🐾 The Origin Story of Nora Campbell
I don't really know how to start this.
I'm not good at asking for help. Honestly neither is my gran. That's probably where I get it from.
Her name is Nora Campbell and she's 81 years old and she has been rescuing dogs since I was born. Since my mum was born actually. Since before any of us can really remember a time when there weren't dogs in that house.
It started with one. A frightened little thing she found outside in the rain that she was just going to help for one night. That was 1983. She never really stopped after that.
Over 300 dogs have come through her door since then. I grew up watching her dry them off with old towels and talk to them softly until they stopped shaking. Watching her sleep on the sofa so a scared dog could have her bed. Watching her spend money she didn't really have on food and vet bills without ever once complaining about it.
She never called herself a rescuer. She never made a big deal of any of it. To her it was just the obvious thing to do. If something needed help and she could give it, she gave it. Simple as that.
I used to think everyone's gran was like that.
They're not.
Right now she has 27 dogs. They're all fed and warm and loved. But we're struggling. And I sat with that for a long time before I decided to do this because I knew she would hate it. She'll probably be a bit mortified when she finds out if I'm being honest. That's just Gran.
But I kept thinking about her getting up every single morning for 42 years without asking anyone for a single thing. Just quietly doing what needed to be done. And I thought someone should know about her. Someone should show up for her the way she's always shown up for everyone else.
So here I am.
I'm not asking for much. Even just a few pounds or dollars toward keeping their bowls full means everything right now. Every single penny goes to the dogs. There's no organisation here. No office. No team. Just a woman in her eighties in a house full of dogs who need feeding.
And if you can't give anything that is genuinely okay. Just share this. Put it in front of someone who might. That costs nothing and it matters more than you know.
I just couldn't sit here and do nothing while she quietly struggles alone after everything she's given.
She'd do it for you. She'd do it for anyone.
That's just who she is.
