Niall Harbison Profile picture
May 16, 2024 7 tweets 6 min read Read on X
We had a very special arrival today. Little Stella was released from the vets.

She’s had an incredibly hard start in life and is only 8 months old.

She doesn’t understand yet but Stella is making huge progress.

Her future will be bright… (1/7) 🧵 Image
Stella is a street dog who had string tied around her neck when a younger puppy. As she grew it’s been cutting into her. We luckily managed to catch her.

The vets have been treating her under sedation as she’s extremely snappy and protective because of the pain (2/7)




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The vets have done incredible work cleaning her up. The string is gone and the wound cleaned. But she couldn’t stay there forever. We had to obviously take her back as she can’t go back alone. This is where the hard part starts… (3/7)





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Stella came into the land. She’s very very scared and tried to bite the vets, Sybille and myself. She can’t be touched at all right now. Obviously we can’t sedate her like the vet did either. We had to secure her in Derek’s old suite and get a plan together (4/7)
Obviously none of this is Stella’s fault. She’s just terrified and never had good interactions with humans.

We can get her medicines into her food and she is eating and drinking well. The wound will heal with time. The hard part is cleaning it (5/7)


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We have to improvise in these situations. She literally wants to snap our hands off right now. We have a technique where I distract her with a little towel and someone else cleans as best we can.

Im sure people will suggest muzzles, sedating her etc etc. We often have to come up with solutions on the go. It’s not easy being in a very small space with a dog who absolutely wants to bite you at all costs. We got her wound cleaned, suite cleaned out with fresh bedding, food and water in and out etc. she’s starting to adjust but she has been through so much (6/7)
By the end of the day I’d built up the courage to sit with her. You’ll see a very different dog in 2-3 months time but this won’t be easy.

We’ll win little Stella over with patience, love, treats, medicine and making her feel safe.

You can do it Stella 🥰🙏 (7/7)


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More from @NiallHarbison

Feb 3
I’ve been involved in a lot of hard dog rescues in my time. But none quite like tonight.

We’ve been trying to catch this boy for a week after being sent this photo. He’s a wild street dog.

It looks like we’ve saved his life… (1/7) 🧵 Image
We’ve failed on 6 previous attempts. Sedation, traps, nets and many of us in the fields. He has been too scared.

We’ve probably used 50 man hours trying to catch him.

We even darted him once but he got away into the jungle (2/7) Image
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We got him tonight after an epic chase.

It was life or death. The wound on his face was full of maggots and flies. I’ve shared the pic from a distance to not shock but his face was being eaten alive (3/7) Image
Read 7 tweets
Jan 9
On the 23rd of October Stormzy came into us with a massive brain injury.

He couldn’t walk or even support his head.

Today 11 weeks later, Stormzy was adopted and went home with his forever family… (1/8) 🧵 Image
He’d been hit by a car. His owner had frantically been looking for a vet.

He was told in this pic that he needed to pay to put him to sleep. He didn’t have the money so he had to take him home for 4 full days and just watch him hopelessly (2/8) Image
Our vet said just give him time. It was incredibly painful to watch him suffer so much. But the medicines and rest really did work.

He couldn’t walk or eat himself for weeks. But the swelling stated to go down (3/8)
Read 9 tweets
Jan 6
An incredible outcome…

She came to us 6 weeks ago with tumors on her eyes and inside her mouth.

To see her today is a thing of beauty…(1/5) 🧵 Image
Her owners were distraught. They are not well off people.

They came to us at Tina’s hospital hoping for some sort of miracle.

Even I thought she might have to be put down when I saw her the first day (2/5) Image
I can explain how amazing our medical team are.

They diagnosed it as TVT cancer. This was her 6 weeks ago being treated outside as it is transmissible.

She kept nearly choking on her blood and she couldn’t see a thing (3/5)
Read 5 tweets
Jan 5
This was the first photo I was ever sent of Stormzy.

His owner had found our contact details. He was told he had to pay to put him to sleep but he didn’t have the money.

That was 2.5 months ago. Stormzy was getting some big news today…. (1/7) 🧵 Image
He came to us on a little wooden “stretcher” his owner had made.

Stormzy had been hit by a car and had a serious brain injury. Things did not look good (2/7) Image
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For a week his head was “stuck” like this. His neck wasn’t strong enough to control what it was doing.

We fed him via a drip and out vet said give him time to see if the swelling would go down (3/7) Image
Read 8 tweets
Sep 28, 2025
Shaq is the hardest rescue I’ve ever had.

His life was nearly over when I found him 2 years ago.

I was feeling a little down today so I went to see him. It’s hard to believe how good he now looks (1/7) 🧵 Image
This was the very first picture of him that I was sent. He had a huge growth on his neck.

I dropped everything and went there immediately (2/7) Image
We had to do 2 huge operations. The vets told us he probably wouldn’t survive.

It took him about 6 weeks to recover with us. It was agony for him and huge stress for us (3/7) Image
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Read 7 tweets
Sep 23, 2025
Of all the dogs I’ve ever rescued McMuffin is hands down the worst case I’ve ever seen.

That’s why seeing her celebrate her birthday today in Germany is such a joyous scene.

A remarkable story… (1/10) 🧵 Image
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When I was handed her in the street in Thailand I’ve never smelt anything like it.

1000s of ticks on her body and the stench of rotting flesh and tumors (2/10)
I’m not scared to say I went home that night and decided it was the end. Based on the vets advice it would be kinder to leg her go.

Luckily I woke up and thought differently (3/10) Image
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Read 10 tweets

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