OUR "BABIES"

Looking them fills our heart with happiness, as we found them while they were just poor, sick and weak puppies, we took them into our home, we offered them medical care where needed,and grew them with affection and love. Shelter life is not easy for puppies,so we take them home for several months, making them also full vaccination, de-worming and de-flea, and afterwards we take them in the shelter waiting for an owner.

Bellow you can see our most recent puppies and you can read their story and find out their evolution.

BURSU

For us and also for the vets Bursu was a real miracle. He was a healthy young male, a gorgeos one, playing all day long without stop with our other dogs, nothing could stop him.

Unfortunately, due to a stupid accident, he paralised of his back legs. It had been a shock for him transforming himself into a crawling dog, with no strenght. He was staying all day long in the same place, very sad, and had lost a lot of weight very quickly. It was devastating seeing him like this. I brought him to vets here who didn’t know what’s the disease, I brought him to a city nearby to a better vet, who after maiking the x-rays said that nothing is bad with his spine, but it might be a marrow compression and that it all depends on how he is taken care of but the chances are minimal. He was sleeping with us in the room,and his eyes full of hope met us every morning and night. We decided to go to Bucharest where there are the best vets, so we visited two vets: one at the Veterinary Medicine, considered to be very skilled, who said that Bursu will NEVER walk again, he will NEVER recover and it is better to euthanise him and the second said that we can do him a myelogram but in his opinion there are under 1% chances.

We couldnt’ stop crying and crying, as he was a young dog full of life, and he wanted to live….so we decided to give him a chance, to fight for his life together. We want to thank to Mrs. Kiia Vasko for his moral support and advice with Bursu’s situation but also for the vitamins and medicines that she provided us. So, we started to read and read about his disease, meantime surrounding him with lots of love and care. It wasn’t an easy period, as his clothes had to be changed and washed every day and lot of care to be given. We were making him massage every evening, exercising giving him good food, vitamins and medicines, keeping him warm.

After a period, we realized that he started to feel his back legs, we were also taking him outside in the garden, first in our arms, but seeing the other dogs running he was fighting to jump of our arms, so we left him use Marc’s wheelchair. One should have seen him how proud and happy he was that he can run too with the others. We figured out that he is on the right way and that he has big chances to recover now, so we went on with the care and treatment.

His situation started to improve from day to day, until he started to walk on his own legs, little by little. We couldn’t belive this, because from the point of view of 4 vets, he was considered a lost cause, no worthing to fight.

After another period, Bursu started to walk again normally. From our point of view he is indeed a miracle, and just want to know that it worthed every single effort we made for him. It is not easy to handle and live with a handicapped dog, and many people, not able to face with so much care and lack of their own confort, can’t face this and give up.

But, for us, every dog needs care, attention and love, and every dogs deserves the same, never make differences.

MARC

In November 2004, while we were preparing to go to the shelter, we found in front of our home a poor small dog, very skinny, with a very sad look, who couldn’t walk on his back legs , probably had been hit by a car.He was crawling and had big wounds at his back legs.
It was awful and when we saw him like that he broke our heart.
He probably had an owner who abandoned him when he saw his situation and instead of calling us to let us know about him, he prefered to be a coward with no heart and left him on the street all alone, despite his condition.
We took him inside( although at that time we had another 16 we couldn’t bring him to the shelter), we fed him and started to take care of him.
But, we knew that our love and home treatment is not enough so we decided to bring him to a vet for a check and X-rays to see what’s wrong with his spine and if something could be done for him.
As in Tg-Jiu there’s no vet who has X-rays and other equipments needed in this situation, we decided to go with him to Bucharest.The problem was that Bucharest is 300 km distance, the vets ask a lot of money and as much as we wanted to we couldn’t do this alone.
Having a lot of financial difficulties and being aware that we couldn’t afford to support these expenses we asked support from foreign animal protection organization, but the only one who gave us a positive answer and showed a lot of compassion and moral support was " Wetnose" from England. They were willing to support all the expenses, from transport, X-rays, medicines, to surgery.
So,we brought Marc to Bucharest, he had his X-rays and an operation on his spine. After the surgery his situation improved a little and we belive that someday he will be able to walk again.

From the beginning I was changing him daily the bandages from his legs and in about one month there was no injure, the bone recovered and the hair grew back. Soon he started to gain weight be like a "pumpkin".

