Help Bear to fly HOME!!

Mar 6, 2012 - Posted by clare_bell in Thank You ✦ 16 Comments

This is Bear.

Bear lived in the shelter for four long, hard years. His health status was a deterrent for potential adopters and fosters as he has hypothyroidism which required medicine 4 x daily. Bear was overweight, lethargic and unhappy. He had a terrible ear infection (the worst his vet had ever seen) amongst other health issues.

Against all odds, Bear has come out fighting. An AMAZING foster family took him into their home and gave him the attention and care that was needed to get him well again. He has improved so much that even his thyroid medicine only needs to be given once a day.

Now for the best news: Bear's foster's mom in the USA wants to ADOPT BEAR!! After a life of hardship, Bear has the opportunity to go into a forever home. Please help us to fly him HOME!!

Our goal:

1 - *** We need to raise 900,000 won to fly Bear as unaccompanied cargo. ***
OR
2 - *** Find someone flying from Korea to Boston MA in the near future who would be willing to take Bear with them as accompanied baggage. This would drastically reduce the cost of getting him HOME.***

If you would like to donate, please use the following bank account:

Clare Mills
Bank: KEB
Account Number: 620-203339-430

Please use the reference "BEAR & your name". Please also send an e-mail to [email protected] to let me know.

Thank you for helping us with this happy ending!!

Here is Bear's ARK profile: http://www.animalrescuekorea.org/dog/526 where you can read all about him :)

Tags: donation, sponsor
  • Updated Apr 23, 2012
  • 6616 Views

Comments

annemariew's picture

annemariew

Mar 06, 2012 20:55

No way!!!!! Aw, I'm so happy for Bear. What a trooper to hang in there. I will send a donation tomorrow when I have some time. This is amazing news.

clare_bell's picture

clare_bell

Mar 06, 2012 20:58

Thanks Anne Marie!! You're awesome!! :) I know, I am sooooo happy and excited for him!!

MaryNJon's picture

MaryNJon

Mar 06, 2012 23:34

Thanks so much! It's a tough amount to come up with, but anything will help! Thanks!

clare_bell's picture

clare_bell

Mar 08, 2012 01:06

Thank you Anne Marie for your donation!!

W25,000 in the bag :)

Need to raise: W875,000.

I know it's a lot but we can do it and Bear is WORTH IT!!

clare_bell's picture

clare_bell

Mar 09, 2012 01:28

W150,000 from Bear's foster parents!! Thank you!!

Still need to raise: W725,000.

stefaniee's picture

stefaniee

Mar 10, 2012 13:13

So much has been happening for Bear over the past few months! Lucky him!!

clare_bell's picture

clare_bell

Mar 14, 2012 21:19

Michelle has found someone who is willing to take Bear to Boston with her!! Bear would fly on Weds, 21 March. YIKES!! It's all happening so fast!

The price this way is reduced by a lot, but right now I don't have exact figures. We have raised W175,000 so far, please consider donating towards getting Bear home.

I will, of course, update on the figures as soon as I have them :)

clare_bell's picture

clare_bell

Mar 18, 2012 08:40

W50,000 from Hester Roodt! Thank you so much Hester!!

We have raised W225,000 so far :)

Updated cost for Bear's flight coming VERY soon. Watch this space.

MaryNJon's picture

MaryNJon

Mar 19, 2012 02:00

Thanks so much Hester! We appreciate every cent, and can't wait to be able to post new pic's of him in his forever home with his new spaniel brother and sister!

clare_bell's picture

clare_bell

Mar 23, 2012 05:37

Unfortunately the flight as accompanied baggage that we were hoping for for Bear fell through :( This means that we have to once again send him as unaccompanied :(

We still need to raise W675,000. Every tiny bit helps, please consider donating towards Bear's flight!

clare_bell's picture

clare_bell

Mar 30, 2012 00:33

W70,000 from Clare.

Still to raise: W605,000.

MaryNJon's picture

MaryNJon

Mar 30, 2012 01:05

Thanks Clare! We appreciate it so much!

clare_bell's picture

clare_bell

Mar 30, 2012 10:05

Only a pleasure :) Thank YOU for saving him!!

Another generous donation from Lindsay Horobin of W50,000. Thank you Lindsay!!

Still to raise: W555,000

Please note, that we only raised W225,000 for Bear's flight prior to him flying, the cost of which was actually W900,000. The remainder of the money was paid by Bear's foster parents, who of course want only the best for him.

If you would like to help ease this financial burden (if you've fostered before you'll know there are many), then please consider donating a little to help them. They have just taken on a seriously bad case from one of the shelters who was due to be euthanised in 2 days and they'll need all the extra pennies they can get to help this little maltese.

MaryNJon's picture

MaryNJon

Mar 30, 2012 20:10

Oh wow! Thank you so much Lindsay! We're very grateful!

clare_bell's picture

clare_bell

Apr 04, 2012 02:16

Some pics of Bear in his new home in the USA! :)

clare_bell's picture

clare_bell

Apr 24, 2012 00:57

We have moved Bear's page to the "thank you" section! We managed to raise W200,000 towards his flight and his wonderful, amazing foster parents paid the remaining W700,000.

Here is a little more explanation as to why the accompanied flight (mentioned above) fell through, as well as why we decided to send Bear home even though the unaccompanied price was pretty high, instead of waiting a little longer:

The adopter in the US is Bear's foster mom's mom. Even though Mary's mom is financially capable of having Bear as a part of her family, Mary didn't want to burden her mom with the transportation cost. However, Mary's mom and sister both offered to contribute towards the cost, and as facilitator of getting Bear out of the shelter I said I would assist with some fundraising to help too.

The accompanied flight with the person back to the USA didn't work out because, after numerous phonecalls where at least 5 of us were passed from pillar to post and hung up on while trying to phone the relevant people in the airlines, we were told that Bear needed to be booked on 10 days prior to the flight. We had about 3 days left. It was all such a rush and so chaotic that I didn't update the event as well as I should have and I apologise.

Once the ball had started rolling with the idea of getting Bear home, his foster parents were keen to get him on his way so that he could start his new life and so they could foster another animal in need. It was in Bear's best interests to go ASAP because he was now really healthy and feeling great yet they still had to keep him mostly confined to his room because he wasn't 100% comfortable with their little toddler.

As dedicated foster parents, they are quite prepared to do every last thing out of their own pocket but as they have 2 kids plus 2 dogs of their own, I was hoping to help as much as I could.

So thank you! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to those generous souls who donated towards getting Bear to the USA: Anne Marie, Hester, Lindsay, Clare and of course, Jon & Mary. Every little bit counts and as they've already rescued 2 dogs from death row at a nearby kill-shelter SINCE Bear left (Ollie - already adopted! http://www.animalrescuekorea.org/dog/706, and Fiona - still recovering from her health issues, with them http://www.animalrescuekorea.org/dog/755), you can rest assured that your donations have gone to a VERY good cause.

Thanks also, of course, to Bear's new mom and dad, who have welcomed him into their home where he has two spaniel siblings and they all get along great!

THANK YOU!! :))