Thank you for visiting, our crowdfunding JustGiving Page for Many Tears Animal Rescue in memory of my husband (and Ella’s dad) Paul Bail.

Paul sadly died very unexpectedly on the afternoon of the 24th of February 2024, whilst out at golf.

Since Paul‘s very shocking and untimely death there have indeed been “many tears” at home, but we’ve both been very comforted and kept busy by our 10 year old Cockerpoo Teddy and our little rescue dog Willow, who joined our family in October of last year.

I first learned about Many Tears through our dog Teddy’s vet, Dr Scott from GMTV as I happened to see an appeal he did a couple of Christmases ago for MTAR. I started to follow them on Facebook. We had no intention of EVER getting a second dog as Teddy very much rules this house! Paul even let Ted go in his car…

One Monday in mid October of last year, Many Tears shared an ernergency video having rescued over 150 dogs in one weekend. I’d already been sending the odd big bag of dogfood via Amazon and contributing when they did an emergency appeal, but this particular time there was a long video of so many sad, frightened looking dogs and one in particular had the most haunted, dark and frightened eyes I’ve ever seen.

Her kennel name was Gemini and she was one of 12 young dogs (all given star signs as names) that were rescued from a filthy shed along with all the adult breeding dogs they found there. She’d never been outside those four walls. She‘d never walked on a lead before. She’d never felt kind hands and she had never lived in a home. Their vets thought she was about eight months old and she would have to learn absolutely everything from scratch. A kind resident dog was a must because all she had ever known was the company of other equally frightened dogs.

I spoke to Paul about her on the Thursday night in bed and showed him a screenshot of her and his exact words to me were “we’re not getting another effing dog.”

On the Friday morning as he was getting ready for work he said “you’re really serious about this, aren’t you? Are you really sure you want to do this? Ok. Look into the application process and we can go from there.“

We were home approved on the Sunday afternoon and we collected her the following weekend after a family meet and greet in Wales with Teddy there too. The first person she went to in the kennel was Paul and she flopped at his feet for a tummy rub. She clambered all over Ella like a meerkat. We decided to call her Willow because it meant “new beginnings.”

One of the most comforting things in all of our sadness has been having these two little dogs at home to keep us busy. It took until January before Willow had the confidence to even leave the back garden to go on a walk and she still gets really spooked by new people, but Paul and I absolutely loved taking them both out together.

Teddy has never chased a ball in her life. It just doesn’t interest the big diva, but Willow would chase a tennis ball all day long if she could and I would often catch Paul out in the back garden throwing a ball for her. Willow has relied on Teddy totally to learn everything and Teddy has been a brilliant big sister. Our lovely older girl has got a whole new lease of life and is bouncing around the house like a puppy again.

It breaks both our hearts that Teddy still sits in the window every night waiting for her dad to come home. So I know Willow is a real comfort to her too. In a funny way we almost feel like Willow was sent to rescue US with everything that we now are going through, as she’s just so full of love and wants to make everyone happy (when she’s not chewing the post, or stealing Ella’s socks). Every single beautiful card of condolence that I have received since Paul died has had a little chomp from Willow on the corner of the envelope if I haven’t managed to get to the post on the mat before she does.

Many Tears are a unique rescue in that the majority of their dogs are ex-breeders and many have never seen the outside world before. With the help of their staff, fosterers and other volunteers they provide a special and loving environment to help all their dogs adapt and find permanent, loving new homes. All potential adopters are interviewed and homes vetted and they do their utmost to find the right home for each dog. The rescue has grown considerably since it first opened and now homes in excess of 3,000 dogs a year. You can find our more about them here:

https://www.manytearsrescue.org/AboutUs.php

Paul absolutely loved his “Teddy the Boo and Willow too”. I didn’t ever get anywhere near him when he walked through the door after work as the dogs just launched themselves at him. He called them “the Raptors” because they hunted in pairs.

Many Tears is a really special rescue and it’s come to have really special meaning for us as a family. Ella and I would love it if both of the charities we have chosen (instead of funeral flowers) could equally benefit from our fundraising efforts in memory of our darling Paul.

This is Miss Teddy…

And this is Willow a fortnight after she came home. A really special little dog was hiding under all that scared scruffiness. We hope we can help Many Tears to save and rescue many more.

Amanda and Ella Bail x