Feelings of the trip to Romania from March 19th to 23rd in 2008

This was my first trip to Targu-Jiu and I decided to travel on such a short notice that it was a bit of a surprise to me, too. I’m in the same group, Animalia’s karhuryhmä (bear group), with Anu and after reading Anu’s emails I became eager to travel to Romania, too. I read some travelogues in advance and some other information of the conditions in Targu-Jiu but it was impossible to prepare for what kind of a strong impact all the things I saw had on my own emotions and whole life.

I met Kiia, Jukka and Heli at the airport for the first time. From the first moment on everyone was really wonderful and warm, even a rookie like me didn’t have to feel myself lost. I had met Anu once earlier but I felt like I had known everyone longer and we had this amazing team spirit.

On my own previous trips I have always felt like I’ve been this “weirdo” who always buys food for stray dogs and cats and spends time in taking care of them but in this gang it was perfectly normal to stop - with our car loaded with tons of food - at some distant gas stations and by the road to feed hungry furballs. It was overwhelming how quickly these frightened dogs that clearly had gotten used to only being abused by people realized we were friends and were overjoyed with love and happiness to get not only their stomachs full but also tenderness and cuddling. It was heartbreaking to go and leave these poor things to watch wistfully how our car drove away…

Especially the young male dog I met on the first gas station was the most charming thing. I could’ve taken it with me right then and there and I’m still thinking if I’d find it on the same spot the next time… It’s somehow comforting that this boy had a pack of its own at the gas station and perhaps some kind-hearted people would sometimes feed these dogs.

As we drove the view from the car was pretty inconsolable. There were starving dogs and little lonely puppies trying to find something to eat… There were also dead dogs by the road. According to others there had been a lot more stray dogs earlier but apparently they had been “cleaned” away. I don’t even want to imagine the ways… I felt really small and helpless when it’s just not possible to help everyone and the attitudes towards animals of most of the locals were either nonchalant or hostile. However, I can’t completely generalize – it was heart-warming to see a scarf-headed old woman feeding stray dogs and a man who tenderly petted his pet dog.

Also the living conditions of horses were miserable. It was awful to see poor horses that were completely exhausted with bones sticking under their skin and backs sagging because of too heavy burdens. I can’t even believe how they won’t take care of an animal that is worth money (!!!). People’s cruelty is inconceivable.

We arrived in Targu-Jiu in the evening and went to the shelter right away. Next to the shelter was the shelter maintained by the city (sigh…) and these two shelters combined formed quite of a sea of curious noses and wagging tails. The barking was overwhelming as every dog wanted to get their share of attention. Also the guardian dogs of the shelter, adorable Gogu and Kiti (who loved Jukka more than anyone…) and the newcomer, a funny dog that seemed to smile all the time wanted tenderness. As I went by the fence I felt noses sniffing my hands eagerly. There was no sign of aggression towards people. That’s pretty unbelievable considering what kinds of things most of the dogs saved by Carmena have gone through… It was also fantastic to meet Carmena and Patricia. I can’t help but admiring them. It’s unbelievable how much good even a couple of determined people can do. That alone gives some hope of the better.

The scent (or smell to be honest with you) wasn’t the best although the fences of over 400 dogs were washed every day. Well, you got used to it quickly and oblivious of the smell of my clothes I wandered e.g. in markets. I probably won’t be able to look at the cardboards in markets the same way ever again after seeing how they were put in use in the shelter. They are always needed for the dogs to lie on and that’s why they were picked up everywhere.

One of the funniest contacts to the locals was when on our last days we had parked our rental car at the hotel and Heli and I were waiting for others. That’s when some man took – those, oh, so lovely – cardboards to the garbage and while Heli stayed and watched our car, I rushed to get those cardboards. A sweet old garbage lady was with me going through the trash and it really didn’t matter much not to have a common language. As I tried to reach for the cardboards I smashed my hand to something (that I don’t want to know, something related to Fear Factor, that’s for sure) and this lovely old woman began to clean my hands before I even managed to wince. She also cleaned up those “valuable” cardboards.

I did my best to use sign language (with a couple of barks – yeah, yeah, enough with the laughing already…) to explain what I was doing. The lovely little old woman was very satisfied when I picked up a couple of cigarettes from Heli (who was an endless source of cigarettes!) and brought some money for the old lady, too. I can imagine that the woman was a bit amazed that you can actually get gifts from a garbage buddy. And sure did the old woman light up a cigarette right away :) Thanks again for this one, Heli!

