Epilogue

Within a year of re-homing Maurica, her story was to take a terrible downfall of events which I could never have imagined possible. After all I had gone through in rescuing her and getting back to the UK and through quarantine, Maurica was taken as a result of one phone call that could have been made.

Maurica had escaped from the home where she was living. Although I had micro-chipped her with my details when I rescued her, I had not been told that these details needed to be re-registered once she was in the UK.

I was out of the country when she was impounded by Swansea council. All dogs impounded here are then taken to a re-homing charity in Kent. The people who had originally taken Maurica in had not wanted to pay the £200 fine, and as the charity did not have a policy of re-homing the animal to the original owner, they did not contact me, despite my details being on her chip. I fought my case with the re-homing charity to have her returned to me where she would be happy and loved, but to no avail.

I knew that time was running out to contact the new owners, so I employed a solicitor to contact them by letter, via the charity, to explain the situation and to appeal to them to let me have Maurica back. However, my attempts, once again, were fruitless. The charity concerned prevented my communication with the new owners, and my letters, phone calls and emails were unanswered.

Once I realised that this method was not working, I took it upon myself to travel to Kent to try and rally support from the local community. I was astounded by the warmth and support of the locals I spoke to, all of whom were very surprised by the lack of compassion shown to me.

I was equally astounded to hear the claims of one woman I met, who believed that Maurica had been returned to the charity on a number of occasions, including during the time that I had been trying to get her back.

This left me feeling very cheated. Had she been re-homed to a loving family and was happy and settled, then I could have accepted this, however hearing that she was still being moved from pillar to post left me feeling very distressed, and caused me to lose faith in mankind. I now cannot rest until I can find out what happened to Maurica.

If anyone out there reads this and knows Maurica, I would be very grateful to hear from you so that I may see her just one more time.

The laws regarding micro-chipping of dogs needs to be made clearer. I had micro-chipped Maurica, only to find that although the details were documented, because they were on paper they meant nothing. Had I been informed that I needed to re-register her details once I got her back to the UK, I would have done so.

I would urge anyone who is bringing a dog into the country to make sure that they do re-register the details on the national database.

I sincerely hope that I will find Maurica and satisfy myself that the love, dedication and compassion I have shown to stray animals over the years was not in vain.