Thank you all so, so much for the beautiful messages of congratulations and support for our 15th Anniversary on the 8th August. Every message was special, and here, representing them all, was the one received from my beautiful friend, mentor and our UK Patron, Virginia McKenna OBE.

“I am thinking of Jill and her wonderful team and, of course, all the bears and dogs they have rescued over the past 15 years. Thinking of the people with huge admiration and gratitude, and of the animals with deep affection and respect.

“I also am thinking of the thousands of people that Animals Asia has influenced to look at animals in a different way, and to treat them with the compassion they deserve. The 15th anniversary of Animals Asia is a day to mark in many ways – as will be all the anniversaries to come.”

The day was spent with the team on site with our bears in Chengdu. That evening, as we celebrated with approximately 200 staff and VIP guests, we looked in to the sky and saw something we have never seen before – a beautiful rainbow in the shape of a crescent moon.

To a person, considering that a) we rarely see rainbows and b) have never seen one with that particular shape in our lives, we all felt it to be profoundly special – and, perhaps, a good luck symbol for the weeks and months to come.

Breaking the bars – our promise to the bears.