Our hotel was even better than I had dared to expect. However, as we arrived, the crew told us not to bring any dogs this time (yup, yup, they gotcha the last time!). Every time we came back to the hotel the personnel gazed at our backpacks for long – they were obviously expecting to hear some barking :)

So, let’s get back to our first evening at the shelter. I’m getting a little confused with the days, I apologize for that in advance. The hardest case of the darkening and chilling evening was two puppies aged about 3-4 months that were at the city shelter without any cover from the coldness. A black, funny creature and a white puppy that looked nauseous. I felt extremely bad to leave to the hotel to sleep and leave those two puppies there to freeze but at that time there was nothing else that could be done. Despite having sleep debt, I slept the night miserably and Anu had also been haunted by the thought of the puppies throughout the night. The next day we picked up those puppies away despite the wondering of some Romanian men.

I fell head over heels in love with the black puppy boy who looked like a confused little troll. I named the dog Mörkö (eng. Bogeyman) (poor dog…). The most wonderful moments in the entire trip were when Anu had laid a nice little nest ready for Mörkö and I got to take the little thing there to warmth and safety. Soon I made the decision to take Mörkö with me to Helsinki. After that I started to teach my little Mörökölli to walk with a dog harness on and fed him special nutrients. I noticed that the puppy had started to cough really badly but luckily Carmena had the right medication for it.

We dewormed several dogs with Anu and the results were good. It was absolutely amazing to spend time with tens of dogs surrounding you at the shelter, everyone wanted affection and to be petted. I should have had a hundred hands to be able to pet all the adorable dogs. The sincere, unconditional love these dogs give to you is something I can’t even describe… I didn’t even mind that I got peed on every once in a while – it just meant that “I like that human and I want to mark it as my own” :)

Already in Finland I had gotten a mission to find a boy puppy for my colleague Nina who also loves animals. And we managed to find “a lovely busy little bee” under Carmena’s care. Since the puppy has slightly crooked legs, the dog is now called Mutka (eng. Curve). He might as well be called Metka (eng. Funny) since he’s awfully funny gremlin! Nina will sure have some wildness in her life after the little hurricane arrives :) Every time I looked at the puppy I couldn’t help but think what a wonderful life he is about to have with the best possible home in the countryside, with a dog friend and as a beloved family member. Nina fell in love with the puppy right away after seeing some photos and video clips and is now enthusiastically waiting for the puppy to arrive home. Little Mutka sure is a lucky fellow.

Very soon I noticed that I was spending a lot of time also with the adorable Mutza who lived in the shelter. The mutual affection grew between us day by day to the extent that the little “squirrel dog” will come home to Finland with me as my own little sweetheart. Every day I took Mutza out of the shelter – I fed, pampered and taught him to walk with a dog harness on (and that practice will continue for a long time…). Mutza was so touchingly happy of our time spent together that every time I had to take Mutza back to the shelter, the dog’s cry broke my heart. Oh, if I could’ve somehow told how I would come back for him and he wouldn’t be left without love for the rest of his life. Mutza is really affectionate and a couch potato that likes to live peacefully, he don’t like all that hassle in the shelter. Especially Anu was really happy that Mutza in particular would get a new home and told what a sweet puppy he had been when he had lived in Carmena’s home last autumn. He had looked like a little cone cow, I heard :) I thought of a squirrel myself, he’s adorable creature in any case.

 

The days went by fast and there was always something to do, day in day out. We cleaned up cages with Anu in the sun and by accident always managed to splash poop water all over each other’s faces. That was a nice change of pace for what I normally do (and Anu too) since we both need to look very tidy and groomed in our work. I felt less of a lady when cleaning up the cages all sweaty and up to my elbows in s*it. However, it felt good to do something concrete to make the conditions better for the dogs and put all that anger from the cruelty I had witnessed to that physical job – it was a cleansing (on the inside, on the outside it was less clean…) experience.

