubbish is another man's gold... Her husband and 2 of her 8 children, teens then, sold scrap iron and she'd "recycle" into cash much else I wouldn't use again, too. We could say such a person is an opportunist. Under the guise of helping she was after gain. It didn't matter to me. My front yard was strewn with blackened and stinking piles of crockery and clothes hurled out of second storey windows from which the glass had blown out. I wanted to be rid of those ruined belongings and thanked her for taking them.  I noticed how thin her horse was; how listless the dogs were that followed her car...

Last Sunday saw two causes for celebration at LIFE . The first involved an elderly overworked donkey who found a happy retirement home with a caring British couple.  How his body language has changed since we came upon him dejected and neglected, his rope tangled in thorns and hobble marks on his little legs. In every photo the kind new owner sends, I see a soul lit up from within. She gives him the love and attention he lacked in his former life where he was only used to earn money, his own needs ignored.  Rescued donkey Vesko The second cause for joy was confirmation of a wonderful new home found for a young puppy we'd been keen to release from a chain. He'd been left in hot sun without water repeatedly. A long coated breed, he'd have suffered horribly in summer. We've known dogs to die of thirst on chains here. This baby is in gentle and safe hands now and will lack for nothing. Daniel with the puppy who was happily rehomed The subject of using animals for monetary g...

During the remote island adventures of my youth, it was necessary to find strategies for emotional as well as physical survival. Tuin island in the Torres Strait, where I lived with one other person in the early 1980s, is not, compared to the dream version of a desert island, wildly beautiful. When a film based loosely on my book, Castaway, was made, a lush Seychelles backdrop was used. But I fell in love with Tuin because it made life there not only easier but at least occasionally, rapturous. In rural Bulgaria, the Lucy Irvine Foundation 's home site is most photographed in sunshine and the animals we've rescued looking at their most attractive.  Plus, we tend to highlight our successes more than our failures. We don't want potential supporters put off by too much harsh reality. But that harsh reality should not all be hidden. This past week saw two painful failures as well as a number of uplifting successes. Failure number one was losing last week's battle to take a ...

For a joy-filled celebration of Easter, head over to the Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe Facebook page where there's a heavenly host of photos featuring lots of our happily rehomed dogs in the U.K. In Bulgaria, the past week at LIFE has been dominated by a single saga not yet ended.. Here on the ground at LIFE we've been locked in battle with a family whose horse we've been trying to help. When we first encountered her, she'd just lost a foal. A vet was sent to ensure there was no infection of the womb and when he called to report on the examination he said it was no surprise she'd aborted as he'd seen her hauling an enormous load the day before. He - and we - cautioned the family to at least let her rest for a good while after losing her baby but she was harnessed again within days. LIFE arranged to meet the owners (in my mind now, the unwitting or otherwise abusers) and because it was cold at night, provided a rug, barley and bales on condition the mare was re...