Hello and welcome to the December issue of the My Lovely Horse Rescue newsletter! 2022 has flown by and it has been one of the busiest years on record for MLHR and MLPR.

This month we are taking a look back at 2022, acknowledging the milestones we have reached and holding space to honour the loss of many of our animal friends this year. The MLHR Remembrance Tree has arrived at the main MLHR farm. The names of our much-loved and much-missed companions will soon adorn the tree along with the names of our supporters’ companions. If you are would like to include the name of your companion please visit our website for details. 

Our Behind the Scenes section takes on a decidedly Christmassy theme with gifts galore for the animals. Over at My Lovely Charity Shop and My Lovely Tack Shack we have all you need for Christmas for the horse (or horse-lover) in your life. We will be shaking our buckets on Dublin’s Grafton Street over the coming weekends raising much needed funds for the animals. If you’re popping to the shops, please do swing by and say hello! 

We would like to thank you, our readers, for your unwavering support throughout the year. Thank you for taking the time to leave such kind and encouarging comments, for sharing our stories, our message and for supporting our fundraising campaigns. We are here for the animals because you are here for us. We look forward to bringing you more news in the New Year.

A lot can happen in a year. Whether you are sad to see the end of 2022 or you are more than ready for a fresh start, it’s good to take stock of how far you have come. To round out the year we are sharing some of our highlights from 2022. We kicked off January with a farm visit from our wonderful friends at Virgin Media News whose report on our work and our Winter Appeal highlighted the support we need on an ongoing basis to get care for animals in need through these harsh winters. 

In the first three months of 2022 we took in a staggering 115 animals, among them, little Neo whose arrival in March set hearts aflutter.  This tiny baby boy was being sold in a pub. Some wonderful people came to his aid and brought him to us where they knew he would always be protected. He is living happily at My Lovely Pig Rescue. Just look at how much he has grown in 9 months. 

Our baby boom kicked off in May with 6 foals born into safety. We rescued another 12 dogs from a sad and wholly preventable demise.

The Women’s Mini Marathon was awash with orange t-shirts in June as our supporters and volunteers pounded the pavements to raise funds for MLHR. Two of our co-founders Martina and Deborah Kenny were honoured to accept the Mayor’s Award for MLHR’s Outstanding Contribution to Animal Welfare in Kilkenny. Over at MLPR Nora gave birth to 5 happy and healthy piglets who, 6 months on, are thriving comedic bundles of curiosity.   

In September we hit the road to Stradbally for our first Electric Picnic in 2 years and we had a ball at Pups in the Park, Ireland’s Ultimate Dog day out! My Lovely Pig Rescue launched a You Tube Channel giving an insight into the work of the rescue and the life of volunteers.  Ever generous with their time and spirit, the amazing TELUS International Team worked their magic and utterly transformed the main farm in October while over at MLPR we were in awe of our amazing new mum Lilly and her perfect piglets, born into love and safety.

And so to December … we have launched our Adopt Don’t Shop campaign to raise awareness of the dog crisis in Ireland. With the help of some familiar faces, we are urging people not to shop but rather to adopt or foster animal companions. Rescues all over the country are full to capacity with animals who long for and so deserve their forever couch.

Dr Bobby Ortiz, Vet and dear friend of MLHR said it best “Nearly all of the thousands of rescued dogs I have met are loving, attentive and well-adjusted […]. Just like all animals they take dedicated work and training […] but I strongly believe that the work you put in is repaid 200% in love for the second chance you are providing them with.”

The most famous of Arctic animals is of course the Polar Bear, Ursus Maritimus in latin or Nanook as he is known to the Inuit people. Polar bears usually live solitary lives, coming together to mate, with the mother then rearing the cubs on her own. They are born blind and helpless in a den she has made in the snow and where she stays, fasting herself but nursing them until they are sturdy enough to venture out. They stay with her for about two and half years until she either pushes them away or abandons them. Sometimes, if there are two cubs, they will then stick together for some months after their mother has left them, travelling together and sharing their food and taking comfort in each other until eventually they make their own way in their world.

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,

    “To talk of many things:

Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax—

    Of cabbages—and kings—

And why the sea is boiling hot—

    And whether pigs have wings.”

Wolves are the enigmatic creatures from which all our canine pooches are descended yet their wildness truly sets them apart. There is something strange and unknowable in their eyes and the sound of their howling calls out to our own inner, primitive roots

Canus lupus arctos, to give them their proper latin title, often called the white or polar wolf, live in what is known as the High Arctic Tundra. They spend all their lives above the ‘treeline’ in that part of the world where trees cannot grow. They prey on muskoxen and arctic hares and are elusive creatures which only adds to their magic and mystery.

What a wonderful world the Arctic is where all these creatures roam and make their lives under the frozen skies and the shimmering northern lights. Let’s spare a thought for each of them this Winter and send much love their way as our own nights grow colder and we too, like them, find the challenges of each day that bit harder.

The same starry skies cover both our worlds and though they may seem so very different to us and so far away in every sense, we have to remember that they are doing just as we do, living, breathing, working hard to survive and raise their young until their little ones too are ready to go out into the world and have families of their own. 

So when old St Nick passes overhead in a few weeks time and the sound of his sleigh bells ring merry and bright on a cold Christmas night, let’s hope he drops a few gifts their way too.

Now we are finding pigs dumped everywhere. Left to fend for themselves in bogs and forests as we head into Winter. These pigs are not like their forebears. They don’t have the same coats to protect against the harsh cold that wild boars have. They are so prone to getting pneumonia. We did that to them through our breeding choices so that we could have large and fast developing pigs ideal for slaughter.

These pigs would surely have died of the cold even if they had managed to survive against starvation and dog attacks and whatever else might have come their way..

Look how tiny the younger ones are. Imagine them running around in a strange wood, cold and afraid. The numbers being found dumped are growing. What will happen when we just can’t take anymore?

For now all these precious lives are safe but we haven’t even begun to feel the true cold of Winter yet and who knows how many more are out there right now, being secretly unloaded out of trailers and left behind.. Pigs are wonderful, sensitive creatures, highly sociable and very clever. We need to look at them differently and let some of their sunshine into our lives. We would all be better for it.

But sadly this Winter was just not gonna be one that she would make it through and we said goodbye to her before she became too weak and sick. Our whole world has changed without her. Our farmyard is so very different without her and we wish we could see her chase people around just one more time. Diva will always be with us and like all of our animals she has left us with such a truer understanding of the importance of our relationships with every creature that we are fortunate and privileged to share this beautiful planet with.

Love you forever Diva

Our appeal to raise €16,000 is progressing well and with just €9,483 left to raise, we are hoping for our very own Christmas miracle! We would really appreciate if you could share our post. MLHR and other rescues are doing everything they can to save as many dogs’ lives as possible and we are urging people not to shop but to instead foster or adopt one of the wonderful dogs in our care.  

We are still recruiting Volunteers to join our Dog Team at the main MLHR farm in Kildare to assist with cleaning, walking and spending quality 1:1 time with the dogs. If you would like to foster, adopt or join the Dog Team please contact [email protected].

The festive season is well underway in My Lovely Charity Shop. Our decorations are up, we’re playing festive tunes – but not too many – we have our Christmas gift table laden with wonderful presents for you and your loved ones and we have our lovely Xmas hamper to win full of prosecco, chocolates and so many other goodies. So do drop by, we would love to see you. We’re open from Tuesday to Saturday 10 – 5.30. Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas from everyone on our team.