Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe

I  wrote in Castaway that I learned to walk on my island in the sun. From a rushed scuttle in London, dodging and weaving in crowds to catch a bus, my gait changed to a tranquil rolling stroll. I had only to catch a fish and it was extremely hot. The new pace was part of a process of adjustment and not only to the heat. I was adapting in order to survive. That was in the tropics on an atoll in the Coral Sea and I was 25. In Southern Bulgaria, where I live and work now, it’s not quite such a survive or perish situation – at least not for me – but it can also be extremely hot and I’m now in my mid-sixties. Much as I’d like to use my desert island walk as a learned strategy to cope with heat, I only can occasionally here, because hundreds of rescued animals depend on me and the Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe ’s other staff for their essential needs: water, shelter and food - water especially at this time of year. No-one, whether they have four legs or two, should have to wait for water...

The Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe (LIFE) must spend it's limited resources carefully. When kind people donate to us we have a responsibility to use their money judiciously, which means sometimes having to make hard choices. All our resident rescued horses, cats and dogs are sheltered, fed, watered and cleaned up after daily whether they have sponsors or not. But those with sponsors may receive better quality food and in some cases, more attention, brushing and better bedding because the sponsor has provided for these.  Life as formed by nature isn't fair from before birth. A dog's family background and where she was born impact on her future before her first breath is drawn. We could say the same of a human child. Life as formed by nature is a lottery in which hierarchies rule and only very lucky dogs win .  An abandoned dog, or perhaps born on the streets. Unfortunately not an uncommon sight Here in rural Bulgaria, abandonment of a mixed breed dog when it becomes a nuisan...

Why is it common in Western European countries for girls to go through a stage of being passionate about horses, yet here in Eastern Europe it's more common for boys to start handling horses when small? In common with many girls in the U.K., I was sent to riding lessons at around 8 years old. It was fashionable for middle class parents to occupy their girls in this way on Saturday mornings. My sister was brilliant. She loved the lessons and was fearless. I was a sack of potatoes and frankly terrified.  How I tried to overcome my fear of horses is partly described in the book I wrote after Castaway ,  Runaway . But the real change happened years later here in Bulgaria, when horses in need of rescue came into my life and the Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe was formed. My former fears have in fact helped me comprehend how it's possible for some people in Bulgaria to treat horses the way they do. They cant "read" them, can't understand the way horses communicate subtly...

When you hear desperate cries for help coming from a trash can, open the lid and see a tiny face, eyes bulging with fear, sinking and rising among kitchen waste, soiled diapers and composting weeds, you might say its instinct to reach in and grab a scrabbling paw to lift the kitten to safety, same as you'd reach out to save a drowning child. But it can't be a universal human instinct because someone else threw the kitten in there to die.  Since recorded history began and no doubt before, humans have exerted control over populations of cats while simultaneously using them to control populations of mice and rats. It's common to hear of newborn kittens being drowned, so common it's become an almost accepted practice even in advanced societies, although birth control via sterilisation is by now quite widespread among more educated cultures with access to veterinary clinics and cash.   The Roma enclaves where we work in rural Bulgaria can't be described as advanced socie...