Now Laura’s really famous!

Lots of people in Barbados know about Laura and the Hope Sanctuary and the wonderful work they do in saving puppies like me. Now even more know because a magazine called Signature Barbados has published a brilliant article about The Hope-Martin Animal Foundation which Laura runs. The Foundation, which is affiliated with the sanctuary, has a big yellow mobile bus that goes around the island offering to sterilize canines for only $25, to help control the ever-rising puppy population. And, boy, is that important because Robert Sandiford, who wrote the article, says there are approximately 207,000 dogs on Barbados and, ‘that’s uncomfortably close to one dog for every man, woman and child’.

Wow! Imagine what it would be like if that was true of other countries. There would be almost 60 million puppies in the UK, and another 60 million in France, and 300 million in the US—and, in China, 1.3 billion! That’s way too many puppies, I think.

So, the article is very important in drawing attention to the Foundation’s crucial work. It begins with the lovely whole-page picture of Laura (taken by Andrew Hulsmeier, who clearly knows one end of a camera from the other) and then continues like this:


Oh, and later on, there’s also a picture of the big yellow bus:



Now, of course, the bus doesn’t run for free—and $25 per operation doesn’t go very far towards meeting the costs. Fortunately, the Foundation has a major benefactor, Tony Martin. Step forward Mr. Martin and take a bow:


But even his incredible generosity is not enough to keep the project going. So, now step forward the very famous Simon Cowell—he of Pop Idol, American Idol and X-Factor fame—who people love to hate, apparently, though I can’t imagine why.

Well, if you love puppies, you can’t hate him now because, earlier this year, Laura asked Simon to host a charity auction in Barbados which raised an amazing $60,000—and then Simon kicked in a substantial donation of his own.

Here’s a picture of Laura and Simon after the auction. I’m so, so proud of her.