Hi - I'm Sue, and this is to give you some idea of how Carole and I got involved in animal welfare before the Alfie Fund.  Both of us have an enormous love for all living creatures so it just seemed natural that when I had been living in Cyprus for about 3 months I began to dog walk for BARC British (Forces) Animal Rehoming Centre.  At the same time Carole was also dog walking for BARC, although on different days so we didn’t know each other.  It was on one of these “dog walking days” that I bumped into my first rescue dog - Deefor.  “Bumped into” being a very appropriate turn of phrase as he was on the road and in imminent danger of being knocked down.  Unfortunately here in Cyprus, roads tend to be the “killing fields” for dogs and cats.  I did stop my car but the poor dog was so very scared I could not get hold of him.  Luckily another like minded person stopped their car and offered to help. The dog was emaciated and terrified yet made no attempt to bite, this is the case with most dogs here, very few are aggressive no matter how abused they have been.  To cut a long story short my husband and I fostered Deefor for a month or so before financially sponsoring him to be taken into BARC and re-homed from there.  He was adopted by a wonderful new Mum, re-christened “Jake “and flew back with his new family when they returned to the UK.

Daisy

Next through the door was Daisy, a small 8 week old poodle/terrier cross, she was trying to survive on her own and living in a storm drain.  It took the best part of an hour to catch Daisy as she was so scared.  When we got her home we removed over 150 ticks from her.  You can see from the photograph how tiny she was, she was lucky to survive.  The photograph shows Daisy complete with ticks.   She did not have long to wait until she was adopted by a British couple who live in Paphos.  She is now loved, fed and adores her owners.  Her best friend is a rescue dog from BARC and life has changed dramatically for Daisy.

It was a couple of months later that I had a phone call from Daisy’s owners.  They had been out walking Daisy with her friend when a car shot by and threw a litter of 6 week old puppies out onto the bondhu, then drove off.  Unfortunately this is not an unusual occurrence in Cyprus.  I drove over to meet then and ended up coming home with a couple of “carpet slippers”

These two little “carpet slippers” were fostered by us for a while and shortly after, were both adopted into what are hopefully forever homes.

 Rosie is on the left and Daisy is on the right.  Both have made fabulous family pets.

The Carpet Slippers

Rosie and Daisy

Nothing like jumping in at the deep end  for Carole though as her next pup was Alfie.

Sue