A Brief Newsround - Week Ending 23/05/21

Cats have been close companions to me since I was a child. A parade of old feline friends pads across my mind: Big Puss, the massive Tom my father brought home; Perdita the lost one we found; Charlie my first ginger brought by a coalman to the highland cottage where my sons were born. Only when I was on desert islands were there no cats on my bed. When I moved to Bulgaria I took Misty from Scotland with me -  not something I'd do now, given the hordes of unwanted cats here, nine alone in the caravan I've lived in since my Bulgarian house burned down; 20 plus in other vans dedicated to cats, more in a crumbling barn and a small waterless kitchen beside the ruined house. 



Pimple, the black kitty pictured, is the sole survivor of a weak litter born locally last year to an ailing mothercat . I bottle-fed her like a baby and she slept curled under my chin. By now, she's a sultry debutante and has left my caravan to join the Ruins Kitchen gang.  This week she was spayed. That's her ignoring her stitches as she balances on her small furry bum to biff Pisancho the Second. Play fights and real confrontations are as common as loving cuddles and sensual sprawls among the rescued cats here,  all part of life at the Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe, (LIFE.)




Pimple and Pisancho the Second embroiled


Rarely does a week go by without a cat or cats needing a vet visit. With the numbers we have, a variety of ills are to be expected and each week we take in local cats to spay, too. A special case who's an inpatient at the vet's is Calico. She's had lungworm and has now been found to have toxoplasmosis as well. How wonderful it was to see her, thin as she still is, and to hear her purr when I was on a dog-spay trip to the vet midweek. It was heartwarming, too, to see how gently the vets handled her and how sweetly she responded. There's hope she'll recover fully over time but her treatment and the special food she needs isn't cheap. Any help with the mounting vet bill for her would be most gratefully received. 



"Letting go" is a term we use when we move a recovered rescue case on to a new life and when we decide, with veterinary advice, when it's time to end a a maimed or terminally ill animal's suffering.  The first meaning of letting go can be uplifting beyond words; the second filled with sorrow. This week I was lucky enough to have a double dose of the uplifting version of letting go when Jackie-so-far, a sizeable Central Asian Shepherd dog rescued after we spotted him dragged behind a cart, and two older mares moved to forever homes in Bulgaria. The mares, Donna and Rossa,  had been in foster care, but Jackie had lived at LIFE's home site for several years and I adored and still adore him. How could one not love such a gentle woolly mammoth of a dog?  His clowning and his massive smile will stay with me always even though I may never see him to touch again. Comfort in the loss of his presence is knowing that he's now where he can have more individual attention than we can offer at LIFE, chock-a-block with rescues as we are. And he'll get lots of playtime and exercise with new friends, canine and human. Letting him go was the right thing to do. 





Peterkin, rescued one winter from becoming a Christmas meal, has only gone temporarily to a friend of LIFE's where he's been gelded. Feisty little stallions are beautiful but can wreck a herd's dynamic and, with so many foals in need in LIFE's area, we don't want to add another from one of our rescued mares.


Peterkin

Queen Baba is already settled in a super home in the U.K. and it was with pleasure that I took Jackson, Moonie and Autumn to the vet to be prepared for travel to new lives soon.


Jackson


Autumn


Moonie


That about covers this week's highlights except for a very special moment when Kirichko, a foal born with a serious case of knock-knees, came back from equine hospital. He was there for months undergoing treatment for his condition. Surgery was only partly successful but it's clear that this plucky little soul is glad to be alive and back at LIFE.





Read more about how Kirichko is faring in next week's diary. Meantime, for daily updates on individual rescue cases and what's going on at LIFE, look HERE. See the LIFE Facebook page for dogs available for adoption, and if you want to help our work to continue and expand you can make a financial donation which is always very welcome.


Thanks for reading and I wish you a happy week ahead,


Lucy


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to our Blog!

Kirichko