Poppy's blog

Sitting at the farm at 2.30pm, wondering if anyone will come to the coffee afternoon, then by 3.30pm wondering if we have enough dogs to go around for the walk......so many people came to visit it was heartwarming to see.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me - the welfare of animals spans every nationalitlty - it it one cause that people join together for!!!

I wandered around,, spoke to lots of people but most immportantly, listened - everyone had a story, an experience, a concern - we all had something in common, our love of animals and a desire to help were we are needed.

Wow.....where does the time go? It's ages since I got onto this!!!

Sadly nothing changes, as the months go by things become more frustrating. I made a decision to close QAWS, simply a financial one, I could no longer afford to support it from my own pocket, I was being critisised by small minded people and it was all too overwhelming.

Yeah right I could stop - although closed I now find myself running the 'un-official' QAWS. Where else are these poor animals supposed to go? Qatar Pets is taking off and with the support of that group I am coming back up! Still not enough money to support these un-fortunate ones but so many more people trying to 'do their bit' - money is not everything, yes we need it, but the support is just as important!!!

We are constantly called to 'deal' with dogs that have been abused, abandoned, some we get to in time, others suffer from car accidents, starvation, dehydration - sadly we can not always get there!

Despite the heartache that goes hand in hand with this work, we keep persevering......doing what we can, where we can!!!

It's Wednesday evening, around 6pm, I get a phone call from a guy working at place on Salwa Road. He tells me that a dog is injured, says it needs help. Unfortunately I was working and couldn't get there immediately. I gave the guy telephone numbers for the local vets with on call emergency cover and contiuned my work, hoping it would be resolved. An hour passed and he called again, the numbers I gave him were not being answered!!!!

As I was at the airport there was no way I could leave until I had finished but this poor dog was playing on my mind, I kept hoping that somebody would answer the call and help would be at hand.

This continued for the next 3 hours......

The first QL 'animal gathering' was held on Friday - wow, what a great bunch of people! It amazes me everytime that animal/pet people are so sociable, when you have something in common there are no barriers when meeting for the first time. It was like we all knew each other already and was really great just discussing so many things that we all care about, moan about, hate, love - our opinions on all things animals in Qatar were so similar.

Delilah was a star, settling down on a blanket, dozing peacefully, knowing she was safe and surrounded by people who care. She is on the road to recovery and I was delighted when Jonathan decided to take her home with him again as she is obviously quite attached to him already.

Today I am going to moan about the irresponsible person/s (although I doubt they will ever hear this) that took a heavily pregnant female dog and dumped her, far enough away that just maybe she wouldn't be noticed. I am experienced enough to know that this dog did not wander to this location herself, there was nothing nearby that she could possibly survive on, dogs are not stupid, she would have wandered somewhere that she could find food and water, with difficulty but it would be there. OK she needed somewhere safe and deserted to give birth but no way would she have ended up in the desert.

My first time at 'blogging'.......