October 13th 2008

Time has passed by quickly and it’s already three weeks since we sent our first greetings from here! A lot of things have once again happened. The smallest puppies of the warehouse have caught a disease much alike the kennel cough that even the vet doesn’t seem to recognize. Unfortunately a couple of puppies have already died from this mysterious disease. We have helped to nurse the sick ones back to health though now also Liza, the mother dog, and a puppy we named Pyry (whose name Patricia and Carmena have eagerly learned to pronounce) have gotten sick. Liza and Pyry are now living in our apartment until they recover or until we return to Finland. Patricia and we have taken Liza and a couple of sick puppies to a vet on several consecutive days now to receive antibiotic shots. The puppies seem very healthy already, a bit exhausted though. Liza and Pyry are still coughing but they seem very brisk – they’re probably very pleased with their new temporary home ;)
 

Carmena took us with her to have a look at the public horse shelter mentioned in previous newsletters. The horses at the shelter are on their way to be slaughtered. Carmena had to make many different calls so the guard would even let us inside the area. We saw many very skinny and dirty horses and horses with many kinds of illnesses. There were also small foals among them. The horses had to walk in mud up to their pasterns. The horses had an access to inside but it was hard especially for the small foals to climb over the high threshold. The horses were given hay to eat that day, we wonder if it was because the media was going to come for a visit later the same day. Carmena also told that on their last visit very skinny and weak horses had been taken away or died.

As you know, every day Carmena checks the city shelter next to the shelter she maintains. One evening when we were with Carmena we found two already dead puppies from a doghouse and one that died the next night in the warehouse we had taken the dog to. Carmena tried to medicate the dog but we all knew it wouldn’t make it. A couple of days later Carmena had found a dead adult dog from a bush next to the city shelter that we went to check the next day. Carmena told that the dog had gone to a new home from the city shelter but she didn’t know why the dog was found dead. No one else seemed to know either what had happened to the dog or at least they were not telling. On another day Carmena heard that a dog from the city shelter had died from being bitten by other dogs. Tuuli and Carmena went to look at the dog to a few moments of drive from the shelter. Only a few little holes were found on the dog’s stomach. God knows what has happened to the poor dog. Nine puppies next to us watched carefully as we examined the dead dog.

One day seven little puppies appeared next to the puppy yard. Three of them disappeared the same day apparently taken away by gipsy children. Four puppies were left to dwell near the puppy yard. Luckily on the previous day Carmena and Vasile had collected clothes and covers discarded by the gipsies so the four little puppies were easily hidden under those covers. One of those puppies we wouldn’t even have found on feeding times if the pile of clothes hadn’t moved!

Now we have paid the rent and soon we’re going to pay for water, electricity and gas. Since we don’t have any idea what the price level is like, we’re a bit anxious to know what kind of a sum of money it’s going to be. Luckily Patricia has generously helped us when it comes to taking care of the apartment and other things, too. Sometimes it feels as if we couldn’t even get everything done without Patricia’s help or even just her presence. You see, the locals can’t or aren’t willing to communicate with us in English. We’ve come to know that it has been inevitable to learn some words in local language though we have coped with body language and improvisation in our daily interaction with the locals. At times we have been positively surprised by learning that the sales person has known English quite well and eagerly provided us service.

We have also suffered from momentary home sickness, the fact that when the change runs out in a store we don’t get any gum in exchange, having sales persons willing and able to communicate with us and walking down the street without getting stares from people and sometimes even “animalistic” behaviour ;) All in all we have been truly happy about the fact that we left to Tg-Jiu. We have learned a lot of such different culture when living in a foreign country a bit longer than on a normal holiday.

October 17th 2008 

On the evening the dog catchers brought about 10 dogs to the city shelter. The dogs were brought in a small cage on a pickup’s roofed platform. Some of the dogs belonged to a gipsy woman who had had to give up the dogs and some were caught from the streets. The cage was way too small for that many dogs. The dogs had to lie on one another, one dog had panicked and pushed its head between the bars and got stuck. The dog was released unharmed, though. Patricia told that the dog catchers don’t dare or aren’t able to move the dogs out of the truck themselves. They catch the dogs by using different kinds of tools that cause the dogs have a panic. Due to fear the dogs may act aggressively towards them. We saw a couple of tools that were used for catching. One was a rigid “leash” made out of wood and iron wire, the other was a tool that reminded of enormous tongs that were used to get a grip of the dog’s neck. When the dogs had panicked in a small, dark cage they had apparently bitten the back door since it was all bloody.

October 18th 2008

Patricia had taken Pyry the puppy and Liza along with the other sick puppies to a vet to get antibiotics and other medication for their cough. However, this morning after we had woken up we noticed that Pyry had already decided to give up. It was too small and weak to survive the disease. Now Liza is still living in our apartment and hopefully it will recover from the disease as well as losing her puppy.

The next report will probably be some aftermath thoughts after we have returned to Finland.

Inkeri ja Tuuli