The cardiac intensive care theatre had a resounding chill as the surgeon and his team maneuvered and delivered the stent into place, reopening the vital artery. The soft comments of artery disease and a leaking valve vanished amongst my immediate thoughts of business, diamonds and clients from around the world. Operating theatres had become all too familiar a place, having survived gunshots wounds, embedded shrapnel, animal attacks and more recently an almost fatal snakebite.
Thoughts of an empty house far away in another hemisphere drove my worries deeper.
Then the answer appeared…
A few months later while recovering out of hospital, I was at my computer screen when I noticed a contact with the catch words ‘Bulgaria’ and ‘dogs’. Within a few days I realized that this person and her family where doing an incredible job rescuing animals in Bulgaria. It was soon apparent that they might just need some extra land to accommodate the animals that they were saving. This was something that horrified me about Eastern Europe. The blatant disregard for animal welfare. But here was this British family doing exactly what I had obsessed over!
Diane and Anthony Rowles, together with their family, accepted my offer and soon their daughter Kerry with her partner Kosta had arrived at my house. It was an unfortunate start when they discovered that my house had been totally vandalized and everything on the ground floor stolen! From the boiler to the oven, all the furniture, even the plumbing had been taken. ‘This wasn’t even Africa’ I thought, ‘this only happens down here’.
During the next few weeks these two young brave souls saw it through, with no water nor electricity, cooking their first meals on bricks and a roof tile! It became a blur of desperately trying to get money wired to them to replace the vital utensils to sustain them. Sleepless nights trying to contact the mayor of a village in a distant country which might as well have been on the moon.
Within a couple of weeks they had their first rescue dog, ‘George’ a German shepherd who had his ears cut off as well as having been shot. Soon ‘Big Dog’ arrived, followed by many others. The old house is now a sanctuary of fresh life…of wagging tails…and of puppy dogs frolicking in the snow.
At present, while South Africa is having a scorching summer, Bulgaria is in the middle of an extremely cold and icy winter. No person nor animal can survive the harsh sub zero temperatures.
While Kerry and Kosta continue their courageous work in the far remote north, Diane, Anthony and their family are doing incredible work at home in Rudozem in southern Bulgaria.
Muuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaah!
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