Sylvia's Diary 26-12-24

What a year and truthfully, I am not sure how I survived it without cracking up. I lost two of my equine friends, Molly, who Bill and I rescued in North Carolina, and wonderful Guajiro (Mr G). I lost three dogs that were so important to me that I cannot even begin to tell you. Bill had a heart attack, and I found out when I was in Ireland picking up dogs, he so nearly did not survive. The thought of not having him was and is unbearable. 

Only weeks later the port customs stopped Joyce's and my van, we are sure this was with a false tip off by a certain person, as not only did they search the dogs but incredibly they took Joyce's van apart dissecting the dashboard. For drugs? Money? We don’t know. We were treated appallingly and though there were dogs on board with microchips that were slightly incorrect, it was all human error stuff. However, after 7 hours in a hot hanger in the night, they confiscated some dogs and took them to the furthest quarantine kennels they could find, then they told me if we did not pay for these they could be destroyed. They took our phones as we tried to explain we needed them, I especially, as I was terrified Bill would relapse, and arranged for someone to stay whenever I was away but they did not care. They said we would get the phones back in a few days… three months later that happened. Joyce my co driver and I have been scared by this terrible night and we are now paranoid about paperwork, and the thought of each run adds to my migraines, despite this we continued rescuing many more dogs throughout the year.

Next, I broke my back. The NHS are so overwhelmed that although the consequences could be bad, they had very little time or resources to quickly tend to me, my back or my worries. The good thing is after 4 months of asking and waiting I am on an emergency MRI queue. I have been cleared to drive by the doctor (sitting with a back rest is my comfiest position), after being reported for some time for being unfit to drive. Now the year is drawing to the end, and as I reflect on the staff that come and go, the dogs I meet and so much more I realise that though I have made mistakes, the rides been rough and the days tedious at times, as Sophia Loren said “Mistakes are part of the dues we paid for a full life.”

I don’t know if it’s because of the time of year that I feel so sad, but three calls in a row were of people dying and their dogs being alone, however we are and have taken in them all. These dogs have been well loved in homes and seem to be confused souls, who need lots of cuddles. Kennels are not the place for them, but our foster homes are full and so are the staffs’ homes, so we do what we can to make the kennels more homely. The two darlings that came in the other day were particularly displaced, they huddled up to each other shaking to start with. Come the next day with cuddles and walks they seemed brighter, I begged the vet to find time to do their dentals and castrate one as other was already done. The next day I wrote a sign for their door explaining how they had lost their mum, and they had waited for her to wake up, but she never did. Two ladies saw the sign, met and walked the boys, and have put in an application to adopt them. I am so hopeful the vetting will go well, and they will get out of here very soon.

Beautiful Cleo who had been stoned in an unfriendly village in Cyprus and had had her muzzle tied up, went home yesterday. The rescue in Cyprus thought she had never been indoors before, so this was a huge move for her. We await an update to see how she is settling.

Our beautiful golden retriever pups went to their new homes, as did numbers of other dogs. All so special, so deserving of a better life. There is so much to be grateful for, so many tears shed to get to that point, but SO worth it. There is still other retriever pups who are being hand reared; they are causing the fosterers sleepless nights and worries as they are not thriving as they should this week.

It is clear now that whatever the MRI says for me, I will not be galloping around the countryside for a long time. I tried to find the best home ever after the realization I am just too old to do justice for this horse that has become a special friend to me, but people just wanted pictures and to criticize me for my requirements for this special boy. It hurt so much; I gave up trying. However, this week watching him I realize I am being selfish, as he could go to a perfect home and another poor horse in need could use the stable. I will put him on the website today, not because I want to but because I love him. Like dogs’ horses are all different. For so many years they have been used to help us or be used with little regard to their feelings, however we all know so much more now through research and thus need to consider them as individuals with individual needs and requirements to make them happy. Hence what I want for this lovely horse is different than how thousands of horses live throughout the country.

