Happy Birthday Dogstar And How It All Began

[Happylittlegreensquirrel]

I'm often asked how Dogstar started. This is the story of a very personal journey that led to the Dogstar Foundation...

It's 2006, I'm 34 years old. Having started work at 16, I’ve already had a hugely rewarding career in railways and engineering culminating in an extraordinary period in 2005 when I had the honour and privilege of taking a lead role in the clear-up operation after the London bombings – ten days during which the motivation was not about money or status but about doing what was right for the victims, their families and London’s residents and commuters.

Those ten days showed me what teamwork really meant. We didn’t change our clothes for days, we were virtually in lock down under London’s streets at Edgware Road, our lifting out of the blast-damage carriage was broadcast on live national television. I knew nothing I did on the railways again would ever be so important to so many people, so challenging or so physically and mentally demanding. For some time afterwards I struggled the inevitable emotional reaction to the event which was compounded by unexpectally being made redundant just months later.

That’s how I found myself in Sri Lanka and how the Dogstar Foundation would come into being.

It happened like this: I'm volunteering in Sri Lanka teaching English and working at an elephant sanctuary. I’m taking five minutes out from a rowdy English lesson I'm co-teaching at a local temple. As I sit on the dusty steps of the schoolroom, tuning out the din of squealing children, I notice a tiny puppy careering towards me – a happy combination of intense enthusiasm and a lack of brakes lands it squeaking in my lap looking up expectantly.

The pup’s sibling are not far behind. I notice they are all flea-ridden with bellies bloated with worms. I’d had some flea treatment sent to me from the UK for a dog that had taken up residence at the volunteers’ quarters I was staying at. I had some spare so sought permission from a monk at the temple to treat these puppies too. The monk concerned, Wangessa Terro, comes to talk to me while I administer pipettes of flea treatment to the back of the puppies’ red-raw necks. As we stand there in the heat, he looks at me for what feels a very long time and says,

“I have another dog that needs medicine, come come.”

He led me behind the temple and gestured at a medium size dog laying in the shade of the building. I take in the sight of the animal in front of me; emaciated, almost bald from mange with a thick leathery skin in place of fur and gaping sores on her legs, one of which is bent at an alarming angle. This dog clearly needs a lot more than a dose of flea treatment. Slowly, she turns to look at me; her amber eyes gaze deeply into mine. Her eyes hold mine and it feels like she is looking into me rather than at me. In that moment those eyes show me all the suffering of her life and others like her.

“You can make her better, no?” says the monk – not like a request but with the certainty of an already-answered question; a definitive statement that seemed to be reminding me of something I already knew.

This is where it all began. I didn’t know it just yet but I had my first Dogstar case on my hands. I named her Mango. Tracking down a vet for her was no mean feat; qualified and well-equipped vets were few and far between. After many tearful phonecalls I secured agreement from a University team treating elephants an hour away to come to her. It took 15 excruciating minutes for a vet to gently clean her wounds - she screamed in agony louder than anything I’d ever heard, leaving me, the monk and even the van driver sobbing with empathy for her. The vets were wonderful with her and gave her antibiotics, injections for mange and left instructions for her care.

The very next day I woke up with the idea for the Dogstar Foundation fully formed in my mind – the name, the logo and a clear concept for working with communities to transform the lives of animals like Mango in Sri Lanka. I was interviewing for vets within days.

Over the next few weeks I visited the temple with food for Mango and continued her treatments. The vet also visited for ongoing treatment of her wounds. When I left some weeks later, my mind buzzing with plans for the Dogstar Foundation, a fellow volunteer promised to look after her for me.

The following year, Mo (now one of our Trustees) meets Mango and takes over her treatment. By now her mange is almost gone, her wounds are healed, she walks well on her injured leg. She is well enough to be spayed at one of the very first Dogstar-funded clinics. Mango has other ideas though – she is pregnant with three puppies. The pregnancy and milk production have an impact on her health. Her mange returns and can only be given limited treatment because she is nursing. Two of her pups die but one is successfully rehomed locally.

Mango quickly becomes a surrogate mum to an influx of unwanted puppies that flood into the temple. For the sake of her own health she is separated from the puppies and spayed. The puppies are hand-reared by Dogstar and the monks instead.

Mango recovered very well and continued to live at the temple with Wangeesa Terro the Monk, until two years after I first met her, her health took a sudden turn for the worse. She was treated at the University hospital but didn’t pull through. We buried her under a mango tree. She was much-loved and did not suffer in her final days.

Quite simply, Dogstar exists because Mango’s dignity and serenity inspired me. I know she would approve that because I met her, Dogstar has gone on to sterilise and vaccinate many thousands of animals. It is because of her that my husband Mark and I now live and work in Sri Lanka, working alongside vets, volunteers and most importantly, the local community, humbly and in her memory, transforming animal welfare in Sri Lanka.

[Yantan]

Wow! and

 

Excellently told

[murtle]

I concur Yantan xxx

[gooster]

Happy birthday Dogstar.

 

Sam you are an amazing person, I have great admiration for everything you have achieved with Dogstar