Kate Lamb is an actress, adventurer, and animal lover. She also happens to be a dog behaviourist, offering her services to dog owners in the London acting world, with dreams of establishing her own dog rehabilitation and training centre in the UK. Among her various interests and endeavours, Kate also engages in parkour and bouldering. Surprisingly, it was this connection that led her to us. Bulgaria boasts excellent bouldering areas, and friends from London's parkour and climbing community rented our bungalow, coinciding with our realisation that we needed income to cover our rapidly growing dog food bills. Kate kept seeing photos of puppies and pack walks posted by Andy and Zof, and she became intrigued by this 'Bulgarian puppy paradise’, but her work and other commitments prevented her from visiting.
When her 13-year-old dog companion, Willow, passed away at the end of 2016, Kate found herself without a dog for the first time in years and, fortunately for us, free to travel across Europe in search of a canine fix.
"I'd spent two weeks in France and Austria visiting friends and snowboarding, and I just decided to keep heading east. I spent nearly 18 hours travelling from Austria to Emma and Anthony's. The taxi arrived at 2am, and we nearly ran into a horse in the middle of the road. I had no idea where we were, knew no Bulgarian, and the car stopped seemingly in the middle of nowhere, no town, no streetlights, just pitch black. 'We wait for Emma,' said the driver, and then another car approached us and stopped. In the beam of its headlights, like some shady backwater deal, I shook hands with Emma and Anthony and climbed into their truck to bounce up their driveway".
"I was immediately struck by how little barking there was - nothing like any shelter I've been to before - and then I was sneak-attacked by Big Lad, Tipsy, Poppy, and Lotty, licked and wagged to death before climbing stairs to a bedroom made cosy and welcoming by a wood burner in the corner. The rest is history."
Kate was a whirlwind of energy and focus during her stay with us. On her first morning, we caught Susie and her two six-month-old daughters, who had never been touched by people before. One of them bit both me and Anthony as we caught her. Kate began working with them immediately, using techniques and methods we were unfamiliar with, and within days, they were lead trained and on their way to becoming pets. Luna and Themba now have happy furever homes in the UK. Kate also set up a GoFundMe page while she was here and coined our name, 'Street Hearts BG.'
"It was just a temporary name for the fundraising campaign. I wanted something catchy that people could engage with. I set it up because I realised Emma and Anthony were using their own money to pay for vet bills and food, and it couldn't possibly be sustainable. They are far too generous; they wouldn't let me pay for anything while I was there! And believe me, I tried! Emma and Anthony have such big hearts - the name came from them, really."
Well, we've been Street Hearts BG ever since - the name stuck, and so did Kate. During her second visit (we begged her to come and help us again just eight weeks later), she met a skinny little street dog who stole her own (pretty sizable) heart. Scout and Kate then did the impossible and cycled home to London over six weeks and raised thousands of pounds to support the future of Street Hearts BG. Now, Scout is regularly seen at climbing walls and doing 'dog parkour' when she's not quietly snoozing backstage at the theatre or in a trailer - quite possibly the luckiest street dog around!
"I fully support Emma and Anthony in all they do to help the dogs of Bulgaria. From neutering to owner education, to rehabilitating and rehoming, everything they do is for the sake of the dogs and costs them money, time, effort, and heartache. They've created such a haven for dogs with their free-run centre that I've never seen a happier bunch of shelter pooches. The work and training they do, and the time they take to ensure each dog is ready to move on to a home, is essential in ensuring Street Hearts BG dogs find their furever families. It's this dedication that sets them apart from other rescue and rehoming shelters, and I am proud to have contributed to and be a patron of Street Hearts BG."
