Even after his vision and ears were taken from him by a cruel owner, he still just wanted to be loved.
Four years ago, Joanna realized her call when she captured a hedgehog that was in a cage with another male hedgehog and was in poor physical condition. Male hedgehogs, like other male animals, will fight if they are put together. Banjan needed care, as he had lost ears to fighting while with his previous owner and was covered in fleas and mites.
In the months it took to nurse him back to health, Joanna and her partner, Rory, Fell crazy with rescuing animals. Their work with furry, feathered, and scaled creatures benefits several of their local rescues, including Doolittle’s Animal Rescue and Freshfield Animal Rescue in the UK. 2 I have adopted several pets that need help, including birds, ducks, cats and dogs, and have failed several times during this period.
The wellbeing of pets isn't far away from their minds. During their visit to Bulgaria, the couple brought pet food with them to feed the large numbers of stray and homeless people they saw. Their souvenir was a thin street dog they rescued from a busy motorway. He later joined them within the UK after being mentioned to satisfactory health by a British family in Bulgaria working with Doolittle’s Animal Rescue. Shuck, as he was named, is now healthy and happy in his new family.
Although there’s many love and happiness to be gained by rescuing and fostering animals, it comes with some heartbreak also. Joanna and Rory’s latest foster has accompany it all.
They heard about Migoi through the Bulgarian family, who raised him when he recovered from the wandering life. Still just a pup, Migoi had suffered shocking, unspeakable abuse. He was kept as a “guard dog” outdoors in the cold on a brief chain. When he was rescued, he was underdeveloped for his age thanks to malnutrition and lack of exercise, beaten, and his ears and vision were taken from him by his cruel owner.
Migoi is taken care of by a Bulgarian lady named Maxim. She is an experienced foster caregiver who just took care of more than 40 dogs last year. A family was lined up in the UK to adopt him, but while waiting to be transferred they suddenly changed their mind, saying he was “too ugly.”
Joanna and Rory did not hesitate to offer him adoption. They know that getting him back to health and learning to worry about a blind dog can be a challenge, but they also know that they might give him the love he deserves. Though some dogs are going to be skittish around people after having only known abuse, Migoi could be loved! Joanna tells iHeartDogs, “Despite all of that he's the sweetest boy, absolutely crazy with people.”
“It’s been a troublesome few months to nurture him to health and find out how to require care of a blind dog, the way to protect him and help him gain confidence. We installed a baby gate to keep him away from the steps, away from the house, and away from anything that hinders him or may be at risk. We bought him a fountain so he could hear where the water was and put scented candles around every other water bowl in the house. We learnt the way to let him know there’s an obstacle within the way.”
“The most challenging of all has been the fight for his eyes, it took tons of your time to contain the severe eye inflammation caused by the damage to his eyes. We recently learnt that he also has retina detachment and glaucoma in his right eye, which suggests we've to get rid of it. ItThis is a huge blow, but it makes us want to fight for his other eye even more, he features a surgery scheduled for subsequent month. A surgery which will return vision to at least one of his eyes and can give him back what another person decided it had been right to require far away from him.”
Joanna and Rory did everything they might to offer Migoi confidence to maneuver around their home although he couldn’t see. They succeeded in helping keep him safe and got him the medical attention he needed, but there have been other challenges they faced that they didn’t expect, and weren’t sure how to resolve. Fortunately, another relative was able to step in and help.
“Before Migoi arrived we had been told that he was a bouncy boy and wishes extra attention. TheHe was about to bounce off the wall on the first day, and he made so much noise and noise. We were too worried to go away him alone for a second… just one occasion we need to know him, we realized that’s how he shows he’s stressed. He would cry whenever something spooked him or bark at any strange noises or dogs, it had been always visible that it’s fear, not aggression.
“One of the saddest things was to get that he didn't skills to play, he had no idea about what to try to with the toys we offered him, but it wasn’t us who were ready to explain it, it had been Shuck…”
confident [and] Migoi returns the favor by helping Shuck to return out of his shell. At first, Migu worked hard with confidence, he was afraid of other dogs... The very first breakthrough came because of our dog walking group at the park. Once Migoi realized that each one those dogs are friends together with his big brother Shuck, he decided to form friends too.”
“Every time we take Migoi to the vet, we take Shuck along too. The bond between them grew so strong that he’s almost a support dog for Migoi, keeping him calm all the way through. “Migoi will stay forever with us, there’s no doubt that. We are really bad in fostering and that we can’t imagine giving our baby boy away! We hope that the surgery will save one among his eyes, which should help together with his confidence. Once he’s ready we are getting to take him alongside Shuck to backpack around Europe.”
“We strongly believe that Migoi should be ready to live an equivalent life as the other dog, he should be ready to run free and pit the lead with other doggos. Working through his confidence issues and teaching him commands for obstacles allow him to be that dog.”
““We don’t think that his blindness should limit him in any way because it shouldn’t limit the other blind dog… If Migoi can roll in the hay, any dog can roll in the hay. InIt’s harder and takes longer and vigilance to stay him safe, but that’s our job as his parents.
“Our boy came a very great distance within a couple of months and he still features a great distance to travel , but we'll support him every tread on the way.”
Your are human angels for those who had suffered so much.
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