A British animal lover has rescued a disabled and blind Egyptian street dog with broken legs after falling in “love at first sight” when she saw a video of the pooch.
Emma Mclean, 37, a canine behaviourist who lives in Saint Osyth, Essex, started to cry the moment she saw Warda limping around in a shelter in Cairo, where the Baladi dog had lived ever since being cruelly beaten with “a plank of wood with a nail in it”.
Urgently raising £760 in just 48 hours, Emma managed to fly Warda 5,600km to the UK four months later, in February 2022, to live with her, her husband of nine years, Stewart, 42, who is a freight train driver, and their children Ella-Grace, five, and James, two.
Describing the horrific ordeal Warda endured before being scooped up from the street by Chance Animal Rescue in Cairo, Emma said: “She was basically cornered by a gentleman, for want of a better word, with a plank of wood with a nail in it.
“He beat her to the point where both her front legs were broken and one of her eyes was pushed back into her skull.
“She was basically left to die on the street, but someone called the shelter and they rescued her.”
That was in 2016, but sadly the shelter could not afford to pay for medical treatment to repair Warda’s smashed legs.
“They did a patch-up job as they can’t do any sophisticated surgeries, like mending her limbs,” Emma said.
“Her front-left leg has mended but left deformed and her right-front leg was shattered beyond repair so she has a completely broken bone in her body.
“When she came home, I was just amazed at how well she was doing considering how broken her body was.”
Sadly, Warda was also pregnant at the time she was attacked and her puppies did not survive.
Spending six years at the crowded animal shelter, alongside another 450 dogs, with seemingly no hope of finding another permanent home, Warda won the hearts of the people caring for her.
“She was very much loved by the staff because she’s a very sweet-natured dog in spite of what’s happened to her,” Emma said.
Meanwhile, Emma was working with her dog behavioural company and, while based in the UK, was remotely helping people in the Middle East to settle in feral and native stray Baladi dogs they had adopted.
After five years in the job, in October 2021, she had a revelation.
She said: “I literally just woke up one day and decided I needed my own one.”
Emma asked a friend who was working at the Cairo shelter if she knew of any dogs who were unlikely to be rehomed because of being old or disabled.
Later that day, her friend sent through a picture and a 10 second video of Warda, and Emma knew Warda was the dog for her.
She said: “In the first 10 seconds of the video, of Warda limping around, it was love at first sight.
“I just saw her little face and instantly started to cry. And I said, ‘I’ve got to help you and get you out of there’ and that’s when I was set on making it happen.”
Determined to raise enough cash to rescue Warda, Emma wrote a post on her social media accounts about the dog, sharing it with her clients, friends and family, and within 48 hours had raised £760.
This was enough to get Warda ready for travel, paying for most of her injections and health checks, as well as her travel crate and plane tickets from Cairo to Paris, and pet transport service from Paris to Essex.
She also reached out to Miracle’s Mission, a non-profit animal welfare organisation, for support, as she knew they could cover any unexpected costs, like travel and vet bills when adopting a dog.
As she needed a little extra money for the transport, she asked them for £300 to get Warda to Essex safely.
And Emma started learning Egyptian Arabic so she could make an adoption announcement video to show the shelter, and the people who donated money.
She said: “It was quite hard actually, pronunciation was really hard, especially rolling r’s. It was tough but my friends from Egypt helped through sending me voice notes.”
When Warda arrived at Emma’s home, on February 26 2022, she was very quiet, submissive and exhausted from the 22-hour journey.
“It was also a huge culture shock for her – she went from a warm country to a cold country, there was a lot of adjustment,” Emma remembered.
“We had to get her medically assessed, because we knew there were significant problems with her legs and her vision.
“We had some home visits with a vet, but there’s only so much that they can do at home, so she was taken to the vets and put under sedation.
“After that, she was displaying signs of fear around people and sounds. So, there was a lot of unravelling.”
Wanda was also psychologically scarred because of everything she had been through in her life.
“In the beginning, she was so nervous her natural reactions were suppressed because she didn’t have the confidence to show her emotions.
“So, in a way, it was a good thing for her to start becoming overtly fearful. It was a kind of transitional period.”
To help, when Warda was acting fearfully, Emma would alter her perception of the stimulus by pairing it with something she likes – for example when Stewart was in the room, she would give Warda treats to associate a man’s voice with something positive, rather than the abuse in Egypt.
At this point, Emma kept Warda away from her young children, but they can now comfortably be in a room together when Emma is present.
But Warda is still nervous around Stewart, as the abuse she suffered came from an adult male.
Emma said: “Warda’s definitely had issues with him. When things were at their worst, she would growl at him, but now it’s as subtle as her looking scared and turning her head away. We’ve worked very, very hard on that.
“He can stroke her, but we’re still cautious about their interactions, that trauma doesn’t disappear.
“He has to be mindful of his own behaviour, like trying not to bang around as much when he’s doing DIY and talking softly.
“But, it’s the most rewarding feeling and a natural high when I see Warda enjoying life now.”
Emma added: “She isn’t dangerous to men, we don’t put her in situations where she can be, we take her on walks on our private road or our secure dog field.
“She’s living her best life now.”
Now Emma has just started working with Miracle Mission as their rehoming and behaviour manager, and is keen to help other people adopt the right dog for them.
Saying she would recommend it for anyone who can provide the right amount of care, she added: “Warda is not a typical case – my background and experience in working with complex dogs meant I could adopt her.
“But there’s a dog out there for everybody to adopt – if you are patient, and you are diligent, and you find the right match, it is out there.”
