Nibble

Written by Nicole

Time for the very special, and very fluffy, Nibble!

She has quite the story to tell. Nibble is a Chinese meat trade survivor, having been rescued from a meat truck in February 2015. She was one of 25 Tibetan Mastiffs on that particular truck, and a particularly damaged one at that; it was unknown if she would be able to be rehabilitated. In August of that year, she was sent to a new home in Sweden, where she seemed to be doing well. Unfortunately, issues between her humans trickled down to Nibble resulting in she suffering further. Eventually a dog hating neighbour objected to her presence and used a live cattle prod on her. Nibble’s aggressive response (rightly so) doomed her to euthanasia.

Nibble’s Chinese rescuers stepped in again in hopes of saving her life, and contacted me to see if I could help. I agreed to bring Nibble home to England in hopes of rehabilitating her properly and re-homing her again. She was a broken dog when I picked her up; I didn’t have a lot of hope for her future. But Nibble bloomed in our household, with a great deal of time, patience, and love. And there was no way that I could send her away again after she’d finally found peace. So she became a permanent member of our family.

It seemed like Nibble got her happy ending, but a year and a half after we got her, she dislocated a hip and x-rays showed that without total hip replacement surgery, Nibble would not survive. Once again, for the third tome in her short life, Nibble faced death. So once again her Chinese rescued stepped in, along with hundreds of others to raise the money to make the surgery possible. Nibble is now fully recovered from a surgery that not only totally replaced her right hip, but also ended up doing two additional surgeries on BOTH of her elbows. She’s far more comfortable, though sadly, her left hip is also in desperate need of a full replacement… at this time, it’s unknown when or if that will be possible. We’re still paying back more then half of the £10,000 cost of the first surgery, a second one would rely on fundraising again, and we hesitate to ask for more when her supporters have already given so much. So for now, we keep her as happy and comfortable as we can, and you needn’t worry too much, because she is both.

Nibble is a sweet, affectionate, fiercely protective dog. She was named after her tendency to nibble on the people she loves, tiny little love bites that she gives only to those she trusts and adores (love that we suffer with good grace because despite her efforts to be gentle, darn do they hurt!!). She would die for the people she loves, or kill for them should she deem it necessary. She takes her role as guard dog very, very seriously, and very, very loudly…. Nibble barks rather incessantly sometimes, mostly we think because she really likes the sound of her own voice. Thankfully, she makes up for this by genuinely liking people, and as long as she’s properly introduced, she’s just like the big, fluffy, cuddly teddy bear she so closely resembles. She’s the kind of dog that attracts attention where ever she goes, and has been very popular on our journeys!

You can learn more about Nibble’s story by following her own Facebook page, Saving Nibble: Meat Trade Survivor Needs New Hip