War Paws

05/10/2026

This evening and tomorrow evening only Dr Ali and the clinic team will be at Hala Festival alongside Admiral Vet offering FREE Health Checks and advice for your pets. Please drop by between 7pm and 10pm tonight or tomorrow and come see us and bring your furry friend along too!

04/10/2026

🌙 EVERYONE HAS THEIR OWN AIRLOCK ROUTINE 🌙

Every evening, the dogs from Gara’s section come out to enjoy a couple of hours of freedom in the airlock—and each of them has their own favourite way to spend that precious time.

Gara normally heads straight into the office so he can relax with Louise. He makes himself comfortable and settles down as though the office belongs to him—which, during his evening visits, it probably does! 💛

Zarda chooses a comfortable spot outside the office, where he can keep an eye on everything while enjoying the cooler evening air.

Lalita heads directly to the clinic steps, claims her usual place and quietly watches the world go by.

Jazz and Tito, meanwhile, have no interest in relaxing. They spend hours chasing, wrestling and playing together, somehow finding an endless supply of energy while everyone else is settling down! 😂🐾

These simple evening routines mean so much to the dogs. They give them extra space, stimulation and a chance to choose exactly how they want to spend their time.

Whether that means office cuddles, peacefully watching the shelter or playing until bedtime, everyone has found their perfect place. 🐶💛

02/10/2026

💛 GERALD IS BACK WHERE HE BELONGS 💛

Last week, Louise realised that her boy Gerald had not been around for a while. She had been searching and keeping watch for him, increasingly worried about where he might be.

Today, while walking across the new shelter land, Louise finally spotted a familiar face far off in the distance—it was Gerald!

Despite the time apart, he remembered her. He was a little subdued and had clearly lost weight, but he was happy to see Louise and allowed her to bring him back with her. 🥹🐾

Gerald is now back where he belongs, surrounded by people who know and love him. Our team will be monitoring him closely, making sure he is eating well and doing everything possible to prevent him from being chased away again.

Seeing him thinner and quieter than usual was upsetting, but the overwhelming feeling today is relief. We found our boy, he recognised Louise and he is safely back in our care.

Welcome back, Gerald. You have been missed more than you could ever understand. 🐶💛

01/10/2026

🚜 INCREDIBLE PROGRESS—AND A NEW LITTLE FRIEND 🐶

Louise visited the new temporary shelter site this afternoon—and the progress completely took her breath away!

Our contractors are working at an astonishing speed. In just over 24 hours, the entire shelter area has been graded and almost all of the concrete has already been poured. After months of uncertainty, fundraising, meetings and changing plans, the new shelter is finally taking shape before our eyes. 🚜💛

Of course, it would not be a War Paws visit without meeting another dog!

Louise spotted this lovely girl watching from a distance. She is quite thin and appears to have received treatment for mange. Although understandably nervous, she eventually found enough courage to approach Louise and discovered that the strange lady visiting her territory gives excellent belly rubs!

When she rolled over, Louise noticed that she still had sutures in her spay incision, although the incision itself appears well healed. She also has a minor eye infection and a rather gunky eye.

Louise will return tomorrow armed with a stitch cutter, medication to clean up and treat her eye—and, of course, plenty of food. 🥣🐾

We do not know her story or who treated and spayed her, but we are glad she trusted Louise enough to show us what help she still needs. Perhaps she already knows that something special is being built on her territory!

We also have some fantastic news: thanks to our incredible War Paws family, we held FIRST PLACE on the My Giving Circle leaderboard and won £3,000! 🎉

Thank you to everyone who voted, donated and shared. You made this possible.

The new round has already begun and runs until 30 December 2026, with £4,000 available to the winning organisation. Please keep voting and donating—let’s see if we can end 2026 with another amazing win! 🗳️💙

🗳️ My Giving Circle:
https://mygivingcircle.org/war-paws/free

💙 JustGiving:
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/warpaws-save-our-shelter

💙 CUDDLY:
https://cuddly.com/donate/4958780/save-our-shelter

Work is progressing quickly, but there is still an enormous amount to build and fund. Please keep helping us transform this land into a safe home for the animals depending on War Paws.

01/10/2026

📩 HAVE YOU CHECKED YOUR INBOX? 📩

We sent a new War Paws newsletter to our supporters this morning, filled with the latest news and updates from the shelter.

When we first launched our newsletter, we had just over 5,000 recipients. Since then, that number has fallen to just under 4,000.

We completely understand that inboxes can become overwhelming and that not everyone wants to receive newsletters. However, we also know that many members of our War Paws family do not use social media—or follow our pages but rarely see our posts because of the algorithms.

Our newsletter gives us another way to keep you updated about our animals, our clinic, the shelter relocation and the enormous amount of work happening behind the scenes.

If you received this morning’s newsletter, please take a moment to read it. If it has not appeared in your inbox, check your junk or spam folder.

If you have not subscribed yet, please sign up today. You can also help by sharing this link with friends, family and fellow animal lovers who may be interested in following our work.

We would love to rebuild and grow our newsletter family so that fewer people miss the stories, struggles and successes of the animals depending on War Paws. 🐶🐾💛

📩 Read the latest newsletter and subscribe here:
https://mailchi.mp/warpaws/we-broke-ground

During Dai’s recent visit to Erbil, we finally secured government approval to use the land directly adjacent to our current shelter.

30/09/2026

🎉 TODAY WE DID A THING…WE BROKE GROUND! 🎉

At 6am this morning, work officially began on our new temporary shelter—and we could not have been more thrilled to see the machinery moving! 🚜🐾

This moment has been a long time in the making: months of fundraising, countless meetings, discussions and more changes to our plans than we can count. Today, those plans finally began becoming a reality.

Although we had desperately hoped to secure a permanent home, we are incredibly grateful to the local government for permitting War Paws to use this land for the next two years. It gives us somewhere safe to relocate hundreds of animals while we continue pursuing the permanent future they deserve.

We are also grateful to the contractors and development companies that have shown extraordinary patience—particularly the developers waiting to occupy our current land and those who repeatedly prepared new quotations as our plans changed.

To everyone who attended meetings, offered advice, produced plans, prepared quotations, donated or shared our appeal—and especially our awesome shelter team—thank you. This moment belongs to you too. 💛

Work is progressing quickly, and we hope to leave the old shelter very soon.

However, breaking ground does not mean fundraising can stop. We still need perimeter walls, concrete, kennels, roofing, water, electricity, drainage, clinic facilities and the safe relocation of hundreds of dogs.

Any funds remaining after the temporary shelter is completed will be held towards securing and building the permanent War Paws shelter. Every donation will help protect our animals, now or in the future.

Please keep donating and sharing as we transform this empty land into a safe home. Today, the future feels a little brighter. 🐶🐾💙

🗳️ My Giving Circle:
https://mygivingcircle.org/war-paws/free

💙 JustGiving:
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/warpaws-save-our-shelter

💙 CUDDLY:
https://cuddly.com/donate/4958780/save-our-shelter

PS: The dog in the video is Lana, and she has been with us for around six years! 💛

29/09/2026

🩺 A VERY BIG SURGERY FOR LITTLE GAYNOR 🩺

⚠️ Please note: This video contains footage of veterinary surgery, although the graphic area has been blurred.

Beautiful Gaynor is only seven months old, but she has already undergone a very big operation.

This reel takes you behind the scenes as our veterinary team prepares Gaynor for surgery, carefully monitors her throughout the procedure and remains beside her as she begins her recovery.

Watching such a young dog undergo major surgery is always worrying, but Gaynor handled everything incredibly well. She is now receiving the pain relief, medication, close monitoring and gentle aftercare she needs.

We are confident that she will make a full recovery. If everything continues to go as planned, she should be able to rejoin her buddies outside in the driveway in a couple of weeks. We have no doubt they will be very pleased to have her back—and Gaynor will be equally delighted to see them! 🐶💛

For now, her only jobs are to rest, heal and accept plenty of love from our team.

Gaynor’s surgery is another reminder of why our veterinary clinic is so important. Illness, injuries and emergencies do not pause while we fight to relocate the shelter. Our animals still need operations, medication, equipment and somewhere safe to recover.

Your support makes care like this possible. Please keep sharing our posts, donating when you can and standing beside Gaynor and every other animal depending on War Paws.

Please send our brave little girl plenty of love and healing wishes. We will keep you updated on her recovery and, hopefully, share the moment she is reunited with her driveway friends. 🐾💛

🗳️ My Giving Circle:
https://mygivingcircle.org/war-paws/free

💙 JustGiving:
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/warpaws-save-our-shelter

💙 CUDDLY:
https://cuddly.com/donate/4958780/save-our-shelter

27/09/2026

Live streaming of Louise Hastie