Sylvia's Diary 14-06-24

What an absolutely crazy, ridiculous and unbelievable week I have just had. Somebody said to me ”well it's swings and roundabouts”…. and I thought what the heck does that mean?!  I looked it up and apparently it means “what you gain on the roundabouts you lose on the swings” or vice versa. Well, what a ridiculous saying…. I like both swings and roundabouts!

Let me explain about my week. It started off with me seeing a post from another rescue that I know work very, very hard with very little help. Two years ago, there was a lady who used to pick up Romanian Dogs and she had a transport van that she called The Dog Bus.  This van would pick up the stray dogs from pounds that were due to be put to sleep in Romania and she would arrange for the passports and vaccinations and take them to the UK to safety and to be rehomed.

When the Ukrainian war broke out, she felt tasked with helping there too. Sadly, everything got on top of her and her van kept breaking down. I didn't really know her, I just knew of the great the work she was doing abroad.  As we had a van we were about to sell and I was so sad for the people and the animals in Ukraine and wanted us to do something to help, it was agreed that we could donate the van to her but this would be overseen by another charity I knew, that would look after it if needs be.  So, we donated it to her cause.

Not long after we donated the van very sadly the lady committed suicide. She couldn't help all the dogs she wanted to and couldn't bear the thought of them all being put to sleep. She could no longer cope and I imagine all she thought she could do she was to get out of this life.  It was terribly sad and I understood how hard it must've been for her.  She left her legacy and someone needed to step in to take the reins and help the dogs she had already started to help. Gallantly the charity “War Paws” (the charity who oversaw our donated van) stepped in and tried to hold the dogs that were left rescued by the lady but still awaiting transport in Ukraine and the Romanian boarders.

Now 2 years later there are still 12 dogs over there. These are the ones no other rescues have offered help for. Three of them are very scared, the others are big or non-descript cross breeds. War Paws have paid boarding kennels to care for them hoping for a lucky break for them and they have sent an employee out to assess, train the dogs to walk on leads etc, and train the kennel staff how to help scared dogs but now they are at rock bottom not knowing what these poor dogs’ future will hold. Desperate they put out a frustrated and final post asking for help and I answered it.  In my crazy way, even though I know that last month we were £50,000 down, I just felt it was in my heart that it was right to go all out and take all these dogs and bring them home. These dogs were found as strays when people found they could not board lifesaving buses and flee conflict with their pets and so they let them free. Others were put into boarding kennels on the border with the promise they would be back but they never did or could not go back.

All the dogs were taken on by the poor lady who took her own life, and then by War Paws, and now us.  War Paws have ensured that all the Ukrainian dogs have a passport and some a Romanian passport because they were found at that border. It's terribly sad and these dogs have been there 2 long years.   I know it's going to be very hard and we will need help. A wonderful group called The Bristol Buddies said they will help us by holding sales, making things and fund raising, for the dogs may well be very long-term stayers here with us before they get rehomed. War Paws have very carefully and responsibly arranged all the health tests to ensure the dogs will be covered to travel and are disease free and will bring them to us. We just need to fund their stay and find them homes, and that’s not going to be easy! My God will help me and as long as I can stay strong these dogs are coming and somehow, we're going to change their lives.  Look at these beautiful dogs we will help

I'm going to talk about the dog show now that I mentioned before.  A team of us went to a huge dog show were allowed to have to stand free, the agility club who allow this is called Thames Agility Club and I am very grateful we were allowed to attend that show. We raised over £11,000 which helps towards the loss of money from last month. We also received a legacy to help us with that loss and on top of that wonderful lady who has been reading these blogs donated to help us as well. We are so grateful!  We sold everything we could… people brought along all sorts of things, some not even dog related and we were able to sell them to!

We saw so many of the dogs that we have rehomed, all so loved now. It was such a special, wonderful few days but maybe the most tiring days of the year. My helpers just worked so hard and are coming with me to the agility show at Ardingly next month, which brings me to the scrounge bit:
If you have anything new or nearly new, we can sell at the next show, please let us have it.  We are trying so hard to help so many dogs, but it’s so expensive to do this.

I told you last week or so that we had a vet and I was so excited she was coming from abroad where she  had been working.  When she accepted the job I asked her if she was sure about it because I had one other candidate who I really liked the sound of but she was very sure she would take the position and we had to wait until July 15^th  for her to start.  Sadly when I was fund raising at the dog show she text me to say she changed her mind. I had to leave and go and sit on a caravan step as I  needed to be on my own and have a cry. Not having a vet at Many Tears makes everything so complicated and so worrying. If it wasn't for Jane, our Homeopathic Vet and Tom who have both stepped in so many times and the wonderful Mel and Sarah… all people who have their own lives and own jobs, yet still help us here, I don’t know what we would do. There are also so many others that come and help to keep us going. I don't know what I would do without all those wonderful vets and there are others that I haven't named also, so I guess yes, it’s swings and roundabouts.

That's my week so far. Joyce is off on a huge drive to pick up some dogs. I'm busy as I can be trying to sort out everything as I've been away for a few days. Bill is getting better slowly which is amazing and fantastic.  I'll finish the diary in a few days but should mention that while I was away beautiful Dalmatian came in emaciated and desperate for water. He's so thin and we don't know if it's because he's not well or because he's been starved, we don't know what he has gone through. He is called Moose so keep an eye out for Moose on our website.

There have been so many other new dogs here this week, so many sad stories. Moses the pup I gave the kiss of life to has turned into a swimmer pup. This is a term for a pup that has a flat chest and legs growing splayed out the wrong way. Moses is an only pup and has too much milk to himself from his mum that he is overweight and chubby even though he is only a few days old. We are going to try to correct his problem, but there is little documented to help a pup who is only days old.  So every day I work on new ideas and invent a new harness to help him and spend time doing physio on his front legs, while his sweet mum looks on.

At last, the end of the weeks in sight!  Even yesterday over 15 dogs came in, luckily the staff are great and have it under control, but WHAT A WEEK!!!!

As always thank you for reading my diary, accepting my bad grammar, and not criticising but helping us all to share the care of these very precious animals.  In our shop hangs an embroidered picture. Read it please… I think you will like it.

If you feel able to support what we do here and want to help pups like Moses, the Ukrainian dogs like Muki, Kaila and Sonia then please make a donation to Many Tears. It is only with YOUR help that we are able to continue our work here.
Thank you
Sylvia