As you may imagine,he is not easy to take care of, towels and blankets must be changed daily, need to clean after him many times everyday, but all this doesn’t matter as long as he is happy and content with his life.
He is surrounded with a lot of love and by a lot of friends, who, as if feeling that he has problems, give him a lot of attention.MAybe many would consider that it was in vain and would have euthanised him immediately. But seeing him everyday, seeing how happy he was that we are next to him, seeing him so jumping and playing with his friends, we decided that he deserves a chance to live. This is not an act of egoism, is about the power of a dog who can live happy despite his handicap.He is amongst the most intelligent dogs we’ve ever met, you can see his happiness in his eyes.

He is a powerful dog so we do hope from the bottom of our heart that someday he will walk again like before.
He loves to go outside in the courtyard, to run and play with the other dogs. So, I thought that would be a good idea to have a wheel chair. I decided to contact the organization " Eddies’ Wheels" from U.S.A. who, after reading Marc’s Story where very touched, and agreed to donate Marc a wheel chair.
When you look in his eyes you feel that he wants to live, he has so much energy and love to give…………..

Update: Marc is huge now, like a pig……..:) That is why we call him sometimes : Piggy…….. He wants to get all the attention when we have visitors, runs on and on and speaks in his own way. In the evening, when sleeping time comes, he goes in his basket, where he has a pillow and a towl, and waits for us to come to cover him with his small blanket. By his behaviour we feel that he enjoys every second of his life!

We and Marc send a huge thank you to the wonderful people who made all this possible for Marc : Mrs. Andrea and Mr. Gavin Gamby-Boulger, Ms. Dawn Elliot from "Wetnose" and to Mrs. Leslie and Mr. Eddie from " Eddies’ Wheels"

WILL FOR LIFE

FOSTER HOME

RECOVERY AT HOME

A HOME FULL OF LIFE, BUT ALSO OF HARD WORK

The story began when we were living in a two room appartment in 1999, when we had ” only” 4 dogs. Our home offered love and care to tens of stray animals, a part remained with us for the rest fo their lives, a part were adopted and others were taken to the shelter waiting for someone to adopt them. Besides our permanent dogs, we also took in our home lots of dogs for recovering when being sick or after surgeries or neuterings, and also new puppies found wandering the streets. Knowing that we take care of poor dogs, it happened many times to find dogs or cats thrown in our courtyard or left in front of our home. Of course that we couldn’t leave them, so we received them inside and they became part of our familly.
As you can easily figure out, especially if you have at least one animal in your care, it is a huge work, demands lots of time, patience and efforts to have so many dogs and cats to handle in your home, not speaking about endless cleaning hours, cooking and feeding, repairing furtnitures after being chewed…..but no matter how hard it is, seeing their happy eyes, seeing them healthy and full of joy, showing in their own way the gratitude for our love and care, fill our heart with positive energy and pushes us to go ahead.

LET’S MEET OUR FOUR-LEGGED FAMILLY

OUR CATS

First is Mitza,whom we found wandering on a national road. We stopped the car and found two gorgeous and very hungry kittens who had probably been abandoned.Country people use to do awful things with the kittens, they put them in a sack and throw them in the water, they dump them in the forests etc etc to get rid of them. Luckly, we took these kittens at home, and found an owner for one of them. Next is Lina, that we found all alone in the center of the city, between the cars, very weak and skinny, so we took her and now she is a very nice cat. Last is Dixy, the male, who came on a cold night, right on the chimney and didn’t want to leave our house anymore.

Also, there is Julie,that someone left on a rainy night in front of our home and she started to cry as if saying : “Please, let me in!!” Although it was summer it was pretty cold, she was small and all wet. We took her in our home and she remained with us. There is also, El, that we found at the limit of a forest on a national road, so tinny you could hardly notice. He would have been killed by cars for sure, so we took him home with us. He was covered in thousands of fleas. Now, he is fat and goodlooking. Our first cat, Pisa, had just one month when we found her, all alone, crying in front of our block, frightened, hungry and full of fleas and parasites. We took her inside for a lunch and couldn’t let her go. In her ‘childhood” she used to play with our dogs, to beat them and she also had an adoptive mother, Dolly.

