I would like to share the stories of just a few of the many thousands dogs that have come here, not to shock or upset but to let you see the type of work carried out at Dungarvan Rescue Kennels.
HANNAH
Hannah had been living the life of a feral dog in open countryside for almost a year before I received a call about her. She had been sleeping in ditches and during the previous spring had raised a litter of puppies on her own in a ditch. Although people in the area had been kind to her by leaving food for her every day, Hannah would not let herself be caught. Of the seven puppies she had that spring, only three survived. They were removed by one of the people leaving food for her before they could grow up to become feral dogs like their mother. I was told good homes were found for them.
By late autumn Hannah was heavily pregnant again and I was called in. An all out effort was made to catch her. This time, as she was not too sprightly, our endeavours were successful. Hannah came into the Kennels to have her babies in safety.
One evening, about 10 days after her arrival, Hannah started to have her puppies. I sat up through the night and watched over the safe arrival of thirteen beautiful babies. It was a very large litter, and was hard work from the start. For one thing I had to ensure that the smaller ones were getting enough milk. Although Hannah was very wary of people, she allowed me to handle her and her babies from the very start, and between the two of us we managed to ensure all the puppies survived. They are now in safe and loving homes.
It could have been all so very different, I am certain neither Hannah nor her puppies would have survived living in a ditch in the cold winter weather. The hard work was worth it.
MIYA
Late one Saturday evening I got a call. A man had found a dog on his front doorstep. He wasn’t sure if the dog was dead or alive. It was late September and the night was cold. I immediately got into the car and drove off to see what I could do. When I got there the dog was still on the doorstep, not moving and very cold to the touch. She wasn’t dead, but she probably soon would have been.
We got her into my car. I turned the heating up full blast and wrapped her in blankets. By the time I got home she had come around a bit. I laid her on a duvet in a warm room. She was very dehydrated, and though she managed a small drink of warm milk and honey, it seemed to me that she had just about given up. She was so debilitated, starved and sore that I think she was ready to `let go`. I wasn’t prepared to let that happen.
I warmed some more blankets and wrapped them around her, brought another heater into the room and sat with her through most of the night, just talking to and stroking her, getting her to take little laps of warm milk. Around half past four that morning, Miya gave the barest wag of her tail and gave my hand a little lick. She had decided she wanted to live after all!
It took almost five months for Miya to be ready to go to a new home, a very special home that was already waiting for her in the UK.
In July 2007 I visited the Patcham RSPCA Dog Show in England and whilst there I met Miya once again. She now lives very happily with her friends Sid and Chloe and her new family.
CARRIE
Carrie came to me from another shelter. As her picture clearly shows, she had a most horrendous neck injury. Although she had received initial vet treatment, I felt it best to take her to see my new Vet, Adrian, the next morning. He did a great job of cleaning up the injury and making her more comfortable, but it was decided that he wouldn’t to any suturing for at least a week so that more of the damaged skin could die off.
The morning that Carrie was due back at the surgery she suddenly started having trouble breathing. Serious trouble. I am not trained in animal medicine, but I knew that I had to do something, and do it immediately. I gave her the best version of mouth to mouth as I could, and got her breathing again. I rang Adrian to say she was in trouble and needed oxygen. No sooner had I put the phone down that it happened again. We were both terrified. I managed to get her breathing again and got into the car, breaking all speed limits.
When we arrived at the vets they were ready for us with oxygen. Adrian told me he would have to open her throat because it was blocked, and he needed to see what was causing the problem. I waited. Two hours later he came out to me, a look of disbelief on his face. A piece of elastic string, about 4 inches long had been wrapped around her windpipe inside her body.
We never did quite figure out for sure quite how it got there. The only explanation we could come up with was that someone had tried to `stitch` her neck themselves and as the wound was so open the string had been absorbed into her body. As her neck began to return to its normal size after the rope had been removed, the string started to tighten bit by bit.
Adrian wasn’t sure Carrie could survive the trauma of what had happened to her as well as the surgery. She had to have a breathing hole cut into her throat and was very weak. I sat up with her all that night in case she got into trouble breathing whilst coming around from the anaesthetic. She slept peacefully. In the morning I offered her a little bit of food, not expecting her to take it but she demolished it in seconds.
Adrian rang to see how things were and was delighted that she was bright and eating. He hadn’t expected her to survive. The breathing hole in Carrie’s throat had to be swabbed out several times a day. I asked if a veterinary nurse could come to do this for me, but Carrie refused to let anybody but myself anywhere near her wound. Her complete and utter trust in me was humbling.
She made a full, if slow, recovery and when fully better went to the UK for adoption. She got really lucky, one of the Trustees of Greyhound Compassion, who had kindly taken her, fell in love with this little fighter. She is now renamed Spirit and attends fundraising events to help others of her kind.
POPPY
Poppy was thrown out of a moving car one bank holiday weekend. The outrage was witnessed by several motorists although none were able to get the registration number of the car from which she had been ejected. Several people stopped to help her and one knew there was veterinary clinic not far away. Poppy was taken there. The vet was concerned that Poppy had sustained a head injury, so she was hospitalised while tests and x-rays were performed. Thankfully as it turned out, there were no serious injuries, although she was badly bruised and shaken by her experience. I was called and ask if I would care for her. I brought her to the Rescue Kennels where she spent a couple of weeks in the recovery room, resting and healing, before she was able to join the other dogs. She eventually went on to find a loving home in the UK.
PADDY
This little pup was dumped from out of the back of a van one cold March afternoon. Fortunately for him the incident had been spotted by some people sitting down for their Sunday lunch. They could not understand why the van had stopped outside their house. They went out to investigate what had been left on the side of the road. It turned out to be little Paddy, only about eight weeks old and in a sad state. They brought him to me and I immediately knew this little one was in trouble, his breathing was not good and he was very lethargic. I took him straight to the vet clinic where it was discovered he had pneumonia as well as mange and malnutrition. Thankfully he made a full recovery and grew into a very handsome chap.
Return to our General Area |