"Millie has been a joy since day one!"
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your rescue pets
Myself and my partner Jen live in East Sussex, UK and we are now happily retired from jobs in Social Services and are lucky to have family and friends nearby. We enjoy an active, often outdoor type of lifestyle, that includes us having a small piece of land nearby where we grow vegetables and have created an outdoor play area for our families and especially our 4 young grandchildren to enjoy, have campfires etc and make lots of memories. We love walking and more recently bike riding, we love the countryside, gardening and we also do a bit of ballroom and Latin dancing, and we run a dancing club weekly.
We have always had a dog or dogs, most have been Collie type and our last two have been rescue dogs. Having a dog has just become such a normal way of our life, where they are just part of the family and part of everything we do.
What made you decide to adopt and how did you find Millie?
In February this year, we very sadly and very suddenly and unexpectedly lost our last dog, a lovely rescue Collie called Sadie, after 11 years of lovely times with her. Prior to us getting her, Sadie had been returned to the rescue centre twice by other families as her anxiety behaviours were such a challenge to start with, understandable with her sad history at that time, but in time with patience, she turned into the loveliest of dogs.
Everyone who has dogs as a family member will know the heartbreak of losing them. We felt bereft and the house felt empty and sad. Our neighbours have a rescue Collie and they had needed to wait over a year to get a rescue, so within days of losing Sadie I started to look to apply for another rescue, thinking it might take months. I simply looked up “Rescue Collies” on the internet, and KLAWS popped up. I completed the initial interest form and to my surprise the very next day I got a call from Gerry at KLAWS, who was so understanding of how we were feeling and she advised one little collie called Millie had just become ready for adoption by her lovely foster carers. We said a big “YES PLEASE, WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE HER”
Thereafter the process was really very simple: KLAWs arranged everything, including a home check and all the transport, health checks and passports etc. We were able to talk to the wonderful foster family (Suzie and family) that were caring for Millie and who had literally really “brought her back to life”, as she had been in such a terribly neglected state when she was rescued by KLAWS.
A wonderful volunteer called Jill Moffatt brought little Millie and a number of other pups over from Ireland, despite the gale force winds and storms that weekend, and we met Jill in Surrey and had a lovely handover with her and we have appreciated being able to keep in touch since with her and everyone at KLAWS. Just 6 weeks after we lost Sadie, we welcomed Millie to her new home.
What have been the highlights of your life with Millie?
Millie has really been a joy since day one! We do appreciate we are very lucky to have such a sweet-natured girl who is now full of life, full of beans in every way, as well as being a snuggly thing too who loves her bed and cuddles.
KLAWS and the foster carers did a very good assessment of her and she has been a really good fit with our family and lifestyle: she loves everyone, and is very good with the little grandchildren and other dogs, which was important to us.
She wants to play or say hello to everyone she meets. She does the fastest ever zoomies up and down the garden we have ever seen!
Millie is “in love” with boy next door……another smooth-haired Collie called Barney, and they kiss over the fence most mornings!
Have you had to face any challenges with regards to bringing home and living with Millie? If so, how have you overcome or coped with them?
We have had very few challenges: the assessment of Millie provided by KLAWS has been correct (she chases cats and also barks at aeroplanes), we listened to the foster carer about her food and have kept her on the same food as due to the neglect she suffered, she had a sensitive stomach. We appreciate we had the advantage of having had Collies previously, but we also took the advice from KLAWS website about the 3 days/3 weeks/3 months, which has proved to be true and we have been able to contact KLAWS with any queries we had or advice since as needed.
If you had to describe Millie in just three words, what would they be?
JOYFUL, LOVING, PLAYFUL
Do you have any advice for people who are thinking about adopting a rescue pet?
We cannot recommend KLAWS enough: the whole process of adoption from start to finish was simple yet thorough. Our advice is to get in touch with KLAWS and be honest about your lifestyle etc and let them assess and match. They did a splendid job for us, and we are forever grateful for the lovely girl we have who we love so much. Millie is having the time of her life now too, and it is with great thanks to everyone at KLAWS who do such amazing work in giving so many animals the chance of a happy and safe life.
Thank you to you all.
