Latest News
We've reached the goal!!! Thanks to everyone who gave. The book is paid for and today we have put up
the Epilogue so that's all folks!
But please don't stop giving or spreading the word as Dave really needs a few thousand dollars more if at all possible.
Talking of spreading the word please consider voting for Save the Dragons in the
"Rose & Bay" awards
Dave and Barbs are
unpacking
and generally settling in. Just the two of them as their pets are still in quarantine and the boys ar back at uni
Assuming Dave agrees I'll create epub and mobi format ebooks of Save the Dragons to be made available on this site next week.
[Also trying to get a handle on problems some Internet Explorer users have with the site - if the links don't work you can read the
book starting
here and
donate here]
Previous news items
Welcome to SAVE THE DRAGONS
Hello, this is Dave Freer! Welcome to this new venture of mine. Hey
I already said that kind of, well be welcome anyway!
Some of you know that we're emigrating from South Africa where my
family have lived for generations to seek pastures new in Australia.
We've been poked and prodded and evaluated and everything else, and
been granted visas: so now its time to sell up and go and start afresh.
I’m looking forward to being an Australian, and learning to fit in
there.
Unfortunately there's one teeny tiny problemette: our cats and
dogs. Only, if you’re us, that’s a huge Godzilla-size problem.
They’re not a responsibility we take lightly or just abandon.
You see if we're to take them with us - which we really want to do
(see FAQ) - they have to stay
in quarantine and that's expen$ive, we'd kind of budgeted for it but
what’s budgeted isn't enough given how the exchange rates have moved.
Hence this site to try and make up the shortfall. Some details of how the money will be
spent are also in the FAQ.
Please read because it explains that $10,000 is really just the bare minimum required!
The Storyteller's Bowl
The idea is simple and borrowed from Schezerade and her companions
of ages past: I tell you all a story and at critical moments I pass the
hat around. When you've given me enough money I continue.
In fact I'm modifying this slightly - the idea is to put up a
chapter a week of my latest book "Save the Dragons" assuming that I've
received enough donations (the thermometers at the left tells you
where we are). The book has 25 chapters plus an epilog. You get the
first one free and then I collect $400 (US) per chapter (and per week).
If and when the book is published anyone who contributes more (in
total) than $25 will get a personalized signed copy in Hardback posted
to them (or if it doesn’t ever come out in hardback -all but my first
book have done -- in the next most expensive format). And no matter
what all the money raised goes to keeping the Freer furry animals
together with their servants that would be us
as we head off in search of a new life.
More pesky details
You want to know more? who do think you are? Oliver Twist? Well OK
hie thee over to the FAQ and you'll find pictures of the furry
creatures in question, more information about me, South Africa and
Australia, how this scheme works, etc.
Most importantly. If you want to read more of the book, go to the Donate page and use Paypal to
transfer me some money.
Oh you want to know what the book is about? well it's about dragons
and it's a comic fantasy and you can read more at the Book Contents link. And to make it easy
for people coming back every week the most recent chapter is always
available at the Latest tab
Finally the Links page has links
to other sites with my babbling on it, sites with information about
where we live in South Africa and where we're going to in Australia, a list
of my books published to date and links to facebook and livejournal places where
you can discuss the book and the project.
The Furry Members of the Freer Family
Dave and Barbs adopt rescue
animals. Except for the Old English (who was actually born on my lap)
all our beasties were the unwanted. We love them and want them very
much. Freer Beasts live to venerable ages and always have a person to
hand -- it’s a close bond.
We are owned by four cats. We have 4 dogs,
but one is very elderly and unlikely to live more than another few
months (She’s blind and has been for about 14 of her 17 years . I am
her seeing eye human, and until the last few years she didn’t let being
blind slow her down at all.) She’s also gone deaf, so life can be
interesting for us as she can’t hear you call. But Buttons has been a
loyal beastie, and we’ll look after for as long as she’s not in
distress. We know it won’t be long now, but we’re determined to make it
happy and peaceful as possible. She won’t make it to Oz. But her feet
are already on the edge of the rainbow bridge.
Roland
Then there is Roland (Roly), who is an Old English Sheepdog and a
brainless, big-hearted, demanding moo-of-dog. He’s heroic and silly and
spends most of his time within big black nose reach of me. Old English
Sheepdogs have big black noses so you know which end to offer food to.
There really isn’t any evidence of Old English being related to Polar
bears or Citroens, they just look that way. Roly’s mother had 9 pups
and he was the one she deposited on my lap. He got that black nose
bitten by a puff-adder a few years back and we nearly lost him. I spent
three days at the vet inside his kennel, just sitting with him.
