Hi everyone,

First I want to share with you some wonderful news! Patricia will come to visit us in Finland from June 15th to 22nd, the week of Midsummer. Patricia will arrive on June 15th at midnight on a Finnair flight. We will spend the night in Helsinki area. On Monday afternoon and evening we are meaning to arrange some get-together to which everyone is welcome to join and meet Patricia.

I’m hoping you would send me some tentative notice if you are planning on participating so we could find a space big enough for our gathering. Please, do also inform if you have some great place in mind. We are also open for suggestions when it comes to accommodations for several people.

Patricia will stay in Finland for a week. On Tuesday evening we will drive to Heinola from Helsinki region. We will spend Midsummer in Sysmä countryside.

Yesterday Faunatar of Ideapark and Royal Canin in cooperation with our Tampere team arranged a Match Show in Ideapark. Despite the cold weather the happening had a very warm atmosphere from the beginning to the end. During the day we also saw almost a hundred wonderful dogs in the ring. Fiona and Tolstoi represented the stray dogs very exemplarily; Tolstoi even received a special prize as the oldest dog of the show, for his good health and for having such a great contact with his owner. Congratulations once again, Tolstoi and Kati!

We already managed to exchange a few words about a possible repeat of this Match Show in autumn, maybe in honour of PAFi being 3 years old! Here are some pictures of the Match Show:

http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn283/doghaps/

http://s278.photobucket.com/albums/kk90/Narb82/Pafi_match_show/

http://picasaweb.google.com/IrHiltu/PAFiIdeaparkToukokuu08

It has been somewhat peaceful in Tg-Jiu shelter. Patricia helps her mother every day in shelter chores since she has entirely given up the company she managed with her husband. Patricia has had a dream for a long time. The dream she wants to fulfil at some point is setting up a pet store in Tg-Jiu. In addition to the store, she wishes to provide e.g. dog trimming and other services relating to dog care. For this dream Patricia has to take a loan and at this moment it’s not quite that easy since Patricia doesn’t have regular income. I spent many nights thinking how we could help Patricia. Sure she is invaluable help at the shelter but we cannot expect both Carmena and Patricia sacrifice their lives entirely for the shelter. Surely Carmena is also hoping from the bottom of the heart that Patricia’s dream would come true.

So I made a suggestion to Patricia and Carmena whether Pro Animals Romania could hire Patricia as a so-called employee. This way Patricia could get that regular income that would enable her to get the loan to establish her own company. When at some point Patricia could focus more on her own business, we could consider whether Carmena could be given that regular salary. I’m sure we could secure 400-500 euros of regular salary for Patricia already with this group of supporters we have, don’t you think?

In case you want to donate for Patricia’s salary, please, add as a message "Patricia’s salary" or "Patrician palkka".

Of course we are still continuing to help Carmena, too, but those donations we will give her personally. If you wish to donate to Carmena, you can add as a message "Donation to Carmena" or "Lahjoitus Carmenalle".

Our friend, Mauri Ojala, has returned to his home village in Romania and very soon he is going to help at the shelter. Mauri will take one toilet to the shelter and another to Carmena and Patricia’s home. After that he will set up the extra warehouse building and does also other useful things. Today I suggested Patricia if the main entrance of the main warehouse could be partly fenced so the recovering patients and sick dogs could step outside once in a while. This fence would also secure that the dogs in the building wouldn’t run away to the road and be in danger of getting run over in case they manage to run off when opening the door. So I will hint Mauri if he could help also in this project.

The toilets cost about 500 euros and if Mauri will help also in putting together the fence there will be some extra costs. Sure we have promised to pay something for Mauri himself, too, for his help since he’s such a piece of gold to the Tg-Jiu shelter. We have been really lucky to find him! You can donate to cover the costs of the materials by adding a message “for the shelter materials” or “tarhatarvikkeisiin” to your donations. If someone wants to thank our friend with a little gift, you can only add “For Mauri” or “Maurille”.

Mauri will continue his trip from Tg-Jiu shelter to Albania. He’s taking equipment for the families left homeless after the explosion at the ammunition factory.

Patricia has told that Dona-horse that lives in the shelter area is getting stronger day by day and Patricia has grown very fond of her. According to Patricia, Dona is going to be a real beauty as soon as the old and lifeless hair has renewed and she’s recovered from all the horrible experiences. Dona eats a lot and likes in particular to walk side by side with Patricia around the shelter. Patricia said if only we could see the looks of the gipsies and other people in the area when seeing her talking to Dona while they walk together! I can imagine it wouldn’t take much more to see Patricia even sleeping next to Dona in her stall ;)

Rona-horse is still with her owner. The manager of the local health office informed that Rona’s condition had improved a lot and the owner has started to take care of the horse. It is likely that Rona will stay with her owner but Patricia and Carmena have sworn that they will keep checking up on Rona in the future, too, and if they notice anything alarming, they will immediately call the authorities. In this situation there is nothing else they can do now for Rona.

Then some sad news. The little Nipsu-dog died after experiencing some unexpected complications. Nipsu was operated several times since he had been run over by a car and gotten some severe injuries. Even though the situation seemed hopeful in the beginning, Nipsu had suffered by the road already for so long he had lost too much of his strength. Nipsu didn’t have enough strength to fight for life even though Carmena and Patricia tried to help him as much as they possibly could. Now Nipsu is in a better place.

The blind dog, Mimi, Carmena and Patricia took to their home since in there Mimi can spend some time also outside. Mimi will surely fit perfectly as a member of the dog pack Carmena and Patricia have.

Here was some news for the moment being. I’m sure next week you will get some more news again!

Regards,

Kiia