It’s time to tell what has recently happened in Tg-Jiu and with Pro Animals Romania.
Let’s start with a surprise :) Patricia has been accepted to University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine in Timisoara. According to Patricia she doesn’t spend more than two days a week at the University so naturally she’ll still help at the shelter as much as she can under the circumstances. I haven’t heard all the details related to her studies but I’m sure we’ll hear about them more on our next visit to the shelter.
Our autumnly shelter trips have become much like a tradition and this year we will be in Tg-Jiu from September 26th to 30th. This time we’ll have at least one traveller with us too. Of course, we are happy to welcome more travel companions if someone should have a sudden urge to join us. We are taking e.g. medicine for the shelter dogs with us and everyone can participate in covering these costs if one wishes. When treating e.g. sick dogs and puppies Carmena and Patricia use medicine injections (Synulox, Metacam) but unfortunately we can’t bring these with us from Finland and they must be bought from a local vet. The medicine are reasonably expensive.
The situation of Tg-Jiu shelter and new shelter-project
We have lived some stressful and suspenseful times when trying to figure out the situation of the shelter maintained by Pro Animals Romania and especially the future of the shelter. The current shelter is still continuously under the threat of eviction and the city keeps pressuring to move the shelter elsewhere. The search for a new site for the shelter has been relentless and we have also tried to get the site as a donation from the city but to no avail.
Sure we have found a couple suitable lots for the shelter but there has always been one “but” in taking the process further. The sites we have pursued have been the kinds that have no topographic plans and getting one is not an easy process. What makes it more difficult is that Pro Animals Romania should deal with the bureaucracy related to the site but they can’t take the project further until they are so-called official owners and even getting to that point is more difficult than you can imagine.
Carmena and Patricia had discussed with the decision-makers of the city about the difficulties concerning purchasing any site and how it has undoubtedly slowed down the process of building a new shelter. This time the decision-makers had promised to speed up the bureaucracy and even help with the shelter by building a fence and concrete foundations. Let’s hope that this time they’ll actually keep their word and we’ll get a step forward in building the new shelter.
Getting food to the shelter for the winter
The upcoming winter season is getting dangerously close and the dogs at the shelter need twice as much food as they normally eat. We can’t rely on the food donations by Fondation Brigitte Bardot anymore since their help is not forever and due to the economic crisis they haven’t promised to continue supplying food for the next year.
Our job now is to secure that the shelter dogs get sufficient amount of food and of course also whatever treatments they may need to survive the wintertime. I’m sure we’d manage to collect a lot of food donations here in Finland but the problem is how to deliver them to Romania and to the shelter. If someone knows someone who’d be willing and able to drive food donations to the shelter e.g. by a van (we’d pay the costs of the trip), please, contact me the soonest. Others means of transporting are considered, too, so if you have contacts e.g. to carriers, please, do mention about them, too.
Of course, we are always collecting funds for food so Carmena and Patricia could order dry food straight from the company.
Dona and Daria
Dona and Daria are doing excellent and Daria has grown a lot. These little protégés of Carmena and Patricia also need lots of rich nutrients and need a proper shelter for winter. Let’s help Carmena and Patricia take care of these sweet creatures, too!
Rescued ones and in a need of rescuing
Carmena and Patricia constantly treat injured dogs and even cats sometimes. Most of these have been hit by a car. At the moment they are also taking care of the dog that was finally rescued from the basement floor of an apartment house where it had been thrown already in the beginning of the year. There is also a recovering patient, a dog, that was thrown from a third-floor-balcony.
Carmena and Patricia are also getting reports from people all the time. These people ask the women to save dogs from all kinds of situations. In cases of poisoning people are still contacting the women regularly in Tg-Jiu area as well as in other cities of Gorj County. Every week Carmena and Patricia file about a dozen animal cruelty reports to the authorities.
Here are some pictures of the dogs Carmena and Patricia are taking care of. Most of these animals need special care and you can help them e.g. by donating to our Animal Protection Bank.
Basa lived over six months in the basement floor of an apartment house. He was fed and given water through a tiny window. Basa is still very timid and suspicious but every once in a while is brave enough to take a quick sniff at Carmena and Patricia’s legs. On the right-hand picture is the dog that was brutally thrown off a balcony. He survived though his situation is not stable yet. The dog is now under Carmena and Patricia’s loving care.
Carmena found Azorel from the streets. He had a bad tumour in his front leg. The leg is now operated and Azorel is recovering at the shelter. The little puppy was apparently born with only three legs. He had also been brought to the shelter. They say someone had found him from a yard of an apartment house.
Here are a cat that had been hit by a car and a dog named Vlad that are both waiting to be x-rayed and diagnosed of how severe injuries they have on their hind legs.
Little Maria had also been hit by a car. This time the man who had driven the car felt responsible and reported to Patricia. Maria was taken to be x-rayed, the diagnosis was that her hind leg was broken. Maria’s leg will be operated soon. Another puppy was also brought to the shelter. A male puppy that had also been hit by a car. The puppy was named Dorin and he will be taken to x-ray tomorrow. Let’s hope these little ones get better!
I want to introduce you Musca that had been abandoned by Carmena’s home. Musca had problems with her hind legs and after being x-rayed, she was diagnosed having large injuries in her bones. Musca was said not to walk ever again or at least she would need several operations. Miraculously after a few weeks Musca started to take little steps and now she’s walking practically normally! No surgeries were needed for this. This case is one of those “larger than life”-stories that are the reason why Carmena and Patricia continue to help animals even in most desperate situations.
The public dog shelter maintained by the city
The public dog shelter maintained by the city of Tg-Jiu and operated by the local dog catching service has been in use since mid-August. Suddenly one night the dogs were moved from the old city shelter without Carmena and Patricia knowing about it. However, few puppies with skin conditions were “forgotten” to the old shelter, they are now being taken care of by Pro Animals Romania.
The catchers keep collecting stray dogs to the public shelter but the surprising thing is that the locals don’t abandon their dogs to the municipal shelter but still bring them to Pro Animals Romania’s shelter. Though at the opening of the new shelter people kept praising the new facilities, claiming them as some kind of a palace for the dogs, the people who abandon dogs are apparently still not very convinced that the dogs are treated properly at the public shelter.
Carmena still keeps checking up on the dogs every day and takes them extra food and tries to medicate sick dogs as much as she can. The vet hired by the city has been at the shelter once and refused to come back ever again. It seems that he can’t bear the smell of the dogs. This means that the new fine facilities for veterinary treatments have been completely out of use. The decision-makers have acknowledged the problem and promised to hire a new vet. However, they are planning on hiring someone with no proper rights for practice.
We have sent complaints and petitions about the situation of Tg-Jiu public shelter and we are also working on a new report that we will sent to various instances in aims of asking help for the situation. We also always send our reports as a carbon copy to the city government of Tg-Jiu.
I’ll get back to you again after the shelter trip!
With autumnly regards,
Kiia
