Hold On To The Bad Times... But Focus On The Good....

Rescue is hard, there are some amazing highs, and then some huge emotional lows, a lot like a rollarcoaster. I often find all I can do is hang on, and try and enjoy the ride. I have to make decisions everyday that affects living creatures, and I always want to make sure these are the right decisions. However, sometimes, it goes wrong, and that is one of the toughest moments... the what if moment.

Sadly two of the "Nuts" died on Sunday, it was a tragic accident involving a cockroach, which had been sprayed at some point with pesticide. The pups being pups found this one, small roach, which cost them their lives. Their small bodies couldn't fight the poison, and they died.

Now, this would have been tough enough if it had happened here, but it happened in a foster home. A "safe" place that I had decided to send them to, where there are loving people, small people to play with and all the love they could want. I sent them there, me I made that decision, and it went wrong. If I had made a different one, they would still be here.

I do not blame the foster family at all, it was a tragic accident that could have happened anywhere, but that doesn't make me feel any better. I failed those pups, the buck stops with me, my rescue, my decisions, my mistakes. I took a day to cry, get angry, and cry some more. Death in rescue is more common than people realize, many rescuers do not share the mortality rate, or harsh reality of loss, but you know me, transparency is key to a good rescue. So, although my heart is heavy, and those tears rolled down my cheeks, The reality is all the tears in the world is not bringing them back, we have to learn and move on.

RIP Nuts

Here We Go Again

Just to be clear I am in Gran Canaria, which is a small island of the coast of Africa, and is classified as part of Spain. It is not outer Mongolia, we are in the EU and have the same laws and treatments for dogs as the UK. Yet the moment one of my dogs so much as sneezes some people and UK vets scream "foreign" disease.

We don't have any weird and wonderful diseases, in fact the UK has issues and diseases that we do not have here. We have brown fleas, ticks, and worms just like the UK, however, some UK vets like to scare adopters by making out these three easily treated things are ..... FOREIGN!!!!!

The timescale between a dog coming into my kennels and reaching its new home is quite long, therefore, all my nasty foreign bugs are well and truly dealt with. Take worms for example, every dog is wormed on entry, due to the turnover of dogs, they are wormed frequently. Off I go wormers and hotdogs in hand ensuring that every dog is treated, and when a new dog enters, it all starts again. 

Then as per the law the dogs leaving are wormed the day before travel by a VET which is recorded in their passport. But it seems as always I am lying, my vet is lying, and the only one telling the truth is he UK vet. Ticks is another one, we test and treat on the same day, therefore, the crossover of ticks being on the dogs and infecting them is impossible. The dogs are then treated every month until they leave.

The snap test results are in the passport/cartilla but again we are all lying over here, and the UK vets are of course telling the truth. So, if you have a dog that was tested here, was negative, treated and wormed, all by a professional, qualified vet, yet then tested positive in the UK over 8 weeks after leaving our sunny shores, maybe just maybe the worms and tick was... wait for it...... from the UK.....

Why is that so hard to understand, or believe, oh yes that is because there is always money involved, and the blame game needs to happen. Not just oh well my dog has worms, lets get it a worming tablet, oh they have been bitten by a tick, lets pop them on antibiotics for 30 days. Both very easy treatments, both very affordable.

Sadly when a UK vet gets involved the affordable bit flies out the window along with any common sense.  That is when I get the emails, the blame, and of course the bills. I am prepared to pay for GC ticks and worms, but not UK ones, sadly that is you guys problem. As much as I cannot save every dog, I cannot also be held responsible for every tick, flea and worm in the world.