CHANGING ATTITUDES.

Can we make a difference, or are we wasting our time?

It’s minus 6 degrees and the water has turned to ice in the butt, my dogs prefer to be inside by the fire and who can blame them, for some animals it really is “a dog’s life”.

Sadly not for the majority though and it was one of those I went to visit this morning, I think that under all the dreadlocks he is a Fox Terrier, I don’t know his name but I am here this morning to give him some warm food and thaw out the block of ice that is in his water bowl. He is overjoyed to see me and barks in a friendly manner. Of course he knows my car, I am only an occasional visitor, it is my husband who comes every day to make sure he is fed and has fresh water.

“No name” has a lean-to shack which he calls home, open to the elements and an earthen floor, his chain stretches about 2 metres and he has lived on it for as long as he can remember.  For all that, he still barks happily when he sees you and jumps up and down, hoping that you will stay a little longer, give him an extra caress.

His French owners peer out occasionally from their warm home, they no longer care that “le fou anglais” come and feed their dog, and sometimes their cat, what’s important about a scruffy matted dog after all and a scrawny cat.    They do have another dog, recently acquired and more gentile, she lives inside and doesn’t mix with the riffraff.

We have tried to adopt the little guy, but no, they are….. I was going to say fond of him but it’s more a case of something familiar and when he dies they can always get another.

 “TIFFANY”

For a long time no one knew her name or sex, she was only a dark shape chained up in a small cage at the back of the house.  Home was a make-shift shelter and food and water appeared irregularly.  Her owner, a baker by trade had fallen on hard times, his family had left him and now he was losing his house and moving on himself.    The dog didn’t bark or cry out, she was a gentle creature who accepted her lot and knew no different, some days she got food, others not.

Then the cold winter weather set in, her water bowl turned to ice and she had little protection from the elements, days consisted of shivering and slowly giving up.

This story could have had a sad ending like so many dogs, but thanks to an observant neighbour who wasn’t afraid to go and berate the baker about the condition his dog lived in, something was done.  Tiffany as we now know she is called, aged 9 years old and black Labrador cross is no longer shivering, no longer always hungry, no longer unloved.  The English couple took her into their own home and a few days later she entered the “chain of Hope”, from the people who freed her from her prison, to the people who transported her on the first leg of the journey, to the people who will foster her until a new home is found and her new life can begin.

Tiffany is safe now, but she is one of the lucky ones. There are simply thousands of dogs living in the same conditions as Scruff and Tiffany, most will live and die chained up in a hovel.

 So are the English Mad?

 I sometimes despair that we will ever change human nature but if we don’t try we won’t find out.   Ignorance is no excuse to let suffering continue.

We would like to thank the French Orfee Association for their compassion and assistance in helping Tiffany and so many other dogs like her, and to those people who work quietly behind the scenes, receiving little recognition but knowing that what they do will save another life.

Tiffany is safe but needs adopting, would you give a home to this brave dog? 

For more details contact Isabelle at asso.orfee@laposte.net or tel: 0977487143 or call Siobain on 05 49 27 26 20 email: hopeassoc@orange.fr