“We haven't been able to sit down for a Valentine's Day meal together in about ten years,” said one couple who have devoted their relationship to puppy love.
Chris Kelly and his wife Ramona Cunningham live with their 12 dogs in their mobile home on the site of what was once going to be their dream home – and is now the dream kennels of almost 40 rescue dogs.
In the last 16 years, they have sacrificed building a new home, holidays and have even, on occasion, gone to bed hungry after giving the last of their food to dogs found abandoned and in need.
Aside from the dogs in their rescue in Co. Meath, they have given up their sitting room to 12 of their own dogs in their mobile home which also houses the cremated remains of five of their pets who passed over the years.
“In the early days of our relationship, we decided we would get a dog so we went to a shelter in Collon, Co. Louth and of course, went to see a new litter of pups,” said Chris.
“We said we wouldn't go for a female and even decided beforehand that we would call our new dog Jamie. We were there five minutes and a female pup walked over to Ramona. She picked him up and wouldn't put him down again. We still called the pup Jamie.
“We were walking out of the shelter and Ramona looked back and saw all the old dogs that no-one wanted and she cried all the way home. And that was that.”
They had a site at Coolronan, Ballivor where they had hoped to build a house together. Percolation holes had been dug and the application for planning permission was ready to go, but that was as far as it went.
“We are still living in the same mobile that we had moved on site until the house was built and there are dog runs on the area that should've been the kitchen now,” laughed Ramona.
“We just pumped everything we had into saving dogs and rehoming them so we didn't have any money to build but we have no regrets. We have heating and light in the mobile and no mortgage to pay.”
“It was tough because whatever we earned, we spent on the rescue so some days we did go to bed hungry ourselves back then so the dogs would be fed.”
The couple believe they have saved and rehomed thousands of dogs over the years, averaging at 500 a year which were exported to Sweden alone for new homes.
“We don't take rehoming lightly though and Ramona should've been a detective because she does more research on the new owners than the dogs,” he laughed.
“We had at one stage 100 dogs here but it was too much because we couldn't give them all the attention they deserve so we have 37 here at the minute outside and 12 of our own taking up the sitting room in the mobile. At the minute, one is snoring here on the bed with me.”
They admit the vets bills can be daunting but say the experts they work with are great, as are people who give donations of food for the dogs and funding towards the hefty medical expenses.
“The local vets are amazing and we have never been under pressure to pay the bills. We give what we can, when we can and we charge a rehoming fee which all goes to pay off the costs. Also we run boarding kennels, so it all helps keep our heads above the water.
“People are really good as well in donating bags of nuts for the dogs. We couldn't do it without them.”
Chris and Ramona are hoping to have a romantic St Valentine's Day dinner on Friday evening but they won't be holding their breath.
“That's the plan but we haven't been able to make it work for about ten years,” said Ramona.
“We would be sitting down at the starters and the phone would ring about a stray or abandoned dog and we then would be looking for it for about two hours so there'd be no point in coming home and heating a main course.”
Chris laughed: “The dogs get more than me at times anyway. I came home to a package at Christmas with 12 Santa hats for the dogs!
“Our dogs are our babies. The very first three dogs that we had were extra special and their graves are here outside and we have about five urns here of cremated remains of other loved dogs since then.
“We have seen some really bad cases of animal abuse. We rescued a boxer once who was so emaciated, I don't know how he survived. His kidneys were like pulp because he was surviving on drips of water coming in through a hole in the roof of the shed where he was kept. He lasted nine months with us before he passed away.
“It doesn't matter if the dogs get three extra days, three extra months or three extra years in their lives, as long as they spend it in comfort with us, then that's all that matters. No dog dies here hungry or cold.”
“There's only Ramona and I here so we will carry on giving our love to every dog we can save and rehome for as long as we can.”