OUR DOGS

Patrick, Micky and Cara, are our first dog together with Tutza, who died at the age of 15 years old.

There came our first stray saved in 2000, Bella, who was a just a puppy, then there was Picky, who was a sick and weak puppy, and there is Max whom we found on a very cold night, in winter, being caught by a wire somewhere near our block and couldn’t move. He was screaming a lot so we went there and saved him. He didn’t eat for a long time , was very hungry and almost frozen.Now, he is happy but very jealouse on the other dogs and likes a lot the women and the parfums.

Nex is Betty, who has been thrown out of a car in front of the shelter, althought she was pregnant. She was extremely scared and with no trust in people. After neutering her we gave her for adoption , but she was brought back because ” she was very sad, didnt move and didnt want to play with the child“.We decided to offer her a home and it worth it. Tzica, Urata,

A gipsy brought Dolly to the shelter saying that he found her running loose in the cemetery nearby. We took her and we started to give announcements in the local press trying to find her owner, but had no luck. So, she remained with us and now she makes part of our Youth Education and Animal Assisted Therapy programme. Bubu was found on the street ,terrible skinny and with few hair left due to a skin disease, probably being abandoned by her owner. We took her home, treated her and soon she recovered, now being the chief at home.Alma was abandoned by her owner on the field near the shelter when she was just a puppy. Because outside was very cold, we found her frozen and almost dead. We took her home and made her many treatements and finally, being surrounded by love, she recovered. But, we realized that she was blind. At the begining she was following us everywhere, slept on the pillow with us and was crying when we let her alone. After several months, in which we did our her best for her and , the most important, offered her a lot of love and care, she started to see partially.

We found Mica in the city, running senseless and seemed so scared. She was so tinny and weak that we couldn’t leave her and took her home. She has her own way of speaking with us, is extremely sociable now and she loves to go with us almost every weekend at the Center for Old people, where we are running the “Soul to Soul” programme. We found Ghita when he was just a puppy. He had parvovirosis, so we took him home in order to take care of him in the night also. Soon after he recovered we realized that he has epilepsy, so we must give me daily his dose in order not to make seizures. But, besides this health problem, he is a very loving dog, has a blue eye, likes to eat and play. Pitty, as you can see was very skinny and sick, living in the courtyard of a hospital. We were feeding her daily, but we decided to take her home because otherwise she would have surely died. Soon, we found her mother dead, being poisoned. Now, Pitty, grew a lot , got weight is living home with us..

Bellow you can first see Gica and Nela, who were abandoned in front of our home and we couldn’t leave them there as they were very small and weak, so we took them inside and have been raising them. Next you can see Fulga whom we found at the begining of 2005, when it was extremely cold and she was just a puppy, wandering the streets, alone and sick. We didn’t think that she will recover from her illnes but again, we were thought that love and care make wonders. Nasuc was brought to us by an animal lover who found her when she was a puppy, in a town nearby and couldn’t leave her there as she was also sick and had no noise, just an infection. We took her in our home, treated her and now she is healthy, playful and goodlooking:)

A lady called us in the Easter evening in 2007 and told us that a dog was laying poisoned at her fence, struggling and in pains. We went there and took her at our home, finding no vet at that hour. We administrated her the first aid in poisoning cases and had to wait until morning. We named her Otravita. Luckly, she started to feel better and better until she recovered. Now, she is still living with us and she is a real sweety. Next is Wilma and you can read her story here

Eating time, playing in the garden and making wholes everywhere and sleeping finally.

OUR DOGS FROM ACROSS THE STREET

Across our home, we have a land where some years ago came a female – probably belonging to the gipsies living nearby who threw her away – and being pregnant gave birth to her puppies in the bushes. After a while we saw her there and we started to feed her and her puppies. Feeding them daily, soon there came also a male. We called them, Latila and Mama ( first photos bellow). When the puppies grew we neutered them also. They consider our land there home and never left.As around there live gipsies they leave their dogs with no food, and they come to our land where they see us feeding this familly. After a while, there came another resident, Negrila, who remained with us. We improvised them some cages. As our land wasn’t fenced, we had plenty of problems with the neighbors who were making complaints everywhere _ to Police , City Hall, Public Healthy etc – under the reason that they were disturbed by the dogs.We had to fence the area so that they don’t go in the neighborhood so now they live here.