Help for Rarotonga stray

On a recent holiday to Rarotonga we were befriended by a local stray. She was a gorgeous little dog who would sit with us but diasppear if anyone came by.

Some other tourists noticed her with us, and heard us discussing the possibility of trying to bring her to New Zealand. They then informed us that she had been a stray at Muri Beach for the last 4 years, and was know to them as Cookie. However, she appeared to have aged in the last 12 months. (since their previous visit). Maybe this is as a result of stress due to the new initiative at Muri Beach for dealing with 'illegals' i.e. untagged wandering dogs. These, if reported to the police, are picked up and euthanised. Please read the artice in the attached link.

http://www.cookislandsnews.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/item/48634-dog-control-not-culling

- and the following extract from the article "Culling is not only an inefficient strategy for dog control; it also creates a range of other issues. There are huge welfare concerns for the animals involved- in particular, how they are caught and transported and killed"

We debated bringing her to NZ as it would be a totally different lifestyle to what she has in Rarotonga, but after reading the article decided we would like to try rather than leave her to the fate befalling 'illegals'.

We emailed the local vet charity, Esther Honey for advice (please take a moment to check out their page and the amazing work they do for these animals in Rarotonga - http://estherhoney.org/).

However, before we could make arrangements to proceed we came across Gunner, who was not as savvy as Cookie and making his presence known. As such we had to make him the immediate priority. see his previous page:(https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help4stray)

Another tourist remembered seeing Cookie around 18 months ago with pups following her and wondered if Gunner is one of these pups - but this is just speculation.

We never for one minute anticipated the response we had to Gunner, or believed there was a chance we may be in a position to help the 2 of them.

But, after Gunners page, we contacted the vets again and asked the cost for bringing a 2nd dog to New Zealand. They advised it would be $500 less as the bloods that are sent overseas and incur postage costs of $400- $500 can be combined and therefore incur only 1 cost. The approximate cost for saving Gunner is $5,000 and so $4,500 for 'Cookie'.

Gunner has a facebook page at the request of previous donors (see attached link) and we aim to post up scanned copies of all payments/invoices incurred in bringing him to New Zealand for transparency. Things are in progress for him and the lovely vet, based in Rarotonga who has been helping, is currently in NZ this week and is using her return luggage allowance to take a crate back to Rarotonga for his future freight. She is going to microchip him next week and at this point, on receipt of the microchip number we can complete an MPI import application.

Gunner has had some lovely furever home offers and as with him if we can get Cookie here, a charity will assist in finding her a home too.

We can combine Gunners facebook page for Cookie also. And to respond in advance, to questions raised regarding Gunners givealittle page - if we are not successful in rescuing Cookie then donations will be refunded or can be sent to the anmal welfare charities in Rarotonga to assist in helping animals like Gunner and Cookie. Again relevant correspondence would be uploaded for transparency.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and please take a look at her pictures in the gallery and also check out the Esther Honey Foundation web page.