Bionic Jean’s Comments (group member since Apr 06, 2024)

Bionic Jean’s comments from the Dogs group.

Bella and her bus left Romania and zoomed through Hungary last night, had checks for food, water and toileting, have gone through Germany, passed Holland, and through Belgium and France today and have stopped at Calais!

She is accompanied by 24 other lucky dogs and 1 cat, all in their own compartments. I saw a video today and they are are all calm and spotlessly clean. Cata (who runs the rescue centre we like) takes turn driving with another guy, and there is a mountain of paperwork involved at various points.

The next challenge is the port authorities at Calais. One happy bus had to return to Tecuci from Calais a month ago, because of new regulations. Heartbreaking to have got so far only to have to do the run again! But we are assured that the paperwork has all been accepted ...

It's so exciting! 😆

I loved yours too Donne!

Sure, I'll update this as I hear from the happy bus ... I think Bella must be part way across Hungary now 🙂

I'll just talk about one, because ... well you'll see why 😆

Bella 💖 is on the happy bus YAY!! We are so excited! 🥰😆She’ll be here in just a few days.

Who is Bella? Well here is a recent photo …



But this is the first one I saw on the internet (it’s upsetting so I’ve put it under a spoiler)

(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]

That was back in August. Our beautiful Romanian sheepdog Wolfie had to be put to sleep, and we were looking for someone to ease the ache. I’d seen so many dogs who needed homes, and we were negotiating for three in rescue centres in Romania, but then I saw this picture of one still in a kill shelter, without a name and only a number to identify it. I can hardly believe the conditions these dogs exist in, nor the fact that no vets are allowed in. There are about 600,000 stray dogs in Romania, and there are rewards for catching them and putting them in kill shelters 😡. This dog was dying before my eyes, and even though it wasn’t the type we were looking for, I just knew we had to save this one if we possibly could.

So we frantically messaged several people in various countries, (there are many who DO care!) promising to pay vet bills etc., and give the dog a home, hoping almost beyond hope that he or she would not die that day. The next day she was got out of that hellhole of a kill shelter, and to a vet in Bucharest. We called her “Bella”. We sighed with relief. Now she could be cleaned up and put on a drip at least. We had done our best. The vet said she was “skin and bone”, but treated and looked after her for a few weeks. Bella has a shattered leg like Wolfie did - and as so many in kill shelters have - because of the brutal treatment. She was also given antibiotics for 2 diseases, while she gradually put on weight.

Then we had her sent to the rescue centre where Wolfie came from in Tecuci - another 3 hour drive. But she has only stayed there 3 weeks, as she is so scared and traumatised. Nobody can touch her yet, but they know us, and know that she will settle and learn to trust people much more easily with us. So they put her on the happy bus yesterday at 5 am. She went right across Romania yesterday, and has to stay at Timisora, a town on their border, in quarantine until tomorrow.



It is such a long journey to us - over 1000 miles through 11 countries - but we know she will be well cared by our friends at the rescue centre on the way. And if I tell you all the tests and inoculations she has had, and all the red tape which threatened to destroy all our plans, this post will be far too long! The British government is very strict, with new regulations coming out all the time.

In the meantime we will track Bella’s route and try to quell our excitement! Here she is again:



She looks so different with her long fur trimmed a bit, but look at those beautiful eyes! (And to think I feared she would lose them, when she could not see through the tick infestation.)

Beautiful Bella! 🥰💖