Jayde from Aussie Pooch Mobile dog wash, heads towards the smoke
Early Sunday morning, Aussie Pooch Mobile groomer, Jayde Weil, left her home town for a 4 hour journey, towing her trailer, and headed straight towards the smoke!
3/4 of the way to her destination the air started to become thick, dark and black. She could not only smell the smoke, she could also clearly see it! This is when she started to get nervous, but she had been wanting to help in anyway she could and she knew the owners of the dogs she was about to wash would be truly appreciative, so she kept going.
Aussie Pooch Mobile paid for Jayde’s accommodation and fuel, and Jayde donated her time to help wash the dogs that were evacuated from their homes. They were living with their family’s at the Barracks in Wodonga, Victoria. Some of those families had lost almost everything and were just sleeping in their cars while the fires surrounded them. Some had not even seen their family members for a week as they stayed behind to try and defend their homes.
Not only were the families affect scared and worried about the raging fires all around them, Jayde could also see in the dog’s eyes how stressed and uncertain they were. Being an animal lover at heart, it was heart breaking for Jayde to see those dogs so stressed.
“Some dogs were absolutely covered in thick ash and it was so noticeable the changes of their coat colour after a warm, massaging bath. I was so happy I could bring them at least a little joy amid all the stress,” says Jayde with a warm smile.
While Jayde was washing those dogs there were planes dropping the dye, chopper water bombers and army helicopters flying right over them. Jayde’s Victoria emergency app was going off every hour warning her that the fires were very, very close to her current destination.
“It was a scary ordeal but I wanted to find a hands on way to help, and if it wasn’t for Aussie Pooch I wouldn’t have had this amazing opportunity to meet such strong families and their pooches. It was so heart warming to see how truly grateful they all were. We all had tears in our eyes!” Jayde said.
Our hearts are breaking for our beautiful country, native wildlife and the people and communities affected by these terrible bushfires. But in the end it is our amazing fire fighters, individuals, charities and businesses that will pull us through these hard times.
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