Now that I have caught up on some sleep and my head is slightly working I want to say a special thank you to some people and give you an update on what’s happening at Sal Animal Rescue (SAR).

Firstly I would like to thank Monica for funding the castration project. Its been a long six months of fundraising and canvassing the government here to get this project off the ground. Monica managed to get the help of some Austrian politicians to back this cause and contact the Camara here, unfortunately the government was too busy to meet with her despite several requests. We were also not allowed to take the dogs off the streets, but despite this, the turnout from the local community was fantastic. It shows the local people really do want to be involved.Hopefully by the time we do the next castration project in November the Camara here will allow us to take the most vunerable dogs which are the street dogs. The vets are coming for two weeks and plan to hold a clinic in Espargos and Palmeira as well as Santa Maria. Again this is all funded by Monica, They also plan to come back to Sal every year to keep the project going.
Thomas and Enis our amazing vets, they worked an extra two days to get as many dogs castrated as possible.They worked straight through each day without a break, where they got the energy I dont know. But what great people.
To Tess in WVS , Magaret Renshaw, Carolyn and Bruce,Susan Martin and Deborah for all the medical supplies, thank you so much, 
To Hilda in the Clinic, you came through when we really needed specialist equipment, we are especially grateful for what you did, I cant thank you enough 
To everyone that pitched in last week and helped out thank you so much, especially our own Vet Fatima Santos and Anabel. 
To Nikki for lighting a fire under so many people and motivating them to help out. Well done. I know you were not well and still you managed to carry on. To Tracy, Laura, Christine,Romina, Linda, Adi Jacquie Neal Susanne and the many others.

If I forgot anyone I apologise as so many people helped in their own way and are too numerous to mention.

To Anne and Telma Seiler,and her husband Alcindo Almeida Soares a very special thank you for all your help, and in more ways than one, as you know I have been trying for a long time to get someone to take over SAR as I am not able to run it anymore,either emotionally or physically, So I am very happy to announce Anne and Alcindu are going to be running it from next week. Anne has been coming to Sal for 12 years and is living here permanently 4 years. She has been taking in street dogs and helping them at her home throughout this time. I am totally confident after working closely with her for the past week she and her family are the perfect caretakers for SAR. Telma wants to be a vet and she will get plenty of practical experience for sure. What a great family and what great help they were last week, As you know the camara does not help us financially and we pay 300 euro PM for the clinic as well as bills and food costs etc for the dogs, so Anne is really going to need help fundraising to keep the shelter open, Monica has kindly agreed to help fund us also, so if people can pitch in to help them that would be great.

Last but by no means least I want to say the final Thank you to Dakki. 
Dakki came here in April, he has used all his saving to come and financially support SAR, if it wasn’t for him the dogs would be out on the street by now and there would have been no clinic.. Dakki had planned on staying on to help the dogs for longer, but like so many of us could not cope with the level of abuse and neglect he has seen here. He has an amazing gift with dogs.He has helped a lot of dogs here in a very short time, sometimes staying up all night with them. He kept our 12 dogs and puppies as calm as possible last week which was at times very difficult due to the many people and all the noise at the clinic. The dogs adore him and I am very sorry he is leaving,but I understand why he cannot stay. He has also offered to support the clinic financially with the last of his savings which is extremely generous. I hope we will see Dakki back again in the future.

As I said we have 12 dogs and puppies at the clinic which we really urgently need to rehome, so please if anyone can offer a good home long-term either here or abroad please get in contact with us. We are not able to take any more dogs in until we rehome some.

This is the realisation of the dream I had when I started SAR, One to Stop the poisoning and Two to have a castration programme on Sal. By the great success of last week I hope the Camara will finally come onboard and give us support, because in a couple of years we really can have the dog and cat population under control and the endless suffering of these beautiful animals will stop.

UPDATE: 2011 – Unfortunately I am unable to stay on Sal Island but hope that the work started here will continue. The good news’ is that Nikki has set up an association for Cats and Dogs and has a blog under the Expats website, called appropriately – ‘Cats and Dogs – Sal Island’. They are doing some great work with the help of other volunteers and her sister Patricia, please visit their blog. CLICK HERE:  Cats and Dogs – Sal Island
Thank you
Jackie