“Saving one dog will not change the world, but surely for that one dog, the world will change forever”.

My family were recently able to enjoy a trip to Seychelles, the group of islands in the Indian Ocean where my mother was born. Rescuing a stray dog and bringing her over 5000 miles to our family home in Ayr, Scotland was not part of the plan!

One day, while visiting Anse Takamaka, one of the most stunningly beautiful beaches in the world, we were equally stunned by the appearance of a poor, emaciated dog in front of us. We gave her some food and water but, in the days that followed, she played on our minds and we couldn't bear to think of her struggling to find food and fresh water.

Later in the holiday, we were able to visit the island of Moyenne which had been sold in 1962 by my mum's cousin, Philippe Georges, to the retired newspaper journalist, Brendan Grimshaw. There is a ruined house on Moyenne known as the “House of Dogs” which was built by an earlier owner of the island, a British woman, Emma Wardlow Best, who loved animals and collected stray dogs from the neighbouring island of Mahe, giving them a good home until her death in 1919. Miss Best left the island to two friends with the strict instruction that nothing “not even a rat” was to be killed there. Funnily enough, the happiest dog we saw in Seychelles was on Moyenne, bringing lots of smiles and laughter to the tourists as she played in the waves lapping up on the beach.

To cut a long story short, we decided to rescue the stray dog we had encountered and bring her home to Ayr. My son named her “Liberty” because he feels we are setting her free from a sad life. She is currently being cared for in Seychelles until her health has improved and all necessary vaccinations have been completed. We hope she will arrive with us some time in January.

We are fundraising to help meet the cost of Liberty's care in Seychelles - all the necessary health care and checks and her transportation home.