This dream started long ago. I have been a travel agent for 30 years, 12 of which specialising in cruises. I love my job. Yes, I am still working as a travel agent; Cruise Hub, Cruise Holidays, and I will continue to do so part time. I am very lucky I am able to do this as a cruise franchisee working from home, or anywhere. In-between these years, I have often thought about opening a dog boarding
business. During COVID, as with a lot of people, I decided to jump ship (excuse the pun) and do something to help people. The cruise and travel industry as a whole obviously dried up, so I became a support worker for vulnerable people in their homes. I love this job. I never thought it would suit me, but I love meeting amazing people with different degrees of dependancy. Back to the dog boarding, following the last lockdown, I started researching how to do this, and was in touch with the council regarding licensing, as well as looking for adequate insurance. This all diversified to being a dog rescue sanctuary really very quickly. I have always had dogs in the house, looking after friends and families while they are away on holidays. Also, us, as a family have had the pleasure of owning two dogs; Indiana, a black lab/shepherd from puppy, who sadly passed away in May 2020 aged 12 years, and now we have Joshi, a 2 year old shepherd mix rescue from Hungary. We adopted him from Hungary Hearts dog rescue charity. This has intensified my need to help other dogs who are not yet as lucky as Joshi. We are so lucky to have him and I am looking to give other families that same pleasure when they adopt their new family member. This all moved quickly, so I have started initially in my home in Wokingham, Berkshire, as I have a decent back garden, which opens up to meadows in the area - great for walking. I am already fostering a beautiful Husky called Shadow, and this means, that I am unable to take many more until I find some land/disused warehouse/garden centre/stables/anywhere I can set up and take lots more dogs, and they can run free until they find love in their new forever homes. This is my dream, and hopefully, and most importantly, every poor abandoned dogs dream too.
