Our dogs stay with us for the rest of thier lives.Our gang are not up for adoption they are our family I have decided that it would be a good idea to give everyone a complete insight into our world so here it is
Christopher Young and myself (Matthew Young) have been together for 17 years, 9 of which in a civil partnership. Christopher works for the NHS as a healthcare assistant, while I am at home
due to illness. Our first rescue was Luna a longhaired white German Shepherd who suffers from a condition called EPI (Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency) which means she cannot absorb food without having an enzyme added. This is not a cheap or easy illness to manage and we have had our share of worries with it, she is insured but lately the insurance company is a pain, however we get her meds (at £70 a month) and hopefully the insurance will start paying again. She is a very happy bouncy girl who loves everyone. Not long after Luna I saw a photo of Bob (a large longhaired German shepherd) cross posted to a GSD site. The minute I saw him I knew he belonged with us and started to sort out adopting him. A week later we were in the car, with Luna on our way to Liverpool to meet him. Due to diversions on the motorway, it ended up taking us six hours to get there but the first thing that struck us was the fact that he was huge. We took him for a walk with Luna. To be fair though it was more like he took me for a walk! Needless to say Bob came to live with us, we did have a few teething problems but all in all he settled.Sadly from what I understand, he had been to many places but kept coming back, mainly due to his size I think, luckily he had a great fosterer and she had managed to stop him becoming a problem dog. Bob has become my best mate and while he is very protective of us and can get very vocal, he is such a sweet loving boy who at 10 stone still thinks he's a lapdog. Jump a year on and we saw Rosu up for adoption on Safe Rescue's FaceBook page. This poor old fellow had spent 10 years in a cage in Romania and looked so broken that we couldn't help but start the adoption process, what we didn't realise is where this would lead! Rosu arrived and looked as if he was 20 years old but after a few months we could see a difference in him and although he only managed to enjoy 10 months of free life before succumbing to a tumour in his throat, he enjoyed lots of walks and 2 holidays in Dorset, he walked free and ran on the beach. When he went he took a large chunk of our hearts with him. Now I have jumped ahead a little because long before that we had decided to foster for Safe Rescue and to cut a long story short we took in Tom, another Romanian dog. Tom.....?? I'm not sure what I can say about him, other than the moment I met him I fell in love with him, after a few days to settle we took him to the vets for a check up as he seemed to have a swollen stomach. After lots of tests, it turned out he had a malignant tumour on his spleen, sadly he was 14 years old and in no state to go through an operation, so he was put on steroids and we were told to just let him enjoy what time he had left which was looking like about 2 months, so around Christmas! So far Tom has seen two Christmases and at 16 years old still enjoys his treats, food, fuss and walks in that order. Tom is a Safe Rescue dog but we are trying to cover his bill to save money for them as they can then help another dog. Not long after that we were asked if we could foster a little girl who had been hit by a train and lost her back legs and half a front paw, how could we say no? Chance arrived and to be honest she was and is, amazing. She is clean in the house and asks to be taken out when needed but if we are not in the room or don't hear her she will drag herself out to the lawn(it's ok, we have Lino!) We did get her wheels but she refuses to use them and after a year we have given up, instead she has a pram and loves going out in it once she gets to a grass area she gets out and walks on her stumps. Again Chance is a Safe Rescue dog but we cover her day to day stuff and if she need medical attention then we will again try to cover it so again they can help another dog. Now the next dog to join us was Ali, for reasons I won't get into he needed to be re homed ASAP, so I collected him that day and we understood he had serious health problems, starting with deformed back legs from only ever being fed bread to a heart problem. Ali was such a beautiful soul and the time we had with him was fantastic! I still miss him now, the grumpy old git but I know he enjoyed the months he had with us and loved going on holiday. Ali left this world with both of us cuddling him and knowing he was truly loved. Our next dog was Santa, who came over with a different rescue. We found out after a few months that he had arthritis in his backend and a lump on his head, poor fellow can't even lift his tail but other than pain control meds, he enjoys a good life and is loved. He is also old but age is just a number and he can't count so doesn't know he should be old and grumpy, instead he is often like a puppy. We have to cover all his vets bills etc. Then a few months ago we saw a post about a very old blind and deaf dog who they thought would not make it through another Romanian winter and that's how we ended up with Leo who once clean and fed is happy to live upstairs only coming down for food and to use the garden, I think he feels comfortable up there as its calm and very little moves which means he can relax. He still enjoys walking on a lead and takes his cue from little tugs on his lead . Our final dog is Leah who I'm sure most of you will have seen is paralysed from about halfway down after being hit by a car, she has also had to have a paw removed as she kept chewing it and chewed it down to the bone. In between all of these, we have also had three Safe Rescue foster dogs. Two were adopted into loving homes and the third, is Loo-iss who is still with us after being housed in a small toilet for 9 months, therefore he is taking time to come out of himself but we will work with him for as long as it takes. Christopher and I live in a house that the dogs rule and because of the fact we have terminal and disabled dogs it has gotten to the point that we are struggling to live so we decided to start the sanctuary as a way for people to help us to keep doing what we do and as spaces open up, we will be able to continue to take another dog that has health problems or disabilities, at least that is the plan. Of course we will alway get the naysayers, who will say we shouldn't ask for help but let's be fair we have the time and the abilities to help these dogs not the money, believe me if we win the lottery, we would never ask for anything and the dogs would have everything they ever needed or wanted, however we don't waste money on the lottery so I guess we will not win
Any help we get, whether it is bags of food, vouchers for our butchers, donations or items off of our Amazon wish list are always for the dogs. We hope this makes what we do nice and transparent and believe me our life revolves around them even down to not going to our friends caravan ( the only place we can take so many dogs and our friend will not take any money for it - as you may guess another dog lover) this year because Loo-iss would struggle with the change. Thank you for your continued support and I hope you enjoy our post about the dogs.
