April 2009

 Running a shelter is not an easy thing as one might think, on the contrary, it demands huge work , time , energy and sacrifices. Read bellow what we face day by day and how hard we manage to do things right for the welfare of the shelter animals.

Whenever finding sick or injured animals on the streets we take them to the shelter as we can’t leave them suffering and dying on the streets. Animals with health problems are always a priority for us!

April 2009

We have found him right near our home, being hit by a car, with an open bloody wound at his front leg, having also a bone fracture. His back leg was also fractured , on the same side. We have taken him to the vet who started to operate him …...read here more.

March 2009 

While driving in the city we saw on a sidewalk a dog standing and not moving. It seemed to us that something is not right with him, so we stopped the car and started to call him. Any healthy dog would have either run and come to us, but he didn’t. When we went near him and started to touch his back legs, he started to cry and din’t allow us anymore to pet him. We tried to pick him up on his feets, but he was making one two steps, without any equilibrum and was falling down. As he was crying we looked at all the people that were passing nearby him, some ignored him, a woman stopped, looked at him and left, a man with his child was saying to his child " look that dog had been hit by a car "…..but no one came to him. So, as he was very calm and friendly, but definetely had pains after being hit by a car, we took him slowly, put him into car and  took him to the vet who said that it is a trauma and that he will heal. We made him some injections and we took him to shelter.   

A lady living in a town nearby, Bumbesti-Jiu town, called us informing us about a dog who has been hit by a car  and can’t walk on his back legs.

He had been living in front of her block for about 5 days, he was crying often probably because of the pain but the woman didn’t know what to do. So, we went there and found this small nice dog, who had the back leg problem.  We took him in the city to the vet who recommended to take him to x-rays. After taking the x-rays the vet said that the dog has no fracture at the column, just a small fracture at one of the back legs, that is recoverable, with care and treatment. Now, he is under our care at the shelter

Few dogs found last years

2008

December

In December we received 54 boxes with sacks of dry food from Pro Animals Finland , that were much then welcomed taking into account the difficulties we face because of food.

June

 The Finnish man who transported the cages for us from Finland in March, came with two workers and brought two wooden toillets but also helped building the wooden garden shed.

New dog cages in March

Mrs. Kiia Vasko got in contact with a finnish person who is working in Romania in construction and asked him to come to help us build the cages sent in February.Unfortunately, here it is impossible to find people to work for a day, and even if we found they would have asked lots of money and also food and for drink and would have probably done 20 cage sin one week. But, the finnish man, Mr. Mauri, came with two hard-working people who built 20 cages in about 2 hours or even less and even helped us put it inside shelter.

Finnish help  in February

Prepairing it since last year, the transport arrived in February 2008 to our shelter. Mrs. Kiia Vasko, arranged all the goods and the transport, and there is a wooden room of about 6 sqm, wooden dog cages, an electric generator, dry dog and cat food.

2007

This is the caravan that we bought in 2007, with the support of Mrs. Kiia Vasko and Mr. Mihai Paraschiv. It is 7,80 meters long and in total 14 sqm and it was made in 1980. Although it is an old one, it was very well mentained. We situated it in front of the shelter and it is very useful for us,having four compartiments for deposit, also many other shelves, .

2006

Luckly, in 2006 our need became reality thanks to Ms. Kiia Vasko, Mrs. Nicole Fowler and Mr. Mihai Paraschiv. It was a second-hand van but it was very good and useful for the shelter’s activity. We transport food – and the space is much bigger- but also dogs in special cages.

1999 -2005

Since 1999 to 2006 from the begining we used our own personal turism car, for every activity of the shelter, for carring food – dry and wet, for transporting dogs etc. This car was carring tens of sack of 30kg, but also huge buckets of wet food. There was a big need of achieving a small van, as things became impossible to carry on with this one. So, for a couple of years we tried to buy a van but unfortunately bacause of financial reasons it wasn’t easy.

 MEDICAL CARE – A VERY IMPORTANT ASPECT

We are transporting dogs and cats by car for surgeries and harder treatments at a local clinic -as we don’t have in the shelter a proper place where to perform surgerie- , or depending on the gravity of case even at a clinic in a city nearby at 100 km , called Craiova, or in Bucharest, at 300 km distance, but the rest of treatments are made inside the shelter by the president of the association, Carmena Serbanoiu.

