Molly and Me – please help us stay together!

Hello and Woof! My name is Molly, and this is my story...

Once upon a time I was a puppy with a family and another life. At just 1 year old I was pregnant and alone, handed into an animal shelter in Outback Australia. I was given the name Mum as I was such a great mother and surrogate parent. I watched my pups leave and the other dogs come and go and resigned my life to staying at the shelter house as Mum.

When I met Sophie, a backpacker from England, I jumped in her van and became Molly the travel dog! I was skitty and nervous but Sophie loved my teethy smiles and promised me, that although we didn’t have a house, we’d always have a home with each other.

We travelled around Australia living in the van, sharing our food with only each other for company. I helped her round up cattle, I chased down pesky emus, I growled at things that went bump in the night. Every time Sophie’s job didn’t work out, every time a relationship failed, every time things didn’t work out, I was there to lick her leaking face.

When the time came to leave Australia, Sophie had to cancel my ticket at the last minute and fly me back to the shelter due to a problem with that paper stuff you humans fuss about so much, “money”. Money seems to cause Sophie a lot of problems, and I was so sad that she abandoned me in that strange place telling me she’d find a way to get me back. All I wanted to do was lick her leaky face better, but I couldn’t and suddenly she was gone.

It was three long months before I got shoved back into that cage and put in another noisy hole before I saw that leaky face again. I was over the moon! “Welcome to New Zealand, Molly. I’ll never leave you behind again” she promised.

Our adventures continued and I was a dairy farm dog – though I skipped on the 4am starts ;) I saw snow for the first time and I joined Sophie as her emotional support animal on the Te Araroa trail; 400km of climbing mountains, battling through bush, wading through swamps and swimming through rivers all the while side by side with my best bud Sophie.

Sophie always puts me first; we only go to dog friendly places, jobs and events so we can always be together. I’ve been a free range puppy for 3 happy years now! We love it in nz and it feels like home for both of us but for some 'immigration' reason Sophie says we're not allowed to stay.

When Sophie decided to get me, she knew the implications of being a backpacker with a dog, and despite everyone telling her it was a mistake, she knew that she could provide a rescue dog an amazing second chance and a loving home. She has worked really hard for this paper money thing to make sure we can keep our forever home together, but flying a dog to the UK is apparently really expensive.

We really don’t want to ask for handouts, she knows that by adopting me she took on a big responsibility. But I figure, if you use your cutest puppy dog eyes and tilt your head a little you’d be surprised what you can get; a pat on the head...the last bit of a sausage....maybe a bit of support?

Waggy tails and lots of licks!

Molly the dog, Sophie the human :)