It's Hard To Believe This Is All Happening

Helping dogs at massive scale

There was a moment when I was running the Marathon a couple of weeks ago around the 36km mark that I knew if I stopped I would seize up and be unable to finish. The pain was immense and my body had more or less stopped working.

I had to dig deep into a very deep part of my mind and think of Alba to help me finish but I also knew just how much was riding on it given what we have happening at the moment.

In some ways 2025 as a year is very like the marathon. It’s not physical pain closing the year out but rather a huge mental mountain to overcome. The task of juggling so many balls and trying to pull off a series of seemingly impossible tasks simultaneously isn’t easy but all I keep thinking about is the amount of dogs we are helping and will help in the future…

Tina’s Hospital Big Updates

After a major re-design and scaling back of the project (because we were wildly over budget) we have now started making some huge progress on the hospital…

• We just submitted our detailed hospital plans to the local planning authorities

• Building a full concrete road into the site this week

• Running full electric power into the land strong enough to power a hospital

• Equipment orders placed for things like X-Ray machines and Ultrasounds

• Our first 2 vets hired along with 3 support vetinary staff

I think with any project this size it is always normal to think “What have I started here” and to generally doubt yourself. I can safely say with absolute certainty that were it not for Tina and her memory I would have scaled it back and settled for something less impactful. Without her memory, I might even have given up.

It feels like it has been an endless 18 months of meetings, planning, raising money, getting permits, hitting obstacles and generally struggling to get this built. I 100% underestimated the challenge of building a large hospital for dogs in Thailand.

What we now have though is progress and the start of building work. Tina’s hospital is starting to come to life right in front of our eyes and it feels incredible.

Individual Dogs That Make Us All Smile

It’s hard to believe but I barely know half the dogs who now pass through Happy Doggo Land. That is a mixture of me being so stretched but also because of the sheer volume we treat, provide life saving care to, re-home and our short term patients.

Along with feeding my own 80 street dogs every morning I try to keep close to the dogs because it reminds me of the problems we are trying to fix. I only need to take a look at Sienna 2 weeks after she came in to remind me of the difference our work can make. Her smile coming back is all the motivation I need…

The dog that really sums up what we can do best is little Stormzy. We’ve all been captivated by his brave little character and his improbable recovery.

I just love the fact that we have full time vets, medical care and everything he needs on site. Stormzy was told he had to be put to sleep before he came to us. To see his little personality is a daily reminder of why we do this.

Mobile Clinic Launch

The main reason for running the Marathon was to fund a mobile vet clinic for dogs. We hit the target in record time and it is all happening…

• 6 of the team of 10 have already been hired

• The trucks and equipment have been bought and delivered

• We will launch next week on the 8th December on the neighboring island of Ko Pha Ngan

• Our team will be sterilizing dogs there during our pilot phase

• The mobile clinic will move to the mainland and sterilize 5000 dogs in 2026.

While running the Marathon was hard and it provided the funding, the true challenge is the team on the ground getting this live in record time and making it happen. It’s one thing raising the money but another getting it spent properly, having tracking and making sure we have the best staff and medical procedures. We’ll be operating on the ground next week and positively impacting dog’s lives.

Moving Incredibly Fast And Unexpectedly

With so much going on it felt like there wasn’t a spare second in the day but last week we had to drop everything because of a huge emergency. As you may have seen in the news there was catastrophic flooding in Thailand. The worst of it was only 6 hours from us. We were able to move very fast…

• We got our new mobile units into operation earlier than expected

• The team came together to buy 2 tonnes of food and dog supplies

• We drove it there to be handed out to those in need within 20 hours

One thing that has been important to me at Happy Doggo since day 1 is the speed at which we can get the help to dogs who need it most with the least amount of bureaucracy possible. This was Happy Doggo in action and at our very best.

Personal Struggles

The Marathon a couple of weeks ago was a bigger success than I could ever have imagined but I have to say it has absolutely wiped me out. The year as a whole and constantly trying to scale has pushed me to the edge of exhaustion.

As well as what I have outlined above we have the 1250 dogs we provide food for daily, the 7000 dogs we fund sterilizing for through our partners as well as our adoption and awareness programs. There is very little left in my personal gas tank but I can see all the strands coming together and one last push is needed.

My own friends and family are asking why I won’t answer messages. People I know on the island are asking if they’ve done something to annoy me as I’ve vanished into work more than normal. I am bouncing from meeting to call, to dog emergency to government meetings to funding calls and sleeping very little. Everything is at full tilt right now and I feel like I have aged a decade in the last year but the stakes are so high for the dogs. There are 1000s of Stormzy’s and Sienna’s out there who need our help.

While the help we give to dogs is very real now and scaling up I have to say that none of this feels real to me. I always dreamt of helping this many dogs but just like when my body was seizing up at 36km in the Marathon I feel like one last push is needed in 2025 to bring all these strands together.

It doesn’t matter how it happens or how tired I am personally. Next week we’ll have a mobile clinic on the road. The hospital is being built. We help 10,000 dogs a month directly and through partners. There were 5 operations today and 4 tomorrow in the field hospital. Looking out the window concrete is being poured. Everywhere I look there is action.

As always, I cannot say thank you enough for the support. When I finish my day I lay in bed and read some comments and smile because none of this is possible without the support online. I don’t usually have any energy left to answer more than one or 2 but please just know that I appreciate all the support and pinch myself that I am lucky enough to lead this life helping dogs and working with amazing people.

Big love to you all.

Niall

P.S You can support the mission by just subscribing to this newsletter or donating to Happy Doggo here.