Rescuing from abroad changed my life!

Growing up my life was all about dogs, because I wasn't born on my due date my Mum went and rescued a 9 month old Sheltie Collie because she was bored of waiting for me. I was never without a dog in the house, when we lost our Sheltie Collie at the ripe old age of 14 it wasn't long until we rescued our next dog, a chocolate Labrador called Branston who was a whopping 60KG’s when he should have been 32KG’s. At a young age I was walking with a pack of 17 dogs ranging in breeds, sizes and temperaments and from then on I knew I wanted to work with dogs and have dogs of my own. When I started grooming I fell in love with Border Terriers and Jack Russell's, so basically anything that was scruffy and looked like a toilet brush. I knew I wanted a scruffy dog which is ironic being a dog groomer! I never thought about seriously rescuing from abroad but one day, years ago, when strolling through Facebook I saw a page called "Carolinas caring across the continent” a Bristol based rescue working out in Romania. I clicked on it, saw a few cute dogs looking for homes, saw all of the great work they were doing and decided just to follow their page. Little did I know that maybe 5 years later I would be sharing my sofa with 2 Romanian rescues from that very rescue.

How it all began… For many years I always asked my then fiancé Samuel for a puppy, multiple times a week and to this question he would always say no. I must admit he was right and his reasons were just, for example “ We don't have our home yet” or “ We work too much”. But in 2022 we finally bought our own house, and Sam worked from home so this meant it was time to get a puppy! Again I asked and still for a year I was met with a no… Until one day… It was 7am on a Saturday morning, I was scrolling through Facebook when a picture of a small white and brown thing that looked like a bear popped up on my screen. It was a dog that had been rescued from a forest after either being born in the wild or dumped. She was very skinny, very scruffy and she had been named Daisy. This was her, this was my dog, the one I had always dreamed of! All excited I turned to Sam and said “What about this one?” to which I expected a no but that no had suddenly turned into a “Okay, ask about her”. I couldn't believe it, I'm not normally a morning person but this morning I was. I read their terms and conditions, filled out an adoption form stating our interest in Daisy and then the dreaded wait began. 24 hours had passed and I had heard nothing but the dreaded reserved sign had been posted by her photo. I was heart broken. In one last effort to really show my interest in Daisy I privately messaged Caroline, the owner of the rescue, to see hopingly if Daisy had been reserved for us. To which she responded “Yes! We are having to take her advertisement down as she has had too much interest for us to keep up with!” It was official after having a home check with Caroline over facetime as she was in Romania at the time, Daisy soon to be known as Aleana would be joining our family!

A few days passed and we were telling everyone we were welcoming a four legged friend into our family and everyone was excited. Suddenly I received a call from Caroline, picking up the phone I was dreading the worst. Was there something wrong with Aleana? Was she unwell? Was she not able to travel to the UK?. Thankfully it was none of these but it was Caroline calling to have a very important conversation. She explained that Aleana had been found with another young dog who had been called Dennis who she had now bonded with. She asked if we would consider taking on Dennis along with Daisy, she also offered that the Rescue would raise the funds for his travel and adoption fee if we were to take him. After lots of discussion and weighing up the pros and cons Samuel finally convinced me that 2 dogs would be better than 1, and so preparing to bring 2 wild Romanian dogs into our home began.

Between confirming that we would adopt both Aleana and Dennis (now known as Apollo) we knew that we needed to ensure that our house was ready to take on 2 dogs that may have never been inside of a house. We also were told that they were good with humans but we still needed to be ready for any situation that may occur. We decided to start by having a zoom call with Buffy and Gee from Nanook training school to prepare us physically and mentally for the dog's arrival. We talked about how to lay the house out, by having different blankets in different areas to make sure the dogs could lay in different areas where they felt safest. We bought a large crate so that they could go and tuck themself away again to make them feel safe. We bought baby gates to shut off our lounge, kitchen and upstairs area. We were not sure if they would be toilet trained on arrival so it was best to keep them where they had hard floors. We then really focused on the rule of 3,3,3. The 3,3,3 rule is a guideline for the adjustment period for rescue dogs, 3 days to decompress,3 weeks to learn routines and start settling in and then 3 months to truly feel at home and show their true personality. After our call we felt a lot more prepared.

The arrival... After 2 days' travel, the 30th of August finally came around and it was the day for the dogs to arrive. They had been spayed and neutered, had all of their necessary jabs and tested for Bucella and finally they were on the bus coming to the UK. Everyone adopting a dog was added to a Whats app group and you were able to follow the bus around the country to see dogs being dropped at their new home and see how many stops until yours would finally be arriving. Aleana and Apollo finally arrived at 11.45pm and after some dinner of chicken and rice a very long awaited hello by 2.30am they were tucked up in the crate together ready for a long nights rest. The first 48 hours Aleana and Apollo had to be quarantined, so the first few days were settling in, decompressing and of course getting to know us. After 48 hours we were able to take them on their first walk. Luckily they were happy to wear harnesses and leads, so we headed out for just five minutes around the block so as not to overwhelm them. We found that they didn't know what toys were. We slowly had to introduce them to normal sounds around the house like the washing machine, the kettle and the front door bell. Luckily they were very comfortable with these. We spent the first 2 weeks as a family of 4 with no visitors. We wanted to ensure that they had the least amount of stress whilst settling in so they could learn that home was their safe space. After 2 weeks it was time for them to meet some family, we made sure we did this very slowly. They met one person at a time and were given a handful of chicken by both people. Everyone was met with confidence and happy tail wags. This was a great step for them showing they were happy for other people to come into their home.

2 years on and Apollo and Aleana are very chilled Romanian rescues and they have lovely personalities. They are the most loving dogs I have ever owned. After not knowing how their life started I was expecting to have a lot of issues with them but we didn't. They have never stolen food or been food protective. Aleana was toilet trained on arrival and Apollo was toilet trained in a few weeks. Nothing was ever chewed within the home. They have always been happy to have things taken away from them like bones or toys. They are happy to be handled and having a dog groomer as a mum has helped with that. They were happy to travel in the car and they didn't bark in the house. They definitely have the pack mentality if either myself or Sam are not in the same room Apollo will lay in the hallway waiting for us to all be together again, and he wont go in another room by himself he will wait until we all go together. Aleana loves a cuddle and constantly needs attention but is also very independent and quite introverted, she is happy to lay in a crate and say “Hello” to no one. She is definitely more into humans than other dogs. Apollo does struggle with a little dog reactivity due to lack of socialisation from a young age, this I will be diving into very soon. If you are considering adopting from abroad and would like any advice on where to start Pixies knows first hand how to help you create the best start for your new family members!