For those of you who have followed us from the start you would know of the brave Afghan stray known as Wylie (also the sister to the gang known as the Char Badmashis which includes Patchdog). Wylie had a tough start; major surgery was needed during quarantine to fix her badly deformed front legs (supported by the awesome donations from all our Nowzad friends) and then the soldier who rescued her was unable to give her a home so her quarantine carer Vicky stepped in. Wylie was no angel and was soon renamed ‘Taz’ because of the all the mischief she caused. But Vicky and the Taz were inseparable. Wylie had a great year of finally being loved and living in a forever home. But then her problems started again… and this one was one that Wylie and the Nowzad Dogs charity were sadly not going to be able to beat. Cancer had spread and Wylie was suffering so Vicky, after chatting with us and so many vets had no option but to let Wylie go peacefully.

You did your best Vicky and for that we are extremely grateful – we know that Wylie was happy to be by your side.

Vicky and Wylie

We have also had a few more tough days of late. The Lucky Seven as they are now known in the US – who prevented a suicide bomber from killing American soldiers were all transported from the American base to our shelter in the north and then onwards towards the US. Anna has been instrumental in organising funding for this rescue – it just would not have been possible without her. Sadly, though not everything went according to plan. One of the dogs ‘Hesco’ died from distemper on-route, even with great medical care the little girl did not pull through and then even worse ‘Jackie’ who made it to what we thought was the safety of the US died from the same disease there.

The rest, Rufus, Target, Low Rider, Bear, B  and Alph have received unparalleled amounts of press and TV coverage as they have been reunited with the American soldiers whose lives they saved.

But it has not ended there and sadly we also lost Marmaduke after a long battle with Distemper during transport to the UK, even though we had vaccinated him before he started travelling. It is an extremely heartbreaking job to inform the soldier concerned that we were not able to say their dog.

And to cap off what has not been a good week we were informed that Young Junior who arrived in quarantine (up North) only a few weeks ago has also lost his battle with distemper. For those brief weeks in quarantine Young Junior knew the love and affection that our four legged buddies in the west take for granted (most of them) and we are grateful to the soldiers sister for visiting him daily.

RIP - Young Junior

But we cannot allow ourselves to succumb to the depression of the news. If anything it makes us more determined to build the charity and work on the areas where we have failed.

We have many more dogs and cats in the pipeline to start a new life with the soldiers that first took them in amongst the dust of Afghanistan. We will update more details when we can.

Thank you to the Tarzan wannabes in the form of Jill Spottiswoode, Mandy and Claire Glendinning, Jim and Fiona Flood and 10yr old Sam Flood who raised a whopping £1000 by going Ape on a high ropes course – awesome effort!

Go Ape Team

A big thank you to Geoff and Ann who have been braving the rains of summer to run car boots, village stalls and stand outside supermarkets for the charity. Brilliant effort.