Tina's Hospital For Dogs Who Aren't Doing So Good

A big update

Tina’s time with me (and everybody around the world on their phone screens) was very short but her legacy is going to live long into the future.

In the days and weeks leading up to her passing I talked to her an awful lot. Neither of us were sad or down. I just told her about my plans to help street dogs. It was only when she passed that I decided to create a hospital in her name.

If you weren’t following when Tina was around we made this little summary of her wonderful time with us.

A lot has been happening in the last month…

Simply The Best For Tina - World Class Architects

The thing about Tina is that she touched the hearts of people around the world in all sorts of unexpected ways. One such person was Danny Forster. He reached out and offered for his world renowned architecture firm to design the hospital free of charge,

You only have to have a look at the work they do to understand what this means. Speaking to him and hearing his passion for Tina and dogs in general blew my mind. They are currently working on the conceptual design phase of the project.

Funding For The Hospital

As you can imagine building a hospital won’t be cheap but people have been rowing in behind the project already. This is without us even pushing it or asking people to help yet. It’s just the sort of community effort where people feel they want to do something. In terms of funds raised to date…

• The book I wrote has brought in just over $100,000 so far. I’m donating every single penny I make. This number will only increase.

• Merchandise sales made us approx another $100,000

• We have around $200,000 in donations including the incredible Trek that Chris and his friends took on. There are also so many insane people like Angie doing things like this portrait on Snoop on an ongoing basis. There are too many to list them all here.

With everything we have already coming in and some events in the pipeline we will have funding of in and around $500,000 for the hospital. We are working on exact budgets at the moment (especially ongoing monthly costs) but we are confident that we are more than half way there.

We’ll do a funding push when we have the exact detailed costs to share and this will include some great community ideas like…

• Buy a brick or plaque in the hospital

• Corporate donations

• A live streamed auction

I’m quite confident that we will be able to raise the money needed to build a hospital that will not only save lots of dogs but also do Tina proud. You can always donate at any stage here.

Telling The Story Of Tina’s Hospital

I had a moment of extreme clarity recently….People are obsessed with Tina, her legacy and the thought of her hospital being able to help other street dogs. I know that sounds obvious but it just struck me like a wave.

People climbing mountains and running marathons in her name. Others starting fundraisers and creating artwork and products with her face. With that in mind I think its the ideal time for…

• A 2nd Book - I will be writing a 2nd book and it will focus in some way on her and the mission to get this hospital built. This will be 2025.

• A Documentary / TV show - In the last year I’ve had about 40-50 requests about making a documentary. I’ve said no to them all as I didn’t think it was a good use of my time. I’ve changed my mind on that now and will do something around the hospital.

The moment of clarity was that people love Tina, it’s a movement and I should capitalise on that to help with funding and spreading her legacy. Both things are very time consuming and I prefer spending my time helping dogs hands on but actually thinking about it nothing would help more in getting the message out globally.

I’ll obviously donate every single penny I make from both towards the hospital again.

It sometimes takes me a while to decide to commit to these sorts of things but now that I have I will do them with every ounce of energy I have.

Practical Elements And A Timeline

Having the idea for the hospital is one ting but getting everything in place to make it happen on a practical level in another country is another. I’ve been pushing this on in the background…

• The land is secured and contracts signed (above is the location)

• We can now start clearing the land

• We are pricing up an access road (needed for building etc)

• The Thai foundation to run the hospital, building permits and local regulations are off and running

• Interviewing the first Thai team members who will join to head this up

• Land clearing, designs, road and other physical elements will start happening in the next 4-6 weeks.

I have to say this is the part I find the hardest being in a country with a different language but progress is being made.

Treatments Are Already Happening

Because we deal with so many street dogs we already spend a small fortune on vets, hospital visits and pet taxis. Just a small selection of the treatments we have ongoing at the moment…

• Billy 800km away getting his eyes operated on in hospital to regain his sight

• Mario getting his leg fixed with plates and screws after being beaten up

• Big Pablo had a massive growth on his tail removed

• Essy had end of life treatment this week

At any given time we can have 10-15 dogs having very serious treatments and operations. Obviously it’s not very cost effective or practical sending them around the country to get those done. You could say that Tina’s hospital is already up and running in spirit but just not a physical building yet.

F.A.Qs

I get asked a lot of questions about the hospital and what it will actually be. I still don’t know many of the answers as we tease them out but some early thoughts…

Will you treat cats or other animals?

No. This is a dog hospital.

Will the hospital be free or can some people pay?

It will be 100% free and only for street dogs.

How many vets will work there?

Still teasing this out but around 4 + assistants and possibly overseas volunteer staff

Will it actually be called “Tina's Hospital For Dogs Who Aren't Doing So Good”

Yes

Tina Is Still Acting As A Consultant

I found this photo on my phone by accident this week and it brought a little tear to my eye. I don’t even remember taking it. Myself and Derek were obviously paying our respects to Tina just after she had passed.

I find myself stopping by her grave nearly every day. I wait until nobody else is around and I just sit there and talk to her. I tell her about the fancy New York architects, the people climbing mountains in her name and her T-shirts with her face being worn all over the world.

Tina was too modest to ever think it was all down to her. She’d be more worried about how everyone else was feeling and if she could give out some more love and attention. But really this is all down to her.

Sometimes it feels too hard, the challenge too big. When it does I just picture her big beautiful face and push on. I promised her a hospital so as dogs wouldn’t have to suffer like her and that is what the best girl there ever was will get.

I do wish I could be further along with this. I feel the excitement everybody has and the support and people willing me on. I wish there was a button I could push to have it open tomorrow. Sometimes the tiredness, stress of dogs and emergencies makes me lose a lot of time on the hospital but we are getting there.

As always thank you so much for following along and having my back. it means the world.

Big Love

Niall

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