Two lucky dogs have been rescued from a pound in Bosnia and are being re-homed in Scotland after being named in honour of the late Roscommon man, Donal Rogers.
Donal rose to prominence last year after his much publicised fight to save his pet Jack Russell Kim from being put to sleep.
Tragically the 85 year old ex Garda passed away last Christmas only weeks after successfully saving his little dog.
The rescue dogs, named Donal – after the man himself – and Rosco – a nod to country Roscommon – were rescued by Glaswegian dog lover Donna Dickie who used a sum of money donated through the GoFundMe set up to help Donal save his Jack Russell, Kim.
Donna says the story of the pensioner’s dedication to his canine companion “stole” her heart and led her to make a promise to Donal and the people of Ireland to use the funds to rescue the dogs.
Speaking to Gript Donna says she’s rescued over 650 dogs over a seven year period by saving them off “kill lists”.
“We try to do four a month” she said adding, “we pick them off the kill wall and I always pick number 29 because my birthday is on the 29th.”
“They’ve just got numbers, they’ve not got names.”
She says she usually picks dogs no bigger than a spaniel because they are easier to re-home, especially for elderly owners.
She said she tries to pick dogs that have been at the pound for a long time.
“There’s a lot of people like me all over Europe,” she said adding. “You just do what you can,”.
She lamented saying, “You can’t save them all but we do what we can,”
Donna says that although she isn’t registered as a charity she is well supported in her rescue efforts. “People are very good,” she says.
Donna says she found out about the story of Donal and Kim last August on Facebook and that, knowing that she was involved with dog rescue, people contacted her asking if there was anything she could do to help.
She says she agreed to pay for food for Kim and Donal’s other dog and that she was doing this via monthly donations.
She said Donal was “over the moon” about the support.
She became emotional recalling her reaction to the news of Donal’s passing which she says left her “heartbroken”.
“We worked so hard, Donal was so happy” she said, recalling the team effort that went into the fight to save Kim.
She says her only comfort is that before he died Donal “knew his wee dog was safe and that he won his case,”.
Speaking about Jack Russel Kim, she said, “She would never have been put down anyway,” she said, adding, “I would have come and got her to bring her to Scotland and hide her”.
She says she feels the court proceedings must have been a “terrible stress” on Donal and that she has a “lovely letter” from him thanking her for her help.
“It’s very very sad, the whole world was sad,”.
She said people from Canada, Australia, and America “all knew about Donal and Kim,”.
She says she hopes Donal’s memory will live on in the two dogs she rescued in his honour and that she plans to travel to Roscommon to visit Donal’s grave in the near future.
Donal and Rosco are currently in trial placement with potential new owners and are doing very well.