Below, a few pictures of the food aid delivered to the Tg-Jiu shelter in March.
Greetings from Carmena and Patricia
Carmena’s spring has been busy, as she has frequently been asked to speak about animal protection in the local media and the preparation for that is time-consuming in the middle of her daily routines. In fact, an interactive discussion between Carmena and the city authorities has been developed and maintained in the media. Everytime that one part speaks in the media, the other is asked for a comment.
Patricia is working long hours with her studies, shelter duties and animal protection issues. She also wants to contribute her share to the pizza restaurant owned by her husband, because her studies are expensive and Patricia wants to rely as little as possible on her husband’s income.
Carmena and Patricia are still daily receiving reports about animal neglect cases, and the women are expected to resolve the issues for the other people. Carmena and Patricia are surely doing their best, but their resources are hopelessly limited in front of the difficult situation and the desperate need.
Carmena and Patricia have faced another loss of a beloved pet within a short period of time. Bursu, who lived at Carmena’s house, got sick and the local vet was not able and perhaps not even willing to help. Bursu finally died in Patricia’s lap, when she was one more time trying to get help from the vet, in vain. In understood Carmena and Patricia very well, when they told that they no longer want to associate with the vet in question. Bursu was also very dear to me, because during our first trip to the shelter in November 2005, Bursu was less than a year old and he had been caught in an accident a month earlier and his back limbs were paralyzed. Four vets, including those most highly rated in Romania, had diagnosed his trauma and given him no hope. I discussed about Bursu’s situation with several vets in Finland and was given good pieces of advice that we applied to Bursu with Carmena and Patricia to get him back on his feet. And so a miracle happened and two months after our visit Bursu was in full speed, although slightly shaky and prone to falling, which did not bother the small gutsy dog. The memory of Bursu will always stay in my heart.
Happenings at the Tg-Jiu shelter
This week is very busy at the Tg-Jiu shelter, because Carmena and Patricia have got a vet, an assistant and a few helpers from Robert Smith’s mobile clinic to perform a neutering campaign at the shelter. There are several juvenile females that have been abandoned and rescued as puppies at the shelter, as well as more mature females that need to be neutered. Carmena and Patricia have also agreed to pay for the neutering of several dogs owned by impoverished local inhabitants, especially those that try to provide for 5-10 dogs although they can barely afford their own food.
Today Patricia sent a message that 19 females have been neutered by now, and everything has gone well. The vet will be at the shelter until Thursday noon and although not many more dogs can be neutered due to a lack of space, he will be nearby during the first days of recovery and will also treat other dogs of the shelter. Carmena and Patricia will try to get the very same vet to come to the shelter later in the spring to neuter more female dogs. They are telling that the vet is very competent and professional. He represents the young generation of Romanian vets that have been familiarized with diseases of small animals, as well as surgical operations.
New cages delivered with the food aid transportation came in need, as the neutered dogs need their own private places for recovery. The shelter warehouse has been cleaned and disinfected from floor to ceiling so that the wounds of the neutered dogs will be safe from infections and germs.
Below, a few pictures from the neutering campaign.
Patricia has also dewormed almost a half of the dogs at the shelter during the past weeks, and continues the work until each dogs has been dewormed. Dogs and puppies with skin diseases come to the shelter frequently, and she is telling that Stronghold is a good general medicine to treat the skin problems. Patricia has also taken pictures and samples of the dogs with skin diseases to her school and consulted the experienced vets about the diseases and their most effective treatments.
The municipal shelter
Patricia told that after a long while she has also visited a few times the municipal shelter that Carmena visits daily. Patricia had taken dozens of pictures that are telling their own sad, devastating stories. I have myself visited the “new” municipal shelter once and it is tearing my heart apart to think about it. I know that I am again facing a visit to the shelter, and if anything scares me about our shelter trip, that is what I will have to face at the municipal shelter. If it was not balanced by the joy and happiness at the shelter taken care by Carmena and Patricia, I would surely not be able to face the horrors seen and experienced at the municipal shelter. The feeling of hopelessness, that nothing can be done, is also overwhelming. I keep wondering where Carmena gets the strength to visit the municipal shelter daily to provide the dogs with some kind of help. Carmena and Patricia make reports about the inhumane situation at the municipal shelter weekly to the authorities of both the county and the state, hoping that some improvements would take place.
Below, a few pictures of the dogs that Carmena has taken from the municipal shelter to her care.
Help for the dogs of the impoverished people in the city
Carmena and Patricia have taken under their wings some of the poor inhabitants of the city that are trying to provide for several dogs, although they cannot always afford their own food.
In the pictures below, a woman inhabiting a small railway cottage, trying to take care of a half of a dozen dogs that wonder around her home. Patricia has taken the woman and the dogs some food and she has also dewormed all her dogs and treated two dogs with skin diseases. During the current neutering campaign, two female dogs of the pack will be neutered.
Below, pictures of dogs that wonder around the home of a gypsy family. The daughter of the family loves dogs and tries to persuade her parents to increase the numbers of their dogs. Unfortunately, their resources to feed and take care of the dogs are limited. Carmena brings daily food portions for the dogs of the family, when she goes feeding the dozens of dogs living nearby the old dumping area.
Trip to Tg-Jiu shelter 3-7.4.
We will leave for our shelter trip on Saturday morning.
The next news will contain the greetings from our journey.
Happy Easter,
Kiia
-TL