We all know how important is to be good in what we do and the best part is that she is not only a huge animal lover but also specialized in animal domain. "I graduated The Veterinary Medicine and ZootehnyUniversity, from Bucharest, ,specialised in Zootechny. I am a fully qualified zootehnist engineer with diploma. This university is based specially on Management and Technology in animals’ domain and Veterinary Medicine. I made classes like: Animal Genetics, Animal Anatomy, Animals Physiology etc but also, Technology of Feeding and taking care of animals, and Animal Management. It combines somehow the information about animals health, grow, feeding etc with the one of animal management. From 2006, I started studying for a Doctorate Degree at the University from Bucharest , on animal protection and welfare ( specialized in dogs, cats and horses, studing also about animals’ health, diseases and treatments)."

Treatments and other surgeries needed were done also during the Neutering Campaign by the finnish vet and assistant

VACCINATION CAMPAIGN AT THE SHELTER 24.01.2008

Due to rabied foxes discovered nearby Tg-Jiu, it was declared area in quaranteen so we decided to re-vaccinate all our dogs from the shelter. There came the vet with whom we cooperate, with the assistants, as well as reprezentatives from the Sanitary-Veterinary Direction to supervise the action but also journalists.

After several hours, we succeeded to vaccinate anti-rabies all the dogs from the shelter.

THEY WILL BE ALWAYS IN OUR HEARTS!

Since 1999, there were also dogs that we lost, despite all the possible medical efforts. Some had a life full of suffering in the past, but we tried to offer them all our care and love and their reward was above words. Few can feel the pain of loosing a dear animal, unless they felt it too. No matter you loose one or many you suffer the same, you don’t get ever immunity. It hurts you above words to realize that you lost an animal, and what hurts you most is to realize that there are cases where love and attention is not enough anymore, that no matter what he/she will go. Bellow, you can see only some of those who filled our heart with happiness, to whom we dedicate the poem above.

We are doing our best to find our dogs good and responsible families. We have an announcement in a weekly local newspaper but also give announcements for adoptions at the local radios. When a person comes at the shelter and wants to adopt a dog, we put him many questions and also ask him to fill in a form, in order to know more about him and his family. After adoption, we visit the dog as often as we have the possibility in order to see if he is well taken care of and if he is happy there. If we notice that the new home is not good enough, we take him back to the shelter and try to find a better home.

 More adoptions’ stories

ADOPTING PROCEDURE

When there comes someone to the shelter in order to adopt a dog he had to follow some steps before the adoption itself. First, we put him lots of questions about himself, about him/her family, place where they live and schedule. After this, we suggest them a dog that we think would suit their behaviour and activity as well as telling them the conditions that he has to respect in order to be a responsible owner.

We usually don’t give the dogs on the spot,so we ask the potential owner to come again whenever it is possible for him and after thinking at what we have told them regarding ownership, if agreeing.

Bellow, is a form that every owner has to fill in, containing information about him and also he has to sign that he agrees our conditions.

VISITING THE ADOPTED DOGS

Whenever it is possible for us, or it happens to hear that something is not going well, we go to visit the dogs that we gave for adoption, to see their condition. If the dog is not good taken care of we have the right to take him back.

Prayer of a Stray

Dear God, please send me somebody who’ll care!
I’m tired of running; I’m sick with despair.

My body is aching; it’s so racked with pain,
And Dear God, I pray as I run in the rain.

That someone will love me and give me a home,
A warm cozy bed and a big juicy bone.

My last owner tied me all day in the yard,
Sometimes with no water and God, that was hard!

So I chewed my leash God and I ran away,
To rummage in garbage and lives as a stray.

But now God I’m tired, hungry and cold,
And I’m so afraid that I’ll never grow old.

They’ve chased me with sticks and hit me with stones,
While I run the streets just looking for bones!

I’m not really bad God; please help me if You can,
For I have become just a "victim of man".

I’m wormy dear God and I’m ridden with fleas,
While all I want is an owner to please!

If you find one for me God I’ll try to be good,
I won’t chew their shoes and I’ll do, as I should.

I’ll love them protect them and try to obey,
When they tell me to sit, to lie down or stay!

I don’t think I’ll make it too long on my own,
‘Cause I’m getting so weak and I’m all alone.

Each night as I sleep in the bushes – I cry….
I’m so afraid God that I’m gonna die!

And I’ve got so much love and devotion to give,
That I should be given a new chance to live.

So dear God please, please answer my prayer,
And send me SOMEBODY who will really care…..

That is dear God if you’re really there?!