A kind Scots woman has thanked her local community after they helped her rescue stray cats and dogs from North Macedonia.
Sue Bagley, 50, from East Lothian hooked up with the charity Meow Paws and brought some of the animals to resettle in her foster home, reports Edinburgh Live.
The Dunbar GP nurse has took on two cats, Willow and Essen, and an Alsatian dog Wilson, and also turned her spare room into a respite area for animals before they were sent out to new owners in Scotland.
Now she is appealing for other Scots to come forward and do the same and help to support the charity set up by Misko and Iva from North Macedonia.
Sue says it would not have been possible without the help of locals in East Lothian, who donated 'food, scratch posts, litter boxes and a whole host of other items' and she relayed her gratitude.
She explained more about her recent work: “One of the issues we have as a charity is that if you bring animals across you need to have rescue back up plan in place. This is a fail safe in case things do not work out with certain families.
“This means that foster homes are essential so that they can take in cats and dogs at short notice and assess potential families. This stops animals that we bring in from the Balkans from ending up in the rescue system here.
“We have already adopted two cats and a dog but we planned on setting up a cat room but just needed some equipment. So I posted asking for a bit of help and the response was astonishing.
“I'm taken aback by how generous people have been with food and equipment - it is far more than I need and it now means we can support the set up of other foster homes now. Even in hard times and over the Christmas period, with the cost of living crisis and fuel costs going up, people are still giving generously.
“It makes our lives easier if we can foster them for a while in Scotland and then re-home them from here.”
Compared to other European cultures, the UK has a good record for animal welfare and the charity are keen to place them here.
Bringing the animals to the UK can cost as much as as £600 so the charity is now looking to raise funds to help with the costs.
Sue continued: “The cats and dogs that we bring across from North Macedonia come by land. We use a commercial transport company but that often comes with a big fee.
“The animals have passports and their travel documents as well as vaccinations covered by the charity but we normally ask those adopting to pay the £400-600 transport fee. That is why we are fundraising to try to pay for that cost to be covered so that those who have a suitable home but can't afford the travel can help.
“If anybody wants to help us then please get in touch through our Facebook or our website.”
You can visit their website here and their Facebook here.
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