Rocky
Rocky is a rescue from Great Bulls of China which is a non-profit organisation that rescues dogs from the meat trade in China, overcrowded shelters or any other dogs in need, and fundraises to provide emergency and routine care (such as vaccinations, neutering) boarding and flights to their forever homes in the UK, Europe or USA. Although we will take any breed of dog into our care that needs our help, we focus on rescuing English and French bulldogs.
I happened to stumble upon Great Bulls of China from a post that someone had shared on the Facebook group Dog Friendly UK. I have always had a love for animals and after seeing the horrific things that were happening to these dogs in China and the amazing work that Great Bulls of China did to help them, I knew I had just had to help support them. As a non-profit organisation, they rely totally on donations from supporters.
I started donating to their fundraisers such as emergency vet bills and boarding bills to help keep the dogs that they had rescued safe and warm. As they were a relatively new rescue, they had just started running an auction and fundraising page so I went about finding stuff I could sell on the page or raffle to help raise money for them and soon after that I started running the fundraising side of things for them.
It was through helping Great Bulls of China that I found my boy Rocky.
Rocky was less than six months old when he was rescued off the streets of China in June 2020. He was all alone. No one knew why he was there. No one knew what had happened to him. Rocky was either going to die on the streets of China in pain and all alone or he would have been collected and taken to a meat market where he would have been sold to the highest bidder.
Luckily fate stepped in that day, and Rocky was found by brother instead, a monk who has devoted his life to rescuing dogs in need. Rocky was in such a bad way when brother found him, he had a severe skin condition that it covered his whole body. Great Bulls of China immediately took Rocky under their care, and they got him transported to a vet called Dr Zhang in Anshan. He was in so much pain and his little body was shutting down, that they did not think he would survive. Dr Zhang diagnosed Rocky with severe Demodex mange which is a parasitic mite that lives in hair follicles of dogs, it most often occurs when a dog has an immature immune system allowing the number of skin mites to increase rapidly. As Rocky was only a pup, it explained why his skin condition was so severe. Rocky had round the clock care, he received daily medication, fluids, medicated baths, and a lot of TLC from his own private nurse.
Within days Rocky started to improve and it wasn’t long before his cheeky personality soon started to show. He loved running around the vet’s clinic and he particularly loved chasing the lovely disabled dog Bob around on his wheels. Week by week Rocky continued to amaze everyone with his recovery, his skin started to heal, and his coat started to grow back.
On 31st July 2020 Rocky was well enough to leave Anshan and travel to Dr Gavin in Beijing to start his vetting process so he could travel to the UK. The vetting process required Rocky to have his vaccinations, including rabies, neutering and he also had to undertake a minimum of four months quarantine before travelling to the UK. Due to COVID and flight restriction on bully breeds, Rocky didn’t make it over to the UK until December 2021 where he now lives his best life alongside his sister Annie (Lab) and Rooney (the Cat).
Rocky has settled straight into his new life with us, it’s like he has always been with us. He loves a cuddle and getting lots of fuss, going for walks and chasing the ball, or just chase his sister who is chasing the ball. He loves exploring and finding new toys that he can play with, mostly things that he shouldn’t be playing with! He loves sleeping on our bed and keeping us awake with his snoring.
But most importantly we love him.
We couldn’t imagine not having Rocky with us now and it just goes to show what wonderful things can happen from just sharing a single post.
Rocky’s mum, Andrea
