Bella & Brave Animal Sanctuary

12/02/2025

Thank you to Lisa and Tom for coming to my rescue today 🥰
I know so many others would have loved to help too, and I understand it was short notice and a lot to ask - I am still grateful for everyone of you, and especially to those that shared my post. ❤️

Sometimes it’s hard to reach out for help… but it’s beautiful to know there are wonderful people out there that will help 🙏😇

11/02/2025

HELP NEEDED!!!
Tomorrow we have a vet coming, water the top up (lugging barrels of it across the field first), and hay to put out. And I’m laid up with another crippling chest infection. I can barely move. So much pain. 😭😭😭
I’ll have to drag myself there, and I’m really hoping I can have a small team of people to do the physical work.
Pleeeeease can anyone help at 11.30? 🙏🙏🙏🙏

09/02/2025

Billy-Buttons is very pleased to be on extra rations for a bit of weight gain 🤤

08/02/2025

04/02/2025

This , we remember the shockingly large number and variety of animals that are used in cancer research year after year even though over 95% of cancer drugs that pass animal testing fail in human trials.

At Animal Free Research UK, our scientists and laboratories push the latest animal-free technological and research boundaries with cutting-edge technologies which are best placed to discover treatments for human diseases and save precious time and lives.

Each project we fund is a step along the road to completely replacing animals in medical research. As well as saving millions of animals from laboratories, animal-free research will save human lives.

That’s why we need your help today. Just £5 can help make our lifesaving work possible. Every gift – large or small – will make a huge difference.

If you can, please donate today for a cancer free world - secure.animalfreeresearchuk.org/page/123980/donate/1

29/01/2025

We often get asked if we have an Amazon wish list (or similar). Well I’m afraid not. I know they’re a great way to donate and know where your money goes, but… the things we need are FAR more expensive on Amazon. I just couldn’t expect anyone to pay £26.20 for a bag of feed, when I can get it for £18.99 at the local store! So as well getting more for your money, we also get to support local AND avoid supporting a tax-avoiding giant with poor worker rights.
I’ve bought 8 bags today, from Croft Equestrian & Pet Supplies, which will keep us going for about 3 weeks - you do the maths 🤪

And have a look how much hay is on Amazon 😧

If you’d like to buy a bag for us (or half a bag), follow the links in comments 🙏

24/01/2025

Good New / Bad News post

Good news: Cracker now has some friends in with him 😻

Bad news: it’s because his fencing blew down in the storm, and Ned And Uncle B barged through as we were trying to get it back up. So now they both have to stay in quarantine too, and start a course to prevent scab 😭

14/01/2025

The animals are LOVING the wood chippings. Thanks again Poplar Tree Solutions Ltd! And Louis and Mick are particularly loving the new gap in the gate for easy access to feed treats! Thank you to Mark for that 😃

11/01/2025

The blood tests are finally back for new boy Cracker, and after the skin scrapings looking like he didn’t have Scab, the blood results came back positive 😳 He DOES have Scab! Scab is a horrible, highly infectious condition caused by mites in sheep. It spreads really easily through contact, so we have been taking precautions since he arrived… and now we will have to continue those precautions for a couple of months.
He’s already had 2 doses of ivermectin to treat it (which we did just in case), and has already started to perk up. We just can’t wait until he can join the others 🥺

And then once we have fixed the Scab, we can look at the small matter of his missing hoof! Cracker was born with part of his leg missing, and although he can get around on it ok, we want to assess if we can make like better for him ☺️ But that’s for us to deal with further down the line…

Cracker has some more Scab treatment to come, so if you would like to help towards his vet bills… 🙏🙏;

Sort code: 090129
Account: 1579 8369
or Paypal:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=TMCAEL4ZS74WY

09/01/2025

Today went from quiet to crazy! Jayne and I went to take some more trees into the field… and decided to try setting up a wintery scene for potential Christmas card photos… maybe I’ll get that to work out, maybe not, but we had fun trying!
Then we had a visit from a tree surgeon… he must have seen us from the top of the neighbour’s tree (can you spot him?!). He offered us a load of chippings- perfect to cover the muddy gateway. They need spreading, so please come along on Sunday to help get that job done 🙏

Thank you to Poplar Tree Solutions Ltd 🙏❤️🌲

06/01/2025

Might start taking in ducks. Or offering boat rides 😏

05/01/2025

Only two of us for the volunteer session this morning - can’t blame people for avoiding the roads in this weather!!! ❄️ ⛄️
But we finally got the feed run fixed 🙌 And got most of the trees in… the animals are LOVING them 🌲 😍
And we’ve had loads more trees delivered today… so may well do a cheeky volunteer session 2.0 next Sunday. Who’s in???

04/01/2025

Lots of trees ready for us to move on this Sunday morning volunteer session! Start at 9.30am, up to 11.30. All welcome 🤗

02/01/2025

At Bella and Brave we take our bio security very seriously 🤣 This is my outfit for going in with the new boy! All disposable (which I hate 😫 ♻️) and fresh worn every visit.
The skin scrapings taken by the vet haven’t shown anything yet, which is a great sign, so we just have to wait for blood tests, probably in a week. Hopefully the results will show nothing contagious, and I can drop my fetching outfit! 🤞🤞🤞

01/01/2025

Happy New Year Folks!

If you’re not vegan yet, please give Veganuary a go, because you’d never want to eat any of our beautiful residents, so please don’t eat their kin🐏🐐🙏

I’ve got 24 years of being vegan, so feel free to ask here for advice and support ❤️🌱

https://www.facebook.com/Veganuary?

Veganuary is a charity inspiring people to try vegan for January and throughout the rest of the year

31/12/2024

2024 has been full of losses for us. We lost three sheep, and 1 goat at the sanctuary. And at home, I lost two cats, within 7 weeks of each other. Each one went in a different way, each with their own difficulties for me. For four of the six, I had to make the decision to help them over rainbow bridge, which is the hardest decision ever. For their sakes, I always put on a brave face. I believe that if I’m upset and crying, they will feel something bad is about the happen. And maybe it is, or maybe it isn’t… we will never know. So I smile and cuddle them, and tell them their pain and suffering is being cured. And only when they’ve gone do I allow myself to cry.

Farewell Jester, Jill, Clover, Billy-Owain, Maggie and Squeak. I wished you could have stayed forever. I’m glad I got to spent that time with you.
And farewell to 2024. I wonder what 2025 will bring…

#2024