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Tara's story |
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Tara came to us purely by
chance and changed our lives forever....for the better. We had made the brave (some might say stupid) decision to start a new life in Turkey. One evening when enjoying a barbeque in a bid to get to know our neighbours better, one of them arrived accompanied by a rather scraggly, thin but pretty little dog. We assumed she was probably a Retriever cross, although it was hard to tell as she wasn't in great condition. Our neighbour explained to us that she had found her with one puppy in the middle of no where, that the puppy was now being looked after by an English couple in town but that she had taken the mother 'Blondie' under her wing. Admittedly, the neighbour had saved the dog, but now her existence was a life of wandering around the neighbourhood, sleeping outside but being given water and scraps from the Butcher. So to 'Blondie', this was of course far better than being alone trying to keep her puppy alive. Nobody knew where she had come from or how many puppies she'd had originally, but one thing was clear, she had known love in the past and still had so much to give. When our neighbour decided to return to her home in Germany for a while, she asked if we would look after 'Blondie'. We had always wanted a dog but had decided to wait until we were in a position to give it our full time and attention. However, the prospect of having a fluffy house guest for a while was irresistible! The dog quickly felt at home and wandered around our home like she had lived there all her life. One thing didn't fit though, the name 'Blondie'. We had grown to love her very quickly and her us and felt she deserved a name that was worthy of her, - strong and elegant but full of love. We had always loved the name 'Tara' and it just seemed so right. She responded to it immediately, so 'Tara' had found her identity! As the weeks went on, we heard nothing form the German woman, not even a call to see how Tara was. We were obviously concerned by this especially as we were becoming more and more in love with her and were wondering how we could ever say goodbye. We felt Tara had made our life complete, we did everything together, her confidence and trust was building all the time. After getting to know our local vet, we ensured she had all the relevant inoculations and that her diet was improved to help her skin which was in poor condition. She was blossoming and becoming healthier every day. We had moved to Turkey after much planning in order start a Business. The people we were working with were making life very difficult and as time went on we realised we were getting ripped off by certain individuals. Finances were running low and after much deliberating we made the decision to put our plans on hold and return to the UK for a while (we didn't know how long this would be.) This in itself was upsetting as we felt our dream was disappearing, however, having the constant distraction of Tara helped us through, we felt she was returning her love for us nursing her back to health. As we had still heard nothing from the German woman, we decided that there was no way we could now part with Tara. We had to find a way to bring her home with us, preferably by avoiding quarantine. We researched it on the internet and felt that after all she had been through, there was no way we could put Tara through such archaic confinement. Amidst all our angst and desperation we heard from a local that the German woman no longer wanted Tara as she had got herself a new puppy!!!!! That was fine by us! We looked into every option available to save Tara from being locked up, even staying with a family in France for six months to avoid going 'straight to Jail'! It was however not to be. Ridiculous new rules had meant that there was no way we could avoid Quarantine coming from Turkey. We had to face up to our worst nightmare. Our family researched a couple of Kennels in the UK and although all seemed unbearable, we went with the one that seemed the most humane and in reasonable distance from our home in the UK, so that we could visit regularly. The paper work was organised and before we knew it the most heartbreaking moment of our lives so far was upon us, putting Tara on the Plane and saying goodbye. We spent an agonising 24 hours not knowing how she was, it was so difficult to get answers from the airport. It finally transpired that not only had her flight been delayed, but that Tara had been left at the airport all night before she was even picked up. Our first meeting with her on UK soil was one of tears and anger, that in this day and age in a nation that supposedly adores it's animals, thinks nothing of leaving them in what is nothing more than a prison cell with hours and hours of boredom and loneliness to contend with. Since Tara has been in Quarantine she has been unwell at times, we have been made to feel insignificant and unworthy of an opinion by various vetinary staff and have learnt to smile and agree with what we are told in order that Tara's well being is the priority and that she comes back to us a healthy happy dog. We have a matter of weeks left until our girl is back with us. We are lucky, Tara is strong, she has already had to deal with a lot of hard ship that life has thrown at her. We sometimes wonder if we did the right thing, but by living in a country such as Turkey which does not value animals on any level, we feel we have done the best for her, and God willing her strength of character and love will be with her still the day we bring her home. This has been the longest six months of our lives. We are confident Tara will settle and go on to be the happy girl we have known, but from meeting others in Quarantine are not sure that some will make it, or that some little characters wont be lost along the way. Many people think that Quarantine no longer exists but to us and many others it is still a reality, and we don't feel we will rest until it is gone forever. David and Louise Richards.
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