This year we have rescued thousands of dogs. We, meaning you, me, the staff, fosterers, home checkers, and all who helped keep this place running, but especially Arden Grange.

When I was a child, I knew I wanted a rescue home. I knew I wanted to help dogs, and I wanted to learn all about them. If I was told how many teeth a dog had I would retain that fact, but tell me how many sheep in Australia, the fact went straight out of my head. Anyone who had a dog had to be talked to, visited, quizzed, and asked if I could walk the dog for them. I went to dog training classes to watch even as young as 7! I helped at vets, kennels, rescue homes, and gave road kills splendid funerals burying squirrels, birds, foxes, or whatever in mums much loved garden borders.

When I was about 18, I met a dog trainer who had a different style to all the classes I had seen, and I started working with my own collie using the same methods. He was looking for a new pup to bring into his life and asked me if I would like to go with him to see a litter. This I did with enthusiasm as I was keen to see how he would test pups in a litter to choose the right puppy. The kennels we went to bred German shepherds but had also imported some Akita’s, (which was a breed I had never seen before.) The owner came out and talked to us at length about her dogs, she was passionate about them and told us about the line she bred and about the police dogs they boarded. It was a good and educational trip. A little later the same kennel and same owner started to produce their own line of dog food, as they were disappointed in the quality and expense of other brands, as they had dogs that all needed to be in tip top condition, they researched till the right formula was made and this was the beginning of the Arden Grange range. The foods popularity grew and grew. I started using it whenever I could, and one day I wrote to the founder, tried to jog her memory of our meeting, and almost begged her to donate food explaining how our dogs need the best, how some had not had the best start before, and we want to help them so much. We had a delivery of the salmon based food donated and after a month coats shone and weight was gained! Since those days the company was sold but the new owners thankfully still are helping us. They are a big part of being responsible for all of the dog’s lives saved, as the cost of having to buy this food would have meant we could never have helped so many.

This is an amazing company with clear kind ethics to do the best for your dogs and ours. We are SO, SO grateful.

Dogs came in, some went to homes. A dog came in having fallen down the stairs, one of our trustees’ husbands did an emergency transport from Essex all the way to the rescue (thank you Mr Smith), and Emerald vets kindly x-rayed. Nothing was seen but, he was not using his foot at all. However, further investigation saw he had nerve damage; he now had no feeling in his foot. A few days passed with him having complete bed rest, and very slowly he has started to use it, I am hoping slowly he will heal.

We packed one of our freezers with raw donated food, but sadly the freezer (an old one donated years ago) died and nearly all the contents thawed. We had to appeal for people to help store the lower levels that had survived as we had no room, and did not want to lose this valuable food. We put a message on Facebook and kind people helped and for this thank you. 

We also found a cold bat that needed to go to a bat rescue, and we appealed again on Facebook and kind transporters came forwards. I thought “yes the Christmas spirits kicked in” but that was only until the police called…

Christmas eve came and people were slowing down starting to thin out, fewer visiting, and everyone was getting in the Christmas spirit, but I knew so many dogs did not have that privilege. When a staff member was walking the horses, he saw a chicken in the gateway of one of our fields, so he came and told me. It was a strange place for a chicken, the nearest people with a chicken were two fields and a brook away. Bill and I went down to the field, and I climbed over the locked gate, and strangely the little bird ran to me and almost jumped into my arms. I carried her to the truck and Bill drove me down to the cottage we thought she could have come from. I knocked at the door and a man came out, I said I found this chicken, if it was not his she had a home for life with me. He smiled broadly and said they had lost her two weeks previously and though he had searched, he felt a fox must have taken her. He told us finding and returning her had made his Christmas, I asked “do you mean that?”, and checked he did not mean it had made his Christmas dinner. He told me she was a rescue, and she was safe.