Roland is almost certainly not a reincarnation of Einstein, unless the brains failed to
make it into the new body, but people that only see him from a distance sometimes think he is
Pugsley & Wednesday
Then there are brother and sister Pugsley and Wednesday, who are
Labrador-cross-traveling salesdog and were due to be put down by their
pure-bred breeder before we intervened. Puggle is blond and weighs in
at a sturdy 105 pounds, and he’d weight 305 pounds if he did not have
to live with that cruelty to big sloppy-soppy Labby’s -- restriction of
food, or he would eat until he exploded or his knees gave in. He’s good
natured, soft-eared and everyone’s friend. Even the cats. He does like
to go walkabout and nearly lost his life to a snare - we found him in
the dark after many hours of searching. Wednesday is all too like her
namesake (or vice versa) She’s black and slight and a bit finickity
(for a Labrador cross) and an appalling thief with the best
poor-me-I-am-soul-of-injured-innocence-big-brown-eyes (while she has
the evidence sticking out of her mouth). She likes the occasional
cuddle when no one else is around to see the tough girl facade slip.
She had a gastro-intestinal-tract issue as a puppy and is possibly the
most expensive rescue animal we have ever owned having spent 3 weeks at
the vet, and had extensive surgery. She’s been fine for years, except
for an allergy to cheap dogfood.
The Cats
The cats... In the fashion of cats, we humans are but humble staff, and
you can’t get good help these days.
Legolas
Lord of the Manor is Legolas, or as
my mum calls him, “Legless” - he likes being carried. He is the least
elfish-slim cat in the universe, but when he was rescued - a feral
kitten from one of the apartheid era slum-townships, he was not fully
weaned and was very tiny indeed. I brought him home on a Sunday - not a
catfood-selling shop to be found - so he started his life with us -
probably his first solid food, on tiny flakes of spiny lobster and
fresh salmon-pink slivers of trout. He hasn’t looked back (at a full
food-bowl) since. He’s a menace when I prepare seafood or fish. And for
reasons known only to a cat, he likes baked beans. And then he likes to
lie on your chest. Not facing you....
La Duchess
La Duchess is she-who-must-be-obeyed. She’s a tortie from the SPCA.
She’d obviously been fairly traumatized before being adopted and it
took a long time to accustom her to human company let alone climbing
into bed with them. But when a cat is cold and wet, what else are
humans good for? She dances on her back feet and climbs up human legs.
Stockings are made for this, really. She also just happens to go
walking where you are going walking. It would be beneath her dignity to
walk with you. No, she’s out for a stroll, and you, her faithful
retainers just happen to be close at hand. Very odd, her humans. They
do it all the time. As a kitten she also just happened to be climbing
the same tree that we were picking pears from. You know those cartoons about a
cat being stuck up a tree? They’re not funny.
Batman & Robin
Batman - named for his very large ears - believes he is out to save
Gotham City. Or possibly pounce on it. He’s a tiny flat-sided tabby
with an obsession for blue cheese and Salami. He really prefers being
Legsie’s sidekick than to having to cope with his fluffly and beautiful
sister Robin.
She is fluffy and very slight - a tiny ball of bones and
fur and not much else, but she’s brave, brave lady Robin and she’s not
afraid of anything... when she’s safe in B’s arms anyway. She got
caught out in a mountain thunderstorm and it has taken her years to
even go outside, and she vanishes from strangers. Both Bat and
Woosy-pussy Robin were sent to the our vet to be put down as unwanted
kittens. Bless Shirley at the vet - she found them homes instead.
How do I donate?
You may donate via PayPal or by credit card by clicking the
button below:
OR you may send a check or money order (in US funds only) to:
Walt Boyes
837 Suncrest Drive,
Aurora, IL 60506 USA
If you would like to donate to the Save The Dragons project
as a gift
(or in someone else's name) please log directly into Paypal and use the
paypal "send money" or direct payment method to make a donation to wboyesATixDOTnetcomDOTcom (where The Usual
replaces AT and DOT).
When you do, please use Save The Dragons Gift
as the email subject. Please note the name and reasonable contact/ID
information in the "Note (optional)" field so that we'll be able to
identify the intended recipient in the event that $25 is accumulated in
their name and they become eligible for a trade edition of Save The
Dragons, should one be produced.
Gift subscriptions can also be made by check or money order (in US
funds only) through the mail to:
Walt Boyes
837 Suncrest Drive,
Aurora, IL 60506 USA
If you choose this option, please include the above information in a
note.
Folks outside the USA who don't want to use Paypal are urged to contact Dave directly at
saveDOTtheDOTdragonsDOTgiftATgmailDOTcom to
figure out what currency to use, address to send to etc.
Note: The donation amounts on the left are not updated immediately - typically it takes a
couple of days for the smoke signals to be seen in South Africa/Tasmania