The local men surprisingly seemed to like to watch what we were doing and tried to invite us over. A young gipsy man always step danced, sang and chatted something in Romanian for such a long time that eventually I offered him a brush. Laughing, the man took a couple of steps back and continued singing. What a lazy guy, he could’ve done something useful other than sing and flirt… I tried to be as friendly as I could to everyone – maybe that way I could change people’s attitudes even a bit. I bribed the gipsy children with candy and little toys and they were delighted and amazed about them. Heli shared her cigarettes and won many news friends with those. She had even learned some Romanian so she understood even something the locals were saying. That vegetarian also bought giant bags of wieners in Romanian like she had done it always :)

There was a lot of cleaning up to do and of course feeding and taking care of the dogs on the inside of the shelter, too. There were severe fights between the male dogs of the city shelter and I went there to clean up the wounds of one dog. First I was a bit hesitant whether I’d get bitten if I go there and try to touch a sick dog. The dog, however, seemed to understand that I just wanted to help and let me take care of him. I gotta admit that I got teary-eyed myself after seeing how an abused dog looked at me with such trust and sincere gratitude for even the smallest of care.

One really sad case was a dog that had been paralyzed in a dog fight and had been taken to the warehouse building to safety. The poor thing wasn’t even able to eat or drink by itself. I fed and gave the dog fluids from my hand and petted the little thing’s head. Before those eyes I felt so powerless… The dog had to be taken to be euthanized as soon as possible – there was nothing left to be done than to end the pain. These things you probably won’t ever get used to even though I have worked as a nurse before and seen a lot of pain and death when working with the elderly. You just have to try and see those hopeful things and do whatever you can do to help.

In the evenings we ate together at the hotel after “a transformation” that included getting rid of the smell by showering and changing clothes. One evening Carmena and Patricia joined us and the other we ate some pizza at Patricia’s. Every night was absolutely amazing. I could never have imagined feeling so good and cozy when being with people I hardly knew. We all are completely different and live around Finland but we all share the same love for animals and it was unbelievably warming and fun to spend time with these people.

The evening I will always remember was when we went to Carmena’s and met the special dogs and a cat-ruler living in there. I could’ve spent hours with those lively little things. Especially the tiny creature that jumped in my lap melted my heart as also three-legged Wilma and Nasuc with only half a nose were really charming! Also Mica who loved to be in everyone’s lap got everybody’s attention not to mention the sweet Bubu.

I was also touched to see the mutual love between Heli and a grey, shy female dog found in the city part of the shelter. Heli decided to bring this cutie to Finland and try to find a home for her. Heli has quite of a pack in her home already so taking yet another dog would probably be a bit difficult. We’ll see what happens – these two sure did look to be so much in love…

Then there was ”Love story part 2”, Anu and Ines. Anu had already earlier saved a little puppy (that others used as a chew toy) to the safety of the warehouse building. Anu seemed to have this unbelievable ability to hear the cries of the smallest puppies and ran to help. It was heart-melting to see how love and trust built between Anu and this lonely Ines (as Anu had named the beauty) that lived across the shelter without any dog friends. At first Ines was so afraid of people it was hard to believe how quickly she felt safe with Anu who spent time close to her, talking to her. When the trust was built, the little beauty followed Anu everywhere, eyes glowing with love and happiness. The guardian dogs formed a threat for the newcomer but we managed to calm the dogs down with Anu and the little Ines was happily by Anu’s side again. You rarely see a dog more beautiful and a look more beautiful than the look Ines had when seeing her dear mommy. According to Anu I got the same kinds of adoring looks from my own babies. Ines is currently pregnant and Anu has decided to take all these dogs to Finland and find homes for them. That’s probably not very hard if the puppies resemble even a bit their beautiful mother.

It was wonderful to have Jukka with us as the only man. Everytime we needed muscle strength we were all calling Jukka to help. In Romania women are still not taken very seriously and every time Jukka was shaken hands with we “girls” were just nodded towards. These attitudes are not changed in a day but hopefully they will change for the better someday. It was amazing to see how much Kiia and Jukka do for the animals. They are wonderful people – that’s all I can say. All this had a big impact on my own thoughts and values and I hope that in future I could help more. I will definitely want to travel to Romania again and help as much as I can Kiia and other PAFi-people in their amazing job!

Big thanks to Kiia, Jukka, Heli and Anu for this wonderful experience! I can’t wait to have Mutza and Mörkö home and leave for another trip to Targu-Jiu!

 

Hugs,

Carita