Bella & Brave Animal Sanctuary

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

28/12/2024

Lining up for pedicures today 🤣

27/12/2024

New arrival today 🐑😍
This lovely boy had been left in a field with 2 others, and the owner never came back for them. The other two passed away this year, so this boy was all alone.
He looks in quite a bad way - missing wool on his back, scabs around his face 😔 The scabs are probably orf, which is a very painful virus, that can pass to humans, so we are being super careful. Mike and I built a double fence between him and the others, so he can’t touch them at all. The vet is booked in to see him next week, but for now, he is tucked in with plenty of straw and hay.

If you would like to help towards his vet bills, any amount is greatly appreciated 🙏

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

26/12/2024

Boxing Day is usually the busiest day of the hunting calendar, so it's a good time to remind everyone that trail hunting is nothing more than a smokescreen for illegal fox hunting.

Learn all about it:

https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/trail-hunting-a-pack-of-lies/

23/12/2024

Yesterday was VERY windy and rainy - and we decided then would be a good day to put one of the large bales of hay out 🥴 What were we thinking?! 3 seasoned volunteers helped, and they all said it was the worst thing they’d had to do 🤣 but by gosh they worked hard!! 💪
The wind was so bad it destroyed our feed run 😭 and took the heras fencing down again. Fencing was fixed, but the feed run needs a lot of work.
But the main thing is that the animals have hay out now. Perhaps a little earlier than necessary, as there is still grass, but I didn’t want to get stuck over Christmas if we needed to out it out urgently. They are all very happy ☺️

These large bales cost £40! So I hope it lasts. If you would like to buy one as a present for us, you can use this link…

https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/69HRDW4HQ2DFC

Or for a smaller bale…

https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/UZJLZHSQYMKZE

All donations greatly appreciated 🙏❤️🐐🐏

17/12/2024

Merry Christmas Everyone!🎄🤶🐐🐏
I’ve been laid up with flu for the last 2 weeks, so I’m rather behind on Christmas prep, and Christmas spirit 🥴 I’m getting there though. If you’d like to help us get in the Christmas spirit, we’d love a bale of hay present for the cold winter months ahead… 🙏🎁

09/12/2024

Yesterday, we had the biggest shock in a long time. Jester had picked up so much, after his teeth removal. He was back to his cheeky self. But yesterday, we lost him. He obviously hadn’t been doing as well as we thought.
Rest in Peace Jester ❤️

‼️Trigger Warning… Death and Distress‼️

Jayne and I are very much in shock at the way it happened. To help people understand how hard it can be at a sanctuary, I won’t sugarcoat it. We thought Jester had died. He appeared completely gone, eyes fixed, and no motion. And then he gasped a breath. We thought it could be post-mortem reflexes, but he carried on taking breaths and taking some movements. Still not 100% sure if he was dead or alive, I called the vet. You can wait a long time for a Sunday emergency vet. Then we realised we had the number of the local game keeper. He was only 5 minutes away, and he knows how to do what needed to be done. So we let Jester go by bullet. I stayed with him the whole time, and I am in no doubt he did not suffer. I think he was likely brain dead anyway.
It’s a very controversial thing. Some people say an injection is best, some say a bullet is. Some say they should always be sedated first, some say that hinders. But I’ve seen many animals go to rainbow bridge, with many different methods, and I believe there is no one right way. It all depends on the circumstances, and today, the quickest was the best way. It’s only a week since we lost Clover, and I chose for her to go by injection. And it was so peaceful. That was right for her, at that time. The traumatic part of yesterday was the dying, not the death.

‼️trigger warning over‼️

Brothers Jester and Boris were the first goats I ever rescued. I had a wonderful 6 years of knowing Jester, and his cheeky ways. I learnt to trim hooves on him. I had to drag strangers out of the pub to help me untangles his horns from Billy-Jo! He always stood in the feed troughs, and a few times liked to escape as I came through the gate - until he realised he wasn’t getting fed on that side for the fence! I will miss him so much, and always want to remember the happy times we had.
Night night Jester 🌈

03/12/2024

Yesterday we said goodbye to Clover.
A very hard decision, but it had to be made. Her eyesight was getting worse and she was tripping over everything. Her arthritis was also much worse, and didn’t respond to painkillers.
With winter setting in, she was facing an unbearable time, so I wanted to let her go gently before all that pain.
It’s such a hard decision to make, and I didn’t want to do it, but I knew I had to, for her sake.
She is now pain free, running around with her old friend Squiffy. The two of them joined us together in 2018, back in the early days. The place won’t be the same without her 💔
Rest in Peace Clover ☘️