Joanne’s dog appeal donations go through the woof
A furloughed shop worker from Stanley has had to give her whole house over to storing donations for a dog charity after an appeal went“way better than expected”.
Joanne Flynn (46) was missing her old dog Jack who died last summer so she started looking at social media pages with a mind to rehoming a puppy rescued from Europe.
In January she found her heart’s desire and began arranging for Auri, a Spanish Mastiff, to make the three-day journey from Ovidio in north-west Spain.
The pup was one of a litter born in a Scottish-run Spanish rescue centre after her mum was found pregnant and homeless in the mountains.
Jo and husband Richard are delighted that their rescue puppy, now 17 weeks-old will be dropped off in Perth next week.
Microchipped, vaccinated and in possession of a pet passport, when she is fully grown, Auri will be big, weighing in at 85 kilos and 88cm high.
For company she will have a Staffie who belongs to Jo’s niece, Emma.
But Jo has got her work cut out getting her house ready for the new arrival because every room is crammed with sacks of items to help the Spanish rescue centre that brought up Auri.
Scottish Rescue for European Dogs and Cats, the group that is sending Auri and 68 other animals over, asked Jo and the other rehomers if they could collect supplies to go back to Spain in the empty transport vehicle after the dogs were delivered.
Jo got in touch with Katie McCandlessThomas of Missing Pets Perth and Kinross last month to see if she could put word out that donations of bedding, blankets and toys were being sought.
The result was astonishing. Jo’s phone has been “red hot” with dozens of kindhearted Perthshire animal lovers wishing to help.
She explained: “The first message came in on February 19 and since then 135 people have got in touch.
“It has not stopped. I have collected a mountain of donated items from car park drop-offs and people bringing things to my house.
“I’ve got around 40 big black sacks to send to Spain. My attic is full. The rooms have bags crammed anywhere I can.
“I reckon it is going to take about a month to move it all out to where it needs to go.
“The lorry bringing Auri will take some of it, but we agree they will have to hook up with me on another drop-off visit as there is just so much needing to go away.
“The train of events that began when I first saw Auri’s puppy picture on Facebook has taken me out of my comfort zone.
“But I’ve been on furlough from my job at TK Maxx and the focus of collecting the donations has really been a fantastic addition to my life while I’ve had no work to keep me busy.
“People in Perthshire have been really generous. I feel humbled.
“I didn’t expect my appeal for toys and bedding to be so incredibly received. Some people went out and bought new stuff.
“I was floored by what people were prepared to do to help.
“It has been so successful, I’ve needed to take on help in Kinross and in the Errol area as there is lots of stuff there and some kind individuals have offered to collect and store it for me there as I can’t be everywhere.
“There have been so many messages about donations.”