The police called, they had an emergency, no one could or would help with. They were not local to us, well over an hour away. Some people had reported a car abandoned in their street for over two days, the police had investigated and found a pocket bully in the boot and memories flooded back to me. When I was the director of the Humane society in Rockingham County, North Carolina, police had chased a car and stopped them. On searching the car, they found drugs, and in the boot, they found an emaciated, maggot infested female pit bull. They brought her to the rescue and everyone said she should be put to sleep, (which was one of my jobs) however Bill was not by my side to give me strength. I took her to the death room, the euthanasia room, that word meaning peaceful death, but for so many this was not a peaceful death. The chocolate skeleton looked up with longing eyes and I saw a quiver in her tail. I kissed her maggot infested body and spent an hour cleaning up her beaten, bitten body and picked out all the maggots. I gave her antibiotics and made her a comfy bed. One of the trustees took her home and we had called her Cookie. To everyone’s surprise Cookie survived and stayed forever with the trustee. The police here brought this pocket bully to us, she is now more cafe o lait colour, not emaciated, a pretty smile, however someone had hacked her ears off at some point to fight her. The police travelled over an hour each way to save her and I want to thank them for trying so hard for this poor dog, whose previous owner should hang their heads in shame. I want to thank our police, who have helped dogs so many times this year. Did you know the British police motto is ‘Facta Non Verba’ this Latin for "Acts, not Words"

Now, it’s Christmas morning. Bills bought the staff a lunch time treat; Beryl and her husband have added to this with delicious, cooked snacks. The dogs will have the special dinners hand cooked by a wonderful lady, horses have their treats and cats also. Our remaining boy Sirius from Cyprus loved his Christmas dinner so much. I am now just waiting…  I am sure that something will happen out of the ordinary.

Over three hours have passed. Nothing crazy has happened yet. The staff are going home early, and I guess just as Bill and I settle down the phone will ring, or something will go wrong. I am just waiting for it.

In the meantime, I thought I would tell you about some of our horses. Phoenix is a truly wonderful 12 hand gelding, he’s so genuine, however he came to us only leading. He was very itchy and because of that we developed a very good foundation for a human pony relationship. Phoenix discovered if he slid his way up to you, you in turn would scratch him all the places he could not reach and in this he discovered humans were not only useful but kind too. He’s been a pleasure to take on long walks and to teach to wear a harness, be long reined and put in a cart. However, it is very early days, and though we continue every day teaching him, he is by no means trained. He is not backed to ride at all, as we are all too big for him. Some people who applied for him last week ranged from one who wanted a lawn mower as her lawns are too big to manage, to someone who loved ponies but only had room for one, to parents whose children (some as young as three) wanted a pony to ride on. I am sure they themselves would not get on an unbroken horse yet seemed happy for their children to ride Phoenix. Needless to say, he is still with us. He is a beautiful chap who I hope a driving home will come forwards, I want him to have that skill, so he is never just thrown in a field as eye candy. Please look at his picture and share around.

Its 11.30pm. Christmas day is nearly over, and I lay in bed pleased all had gone well. Many volunteers came and took the dogs for long walks, played with the pups, cleaned, and drank hot chocolate and ate snacks with the staff. I was going to sleep, but the phone awoke me from slowly drifting off, as I answered the phone (same as ever at this hour) “Many Tears emergency line”, on the other end of the phone a lady sobbed. Between the sobs she said she needed a dog, hers died Christmas eve and she was heartbroken. I tried to engage her in a conversation, but she just said over and over she was so lonely, he was her only friend, there was no point anymore. I asked her phone number promising to ring with ideas of dogs that may suit in the morning, but at that point she put the phone down. Our phone system is so rubbish, three lines on one, and you cannot see who has called last as the lines roll over. I have had calls like this probably hundreds of times. They always disturb me, always make me worry, sad and helpless. I hope she calls us again and somehow; I am sure we can help.

I want to thank you and remind you all how your actions have saved so many this year and brought not only dogs, cats and horses happiness but humans to! It proves that together we could save them all!!! You are all my heroes.

THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. 

Sylvia x