A Beautiful Love Affair with Sierra

To understand the origin of A Beautiful Love Affair with Sierra, I would need to start from the beginning of my journey as a Pitbull mom and volunteer. This wasn’t something that I planned for or thought would ever happen if you asked me about it five years ago. But as all great stories go, everything happens for a reason.

I moved from JHB in 2015 with both my staffies, Diezel and Jeanie brother and sister. When I arrived in Cape Town I lived with my mom for a while, until I could find a pet-friendly place that was within my financial capabilities. In that period a lot of anxiety washed over me. I’d been in Cape Town for four months and had not found anything.

The situation looked dire, but an option finally came along. My grandparents’ friends and their two daughters had just lost their staffie and were looking to fill that void. I had come to an impasse and couldn’t postpone the obvious any longer. My two 7-year-old staffies, whom I had the privilege of being there when they were born, had to be rehomed. I convince myself that they were going to be rehomed together, into a loving family, with someone who was always at home – which I couldn’t give them, and they would be better off.

I met with the family, took my 4-legged kids with me and they were completely oblivious to the reasoning for this visit. The guilt I felt with that visit, having to resort to doing this to my precious kids. I felt like I failed them. I failed myself. After the meet and greet, it took me two weeks of hell fighting my conscience and the cards I was dealt with to make the final decision. I drove from Strand to Durbanville with Diezel and Jeanie in the car next to me, explaining and apologising to them both, crying to the point where I couldn’t even see the road in front of me. Not knowing if they understood or if they were sad or if they were ok with my decision. Ultimately, I had no choice, this was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I had their destiny in my hands, I was making decisions for them and not knowing if it was the right one. It wasn’t like they could say to me “Hey, wait a minute, we’re not okay with this”. Their new home was the right choice and I received a lot of photos showing how happy they are.

Fast forward two month to where I found a flat (no pets allowed). Not having any responsibility felt good for a while, but that feeling faded very quickly. I didn’t want to go home anymore, there was nothing for me there. No tails wagging, no excitement, and no purpose! I felt empty and longed for that company again. Coming across a post on Facebook, I decided to volunteer at an organisation called Pitpals. What a wonderful feeling it was to be part of this organisation!

Almost a year passed of volunteering, saving animals from the roadside and fostering only over the weekends as I still lived in my flat. This was until one specific day in July 2016 when I came across a Facebook post from a guy in Athlone, trying to sell a female Pitbull puppy aged 4 months for R800. Now this is very common these days and at first wasn’t something alarming, but reading the comments of possible buyers and of how the owner was proclaiming what a great job he had done with cutting her ears at 8 weeks – left me speechless! Her face just stood out from all the rest and I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.

I arranged to buy her and kept all the communication as evidence. We agreed to meet at Tygervalley shopping centre parking lot that evening at 18h00. I made numerous phone calls for assistance to Law enforcement, SAPS and SPCA and finally obtained the backing of the SPCA. The inspector sat in his car that evening and watched the events unfold. With pepper spray stuffed into my jeans, I went in headstrong, trying to get a recording of this man verbally confessing to the crime he had committed by cutting her ears. Success struck before the transaction concluded. When he handed me this girl, she was skin and bones with her head so big it looked like she was the spitting image of a ‘bobble head’ doll.

After the man left and I had purchased Princess(the puppy in the add), I got into my car and drove to a secluded area with the inspector right behind me. The official process between us started with me giving an affidavit and providing all the evidence of my dealings with the seller. He then asked me a question I didn’t expect at all “Are you her owner now?”. So many emotions went through my head. I mean hello, just short of a year ago I failed my own 2 dogs, there is no way I was putting myself or another animal through this again.

You see, the reason he asked me this question is if an animal is taken in and becomes evidence in a case like this, (seeing that her ears are proof) but she didn’t belong to someone, the animal would stay in the custody of the SPCA, until the case comes forward. Now this could take not only months but years! So, I signed on the dotted line as her owner, knowing full well from my side it was only a temporary scenario until I could find her a suitable home. That first night she went off with the inspector to SPCA for a routine inspection the following morning and later that afternoon I was able to pick her up.

Doing research on powerful and meaningful names, I named her Sierra (Spanish for Mountain Range)

This was supposed to be a temporary arrangement but my attachment to this dog was beyond anything I’ve ever experienced. I put a plea out on Facebook for pet-friendly accommodation and because of my volunteering, my network on Facebook had tripled and before I knew it another rescuer came forward with a solution. I met with them and hey presto – it was meant to be! I got a pet-friendly home.  

Through our journey, Sierra and I have made headlines on Facebook and Instagram. Everywhere she goes with me, she draws people in. Our footprint of making people aware of the breed and what their potential is and the love they have for humans, their loyalty and protectiveness has been a remarkable turning point for the breed.

I scaled down my volunteering in the time I got Sierra because I was working five days a week and she was alone a lot. However, I still felt the need to do more to make a difference, so we started fostering permanently and since January 2018 to date Sierra has fostered 26 pups. She is this perfect natural big sister, almost like she’s been doing this for many years.

Sierra’s 1-year birthday was approaching fast and I wanted to do something special. I decided to have a fundraising party on the 10th March 2018 in her honour. 

And so, A BEAUTIFULL LOVE AFFAIR WITH SIERRA started.

For the past three years we have held Birthday fundraisers for Change for the Better Foundation and Pitpals in Sierra’s name. You can find us on Facebook under the name “A Beautiful Love Affair with Sierra”. To date, we have been able to raise the following:

First year: R16 000 (R7 000 donated to each Org)

Second year: R33 000 (R13 500 donated to each Org)

Third year: R61 038 (R22 500 donated to each Org) hosted on 14 March 2020

As you can see by our figures, we have gone from strength to strength each year surpassing the next. We have grown in leaps and bounds and are confident that we will reach our 4^th years goal of R130 000.