Teaming - 1€/month micro donations

Hello Sanctuary Friends!

We are glad to say Harvey and Oberon are doing well. They're growing in strength, size and cheekiness, although still small they are doing really well. Magnus has decided he likes life in the house with them. Magnus, the Cockerell, was in such a sad state when he arrived. His feet were extremely sore and needed lots of treatment, baths and creaming. But he has been patient to allow his treatment to be given and has responded well.

Here they are duly the kitchen!

Thank you for being here, we all are truly grateful.

Your Big V Sanctuary Friends xxxx

Hi Sanctuary Friends

The little lambs are doing very well. Settling into the sanctum of life here and drinking very well. They certainly are making themselves at home - choosing to take over Jerome's chair, it's now one of their favourite places to snuggle up! They have free reign to go in and out with the others, but here they are. Enjoying some little privileges!

Thank you for making this possible, that two very wee ones are now safe and enjoying life.

Much love

Your Sanctuary Friends xxx

Dear Sanctuary Friends,

It's been busy at the Sanctuary as always. All beings both human and animal are suffering the loss of our dearly beloved Winifred.

We received a call about two more lambs in need. Only a week old and their mother had sadly passed away, leaving them unable to be fed with their owners struggling and asked if the Sanctuary could take them. After an 8 hour round trip they are now home, safe within the Sanctuary walls with new names Oberon and Arthur.

Both are very weak, unsteady and suffering diarrhoea. Arthur is smaller than his brother which is a concern. Today they have visited the vets and had a full check over. The vet is considering whether Arthur needs an ultrasound scan to check if there are any underlying causes for his unsteadiness. Hopefully with time and care he will build strength.

They are now able to drink and are comfortable. We are keeping our watchful eye over them, sleeping with them and feeding every few hours. We hope they can pull through and realise their true potential.

Thank you for being here to make these rescues a reality and help lambs like Arthur and Oberon have a chance of life.

Much love

Your Big V Sanctuary Friends xxxx

Dear Sanctuary Friends,

It's Amanda here. This week has been very difficult at the sanctuary after the loss of our beloved Winifred. She will always remain in our hearts and minds, and her story has travelled the world.

We are very grateful for all the support the Sanctuary has received, both in teamers, donations towards the vet bills and kind words and messages received.

Miranda and Jerome had their birthdays this week, and all you super amazing people helped increase the numbers of teaming to 287! Thank you, this is wonderful. Teaming really does make a difference to help to provide all the necessities that the animals require.

Thank you.

Jerome pictured here with our beautiful Jack - work never stops even on your birthday!

It's Amanda here. I'm sending this with deep sadness within our hearts. Miranda, Jerome and the family need a little time. I haven't the words like Miranda, so here are Miranda's beautiful words to explain:

"Come close my dear family, and let me draw you with me into a tale of love and loss. Crawl into our corner of the world, hold each other tight, for this is solemn news indeed. There is no easy way to impart what needs to be said, for however quiet I want it to stay, we are screaming inside. You can hear our grief across the miles, drifting on the wind, dropping with the rain, clinging to the bark of trees. Wrapping its pervasive threads into the silent parts of our lives, to hang like a real thing, heavy and pendulous.

Our beloved and cherished Winifred has passed away. Exiting our world so swiftly that it does not seem real, the farmhouse gaping in the corners she used to fill, the granite still reverberating with echoes of her conversation and the laughter she gave us all. She can be glimpsed out the corner of our eyes, her wide eyed stare, the feel of her soft head butting our legs. The smell of her lingering, warm, salty wool, filled with hyacinth and jasmine. The smell of an angel, which perhaps she was. We all turn, yet there is space, a nothingness so profound it leaves us breathless. A loss equal to loosing a mountain of character, of chances, of love, now gone, so swiftly that for us a tornado could not have left more devastation, or emptiness in the aftermath. The hope we shared, the dreams we held, now dark and dimming in a pool of bereft heartache.

Walking around we are empty shells, all glancing left and right, eyes filled to drop at the slightest movement. Gwynnevere will arrive, hands entwined around me, head burrowed, twirling the fabric of my dress, trying to disappear and shrink away from the loss. I can feel her fingers clawing, trying to find purchase, respite from the tumbling precipice of grief. She held her for hours last night, begging fate to not take her away, even though she was already gone.

My words are to share how exquisitely beautiful she was for us, how tender the love we held for her; for those to understand that have not yet experienced this with sheep, to glimpse the absolute joy and vast emotional lands that can be travelled with someone that is seen by most, as just a sheep. Yet, as ever, words fall short, and seem dusty and dry, compared to the vast ocean broiling within.

She entrusted us with every ounce of her physical self and laid her emotions open and vulnerable. She was the epitome of gentle courage, knowing innocence, wisdom in silence. Perhaps she was never meant to be here for long, however many opportunities we held out for her, maybe we only bought a little time away from her final destination. Maybe, her journey this time was to touch a few hearts that were open to her story, to her essence, to her tale of living kindly with grace, no matter the cards dealt. Maybe she had reached her purpose, and we were all just travellers for this shortest of journeys. Maybe just maybe, she had fulfilled her purpose as was laid out, or as she felt needed. I have the deepest sincerity when I say, our lives with her were filled with emotions and experiences so raw and exceptional, that she could have been out of this world, yet we were too blind to see it. It is in the stillness between breaths that angels fly, and there she is hovering out of reach, a gossamer kiss of memory, of love. The purity of her self, forever entwined into our existence.

My love for you all that travelled this path with us, I hope the many messages I sent out today, reached your hearts in the manner that I felt was true to Winifred's life on this earth. Gather who you hold precious and kiss them, hold them or call them. Fate is swift, uncaring and brutal, we cannot guess, we cannot know. However hard we try, some paths are always hidden and we can only stand at the end, when it is already over, and we are left trying to catch up.

Please give us a moment to catch our breath and find our feet. The nature of sanctuary life means we cannot stop, but for now, we need the ringing bell to quieten down and our hearts to loosen.

Night night Winifred "

So sorry to pass this news on this way. Together we can make a difference for more, Winifred felt love, compassion, kindness, friendship and love. She had people stretching far and wide for her, and humans who called her family who went to all ends for her. She wouldn't have known this love without the Sanctuary. Thank you for being here and if you can please enlist more Teamers, Miranda and Jerome's birthdays are imminent and it would bring a smile to their grief stricken hearts at this time.

Amanda xxx

It’s Amanda here friends, our beautiful, sweet Winifred, is doing ok but needing lots of tlc and special exercises as she sadly has lost her balance. The Sanctuary are awaiting a specialist arriving next week to look at the possibility of a brace and that will help her to live a fulfilled life getting about on her own. Until then the family are having to lift, carry and help her with movement and toilet breaks. This specialist treatment and equipment is very pricey, costing over £3,000!

Winifred wouldn’t be alive and receiving this care and support she desperately needs without the Sanctuary family and receiving the potential of an opportunity of a fulfilled life.

A little word from Winifred:

Please can you help – my sanctuary family who have saved my life and are striving for every possibility to give me the care, treatment and aids for a long and happy life are becoming 50 next week! The lovely Louise Griffin has begun a 500 for 50 event for them. If each teamer recruits just one person to join teaming for the Sanctuary, the teaming numbers could reach 500, which will take a little of the financial pressure off these wonderful people and be an amazing birthday gift.

Hope you can join, and we can achieve!

Love Winnifred & Amanda xxx

Louise Griifin is an Admin for fund raising for Big V Sanctuary and Hospice. She has Just launched an appeal "500 for 50".
This is a Big Birthday Year - Jerome and Miranda who run the sanctuary are 50 years old on the 23rd and 24th May 2004. The dream they have had is to have 500 Teamers supporting the Sanctury.
500 Teamers, each giving one euro a month, which taken together will give money towards the basic food needed for the animals.

Jerome and Miranda devote their live to the sanctuary. Can we as existing teamers come together to give them their wish for their 50th Birthdays? Yes we can make it happen by just giving a little extra time and thought.
Today there are 250 Teamers. All we have to do is find one person each. We can do this for them.

If all of us who are Teamers introduce one or two people to the Sanctuary; explain how they contribute just one euro and that euro will make change happen. Because we are already teamers we can show them what to do and help them through the process. It just
requires a little time. The time that Jerome and Miranda give is their whole lives devoted to the animals.
So who can you enrol to Teaming - your partner, a family member, a friend, a colleague at work, someone at the gym, a fellow churchgoer, a social media friend . . . . They do not need to be followers of the group just sympathetic to giving the animals the best life.

Please. please make your mind up to do this and give Jerome and Miranda a birthday to remember.

I have just started with one person - my husband, John Dunn, became a Teamer on 10/5/2024. I will ask my daughter too Who will you ask?
Frances Small 14/5 /2024 We have just 9 days!

Dear Sanctuary Friends

The Sanctuary this week have had an agonising and unsettling week. Winifred, our beloved rescued lamb, once her cast was removed from the broken leg, the vet advised that the leg could not be saved. It was time for amputation.

Miranda and Jerome have gone to all lengths to save Winifred’s leg, but sadly it was not meant to be. She went in for surgery and came home the same day as the veterinary staff said she bleated for home so much they thought it was best she didn’t stay the night. On return she has not moved from the side of Gwynevere, her best 2-legged friend.

Thankfully she is doing well and is learning to walk around without the balance of her leg and cast. She’s enjoying being in the living room with her human and doggie friends. The Sanctuary are keeping a close eye on her, and she is under veterinary monitoring. She’s a strong cookie and come this far.

She may need a leg brace and the Sanctuary are currently looking at options and costings, plus fundraising options for this.

Thanks for being here, supporting. The unexpected operation cost alone has been massive and without you, our beautiful, sweet Winifred couldn’t get the surgery and care she needed.

Much love

Your Big V Sanctuary Friends.

xxxxx

Dear Sanctuary Family

Thank you so much for being here, you are wonderful. Apologies it's been a while since an up date on the sanctuary, care has had to take priority. With new resident ducks, geese, rabbits, guinea pigs who have taken sanctuary here now and the lambs still to care for, along with the rest of the sanctuary residents, it certainly has been busy. Along with battling some terrible storms and wind of late, with damage to our property, animal sheds, fences - you name it it happened! So rebuilding has been another of urgent tasks to add to the list.

But when you look at the faces of the residents here, it's all worth it. They deserve it. They show care and compassion to us and one another and appreciation that they are safe, warm, well fed and have a nurturing and stimulating environment in which to live.

The lambs are doing well, growing fast and all have personalities of their own. Here they are enjoying a little cuddle on the lawn in the break between all the rain, wind and storms we've had.

Thank you for being here and to make all our residents as happy, healthy and safe as possible. xxxxx

An up date for all our wonderful teamers, thank you for being here. Your support is amazing and without you we couldn't help all the suffering animals in need when they need it. The lambs are doing very well, Freya is responding brilliantly to her oxygen tent. She now even asks for when she feels she needs a little extra support to go into it!

Easter can be a nice time for families and friends to get together, but sometimes very sad for the animals who become quick buck Easter gimmicks to be sold as cute pets for Easter, to then be discarded, or even served on the dinner table. Some who don't even make it to the dinner table as they aren't of meat value, are left to suffer and die a painful death without any treatment or euthanasia.

Luckily not for our lambs. It's all about kindness, friendship and kinship. Values very much a thread throughout us all at the Sanctuary.

Thank you friends for being a part of this kindness. xxx

Dear Friends,

Freya now has her oxygen and tent and responding well. Thank goodness! This was the vital medicine and equipment she needed and wouldn't be possible without all our sanctuary friends' support. Freya is getting better which is fantastic and means the world to us. Here's a little photo of her exploring the camera - do you think she likes it?!
Much love xxxxx

Dear Sanctuary Friends

An update on the lamb babies! Freya is still stable, the sanctuary is currently raising funds on Facebook for her oxygen equipment. However, Gretel is doing absolutely great. Bringing her mum has really helped her find her mojo for life again. Her mum also has found purpose and happiness in having her baby with her and is eating again. Here they are, a beautiful photo of Gretel very happy to be nursing from her mummy.

Without our Teamers, all this wouldn't be possible. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being our Sanctuary Friends xxx

Dear Sanctuary Friends

Freya the lamb is stable we're happy to report but sadly still fragile. The next step to getting on her road to full recovery is oxygen therapy. Unfortunately the vets have only the equipment suitable for cats, which she is too big to use. Therefore the sanctuary are fundraising to buy her the equipment she needs to get this treatment.

For the time being, Freya's having regular steam room treatments.

Thank you to all who support the sanctuary, as all the money raised helps to go towards vital treatments like this. If you know of anyone who would be interested in also joining, please spread the word. Thank you xxx

Hi Beautiful Sanctuary Friends,

The horses have had a lovely groom and bum scratch, curtesy of Lilly who bobbed in to help whilst on holiday. Neptune found it extremely relaxing (see pic below) - must be a Spa theme going on this week at the Sanctuary! Whatever it is, everyone is certainly enjoying it!

Sadly Jerome has had to go to vets today with Freya, one of the lambs, who's chesty and may need more support than her antibiotics. Just awaiting a plan and an update. Come on Freya, pull through this infection please!!!

Dear Sanctuary Friends,

The two mums of the lambs are doing well, they're beginning to eat again and have been introduced back to their babies, Gretel and Freya. Both lambs seem very happy and are responding well to having their mums back, they still are recovering so are visiting mums in the day, then staying in our home for the warmth the remainder of the time. We are very hopeful that their recovery will build day on day, as their bond re-grows and strengthens.

Gabriel, another lamb, enjoyed having a bath after having been covered in poo, kindly by one of his siblings. He just sat down in the sink and thoroughly enjoyed his wash. Here's a picture of him enjoying his bath.

Thank you so much for making this possible. This is your endeavour by supporting us, as well as ours, without you these lambs and mums would not know the life they are now beginning to experience.

Thank you, here's Gabriel's spa day. xxxx

Dear Sanctuary Friends,

The mums have now arrived and had a safe and secure night resting from the travel. The drive to collect the mums was a very long one and took all day and into the night to bring them home safely. Luckily we had a volunteer Sanctuary sitter who helped give us peace of mind that the Sanctuary would be ok whilst we were gone.

The mothers are Gretel's mum and Freya's mum. Freya is a little poorly and still receiving antibiotics and Gretel as you know is quite poorly, so both are keeping in the warm with visits to the barn to be with their mums. Today they were re-united with their mums again, we have to be careful and ensure that all of them will be healthy and hope that their bonds will be re-ignited. Here's the first greet and kiss today from Gretel to mum, Abigail. We've milked both mums and the lambs have had their mother's milk. Wonderfully Gretel took in over 200mls, which is a huge success as she's not been feeding well at all.

Fingers crossed that all will be well and both mothers and babies now benefit and thrive, now that they are here at the sanctuary.

As always, without you this would not be possible. So on behalf of all the living beings here a huge thank you.

Dear Big V Sanctuary friends,

Just an update on the lambs, all are doing generally good, although on antibiotics, but responding well. Gretel remains more on the worrying side. She's refusing to eat so being syringe fed, and although her strength and energy levels have risen, she remains very sad and withdrawn from life. The farmer where she originally came from has said her mum can come here to be with her along with another mum who's very sad and giving up from the parting of her lamb. Fingers crossed reuniting mother and babies, and giving the lambs some surrogacy support will aid all of them on their road to recovery.

Picture of Iris below who's the smallest but doing incredibly well.

A very big sloppy kiss from Rupert as a massive thank you to all you wonderful Teamers who support us! Without you I don't know what we'd do. Your support is very much appreciated and cannot tell you how amazing you are. From all of us two legged and four legged at the sanctuary, a massive, massive thank you!

Good day to our Teamers,
This is Gretel, one of the lambs saved from slaughter. She's fighting pneumonia and diarrhoea, but compared to the response in the others with pneumonia is struggling more. She's refusing to drink, so we are syringe feeding her presently and awaiting the vet to come today to see what other options we can try on top of her current medications and herbal supplements. She is still passing urine and poo so fingers crossed. Perhaps it's just grief of the loss of her mother, she's so quiet and reserved. She does take comfort in cuddles and being held, so we are showering her with love. Fingers crossed the vet will have some more ideas and we can help her to pull through this. Without you, we couldn't do things like this for Gretel. Thank you from us all and we will update you again on Gretel very soon.

It's busy times here at the sanctuary, feeding, changing nappies, making up feeds, making up and issuing medication, keeping an eye on all the little ones as well as normal sanctuary duties for over 150 other animals taking refuge here. This is Winifred, one of the little lambs recently rescued from death. Sadly she's a broken leg, but that isn't stopping her now she's in cast. She's learning well to feed and walk with her cast and is such a lovely bonnie little lamb who has already created a lovely bond with our daughter. Thank you for your support as every one of you is helping to make stories like Winifred's a reality.