Twinklet the Starlet
Twinklet, the dumped breeding dog left in a field to die with horrible injuries following obvious years of abuse is definitely showing her true starlet qualities as she recovers from her ordeal. She’s a gentle beauty who’s capturing the hearts of everyone she comes into contact with, as she recovers from emergency surgery on her broken jaw and years of torment. Here’s a picture sent to me earlier today from her carers at the Diana Brimblecombe Animal Rescue Centre:
Twinklet recovering today from jaw surgery (Photo credit: Julie Scott)
Twinklet’s in the experienced and professional care of DBARC and there couldn’t be a better place for this dumped breeding dog to be. DBARC staff and volunteers understand the needs of traumatised animals well, sadly they see many each year. In addition, they have particular experience with dogs that are unfortunate to have lives blighted by being in the breeding industry. Producing puppies for the puppy trade is a life of misery for dogs and DBARC know this well from sad experience of helping those survivors that come through their doors.They arrive with a mulitude of physical and emotional problems, which range from mild to the severest imaginable. Many will never know good health while others do recover in time. All are left with scars, visible or hidden. No dog can live as they’re forced to in puppy farms and not bring out demons that may never fully leave them. They just learn to adjust and live as normally as they’re able to in the right homes.
Janet North, DBARC’s capable manager is a qualified, experienced veterinary nurse and is thus doubly well suited to care for those like Twinklet who really have long roads ahead of them before they can be considered anywhere near well. For while Twinklet is astonishing everyone with her courage, resilience and willingness to trust humans after what she’s been put through, she is still a dog with multiple problems. While her jaw is hopefully healing (only time will tell but we should know more in a few weeks time), it appears she’s an elderly dumped breeding dog who’s given birth multiple times. She has dreadful teeth, a result of years of neglect and poor nutrition – in puppy farms dogs are given the bare minimum to keep them alive and fertile, nothing else is of any importance to their captors. Her skin and coat health reflect this and while these will improve over time and with the care she’s now getting, the years of neglect will leave lasting problems for Twinklet, the extent of which won’t yet be clear.
However, if the experience of many at DBARC shows anything, it’s that whatever a dog has been through, however long the road to recovery is, when a dog shows the courage to get on with their life that Twinklet is displaying daily, there’s enormous room for hope that their life will be one they enjoy. Being the dog they should always have been allowed to be, not the breeding machine they were.
Twinklet has an excellent permanent home to go to with Donna, a DBARC volunteer just as soon as she’s a little stronger and able to be away from Janet and the DBARC team’s close attention. Her new home is one where she’ll thrive and be given the time she needs to be herself. She’ll also get to meet up regularly with the new friends she’s making at DBARC, like volunteer Carol’s dog, Anya, who spent the day with Twinklet at the weekend:
Anya and Twinklet (Photo credit: Carol Sykes)
Anya knows how rough a life can be for a dumped breeding dog like Twinklet. She spent time earlier this year at DBARC having left a puppy farm with a damaged eye which needed to be removed. Not that this impedes her at all, she’s living a full and happy life now with Carol and her family. But she is yet another example of what dogs in the breeding industry endure.
I’ll keep everyone updated on Twinklet’s progress and news and thank everyone for supporting her story, care and the work of DBARC. Due to the unknown factors in Twinklet’s treatment costs, the Twinklet Smile Appeal is remaining open for the time being.
It’s raised a remarkable £3245 in donations from kind supporters around the world. We know her story has reached across continents, with messages and donations coming from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Europe.
If you’d like to support Twinklet’s treatment costs, donations can be made on this link:
