Greetings from Carmena and Patricia as well as the shelter dogs, womens’ pets and horses Dona and Daria!

On our trip to Tg-Jiu the sun shone like never before and during the days the temperature rose well over 30 degrees Celsius! This trip was mentally and physically extremely exhausting. Every day we had to face some kinds of obstacles. But sure there were also moments of joy and happiness that helped us cope and have faith in perhaps somewhat better future.

I’ll compile photos of the trip for you at some point. However, I’m probably unable to give you a detailed story since there are tons of photos taken and going through them in detail will be impossible for me for some time. So much happens at the shelter all the time that I must focus on that now and think ways for us to help Carmena and Patricia as much as we possibly can. 

When it comes to the positive things on our trip, I can reveal you that the vet who returned from New Zealand to Tg-Jiu had set up his own clinic and according to the signed deal, will give veterinary care for the dogs of the shelter whenever needed. This means e.g. that the vet will check the dogs every week and treats the dogs when seen necessary. He also spays and neuters dogs. The vet speaks fluent English which means that even we can communicate with him. I met this vet personally and got a really positive image of him.

Our team of volunteers built new dog houses for the shelter in two days and the dogs welcomed them with joy! We also managed to help a dog Carmena had saved from a sure, extremely painful death on the day we arrived. Patricia guided us for hours how give the dog first-aid. We picked hundreds of worms one by one off the dog’s body and helped to give fluids to the dog. After we had arrived home from our shelter trip, Patricia sent a message, saying, that the dog was already much better. The dog was able to eat on four legs and is soon in such a good shape that his severed leg can be operated!

Already for several years Carmena’s parents have tried to build a home for their daughter, a home that would be much more than just a “dog house” where Carmena feeds her pets and sleeps a few hours at night. During Ceaucescu’s dictatorship Carmena’s parents and grandparents were forced to give up their land and now some pieces of the land have partly been given back to Carmena’s parents. To build a real home for their daughter, they have been able to receive income from renting the land.

Originally Carmena’s parents designed the new house so that Patricia and her husband Mihai could buy the upper floor of the house. For the time being Patricia and Mihai will continue to live in their so-called city apartment and the floor Carmena will be living in, is quickly being built. They won’t build the second floor for now. Carmena’s 72-year-old father visits the construction site every day and gives advice to the workers.

Carmena’s new home is being built on the opposite side of her current house. There are already tens of dogs and Dona and Daria to look after. Of course Carmena takes the pets from her current home with her to their new house as soon as the house is ready. As a nice small detail, Carmena’s pets will have two small rooms, kitchen and shower room in the downstairs of her new house! Sure they also have a big playing ground on the yard. We hope Carmena is able to move in to her new house for Christmas.

Then some bad news. After several complaints from the people living behind the shelter, the health inspectors checked the shelter. They came to the conclusion that there is no sewerage in the third part of the shelter, built by the city a couple of years ago. Pro Animals Romania has been using this extension part after the city shelter moved elsewhere. Apparently the lack of sewerage has led to dirty waste water gotten absorbed to the ground and perhaps to drinking water, too.

I and Jukka participated in the negotiations with the authorities of the city and health department. Our meeting lasted for 5 hours. The result was that Pro Animals Romania has to get sewerage to the third part of the shelter at their own cost during the next month. If they can’t get it done, PAR will be given a fine of ca. 5000 euros and an eviction. Naturally the city had no interest in participating in the project since they wish to evict the shelter as soon as possible. Carmena and Patricia told afterwards that if there hadn’t been Jukka and me present, it is likely that the shelter would have been forced to shut down in a month.

After we had returned to Finland, Patricia sent me a message, telling, that some plumbers had checked the sewerage situation and told that it was really problematic and not so easy to solve. They had come up with some kind of a solution but how and at what cost are still to be figured out. If we manage to find a way to fix the problem, we must try to find the means to help Carmena and Patricia to cover the costs.

At the negotiations with the representatives of the city, we tried to persuade them to look for a new site for Pro Animals Romania’s shelter. Another suggestion was that they would renovate and expand the municipal shelter finished a year ago so that the dogs of Pro Animals Romania’s shelter could be temporarily moved there. According to the city, renovating and expanding of the current city shelter is completely out of the question since the shelter has been built on a lot owned by private people. These people have already tried to claim the lot of the city shelter to them and forbid any renovations and expansions. The situation is that the city shelter has been built on a lot that was once confiscated from people on Ceaucescu’s regime and now people have started to claim lots back. Since the city shelter was built before people started to demand sites back, it’s able to stay where it is. However, they are settling the ownership of the land in court at the moment. When it comes to our other suggestion on helping to find a new piece of land, the city just isn’t willing to search any site for Pro Animals Romania’s shelter.

The alternatives the city presented us were either to set the dogs of Pro Animals Romania’s shelter free on the streets or take them to the current city shelter located on the opposite side of the city from the shelter pow, and, of course, to bring the dogs to those living conditions that are in the city shelter. I can assure you that those conditions are absolutely horrifying. To emphasize my words I’m once again publishing some of the shocking photos recently taken from the city shelter.

We also discussed the treatment of dogs with the newly hired vet of the city shelter. The city shelter has not been cleaned with water for 1,5 months or disinfected in any way. The vet keeps e.g. spaying the shelter dogs but the dogs have to recover in dirty cages. We tried to insist that the vet would refuse to work in such conditions unless the shelter is regularly cleaned and disinfected. 

After our shelter trip Patricia wrote that they had once again checked out two sites. One was an old farm and the other 1,8 hectares, 15 minutes from the city. This other piece of land would be suitable since it has electricity, water and sewerage. The owner asks 2 euros per sqm, in total 38.000 euros. We have collected 22.000 euros which means that we are not able to buy the land with this money. If only we could get e.g. 50 000 people to donate one single euro for the new shelter, we’d be much further in our project of building a new shelter. If only someone would tell us how to get people active to donate that one euro…

The local TV-channel of Tg-Jiu would have wanted to interview me on Tuesday afternoon regarding the situation of Pro Animals Romania’s shelter and our cooperation but unfortunately we missed it because our prolonged negotiations with the city.

On Monday evening Carmena noticed that her wallet had been stolen and suspected the female worker of the shelter as she helped to unload the dog food brought from the supermarket that day. Carmena’s purse was on the front seat of the van at that moment. The next day her suspicions were confirmed as the female worker didn’t show up to work. After having filed a report of the theft at the police station and interrogated the two male workers of the shelter, the search came to the conclusion that the woman had apparently left the country. The search at her home revealed that she had tons of stuff stolen from the shelter. She had probably been selling these stolen goods for a long time in an attempt to get money to run away. She had also conned the other worker of the shelter by asking him for 400 lei (100 euros), promising to take him with her to Greece. Now Carmena and Patricia are afraid that the male workers will take off like the woman had. Patricia has told that in addition to everything, after we had left, the other worker was completely wasted for three days and demanded Carmena and Patricia to find more workers if they wanted him to stay at the shelter.

There is definitely a need for three workers at the shelter since they must keep some days off and the work is laborious. Finding good and dependable workers to the shelter is very challenging. It’s no wonder since the conditions really are brutal. However, we must be proud of the fact that we have been able to help Carmena and Patricia so much that they have been able to employ 3 people. According to Patricia’s calculations they could hire even a fourth worker if only they had one. Of course, indirectly we have employed the local vet and in future the trusted vet of the shelter.

Carmena and Patricia’s phones are constantly ringing when people report animal, especially dog cruelty. Their phones are ringing until midnight every day. Despite all the hardships, Carmena and Patricia had the strength to spend time with us and ask about us and their Finnish friends well after midnight though they had had a long day. We also played with the possibility of Carmena finding a suitable man who understands her lifestyle and dogs via internet dating services since she really doesn’t have much time to spend on dating. Carmena said that our visits in Tg-Jiu give her so much power and energy that afterwards she feels like Xena – a warrior woman to whom everything is possible! At that point I felt a sting in my heart once again. Why must we have these hundreds of kilometres between us so that we can’t see her more often… It’s the least these two women would deserve.

I can tell you that we live in such a little bird’s nest here in Finland that we can’t possibly comprehend the constant fight and problems Carmena and Patricia have to face every day. You have to experience for some days the life they live in order to truly understand how difficult it is. I was totally beat only after three days of walking by their side, I could never ever step into their boots. My own problems feel very pitiful right now, I probably won’t complain about my life for a while. Now all I seem able to do is to cry and pray for help for Carmena and Patricia as well as their dogs and the dogs at the city shelter.

I want to thank Heli, Tuuli, JiiPee and Jukka for travelling with me to the shelter. Via the link below you can take a look at some shelter pictures. We have also a file for photos taken from the city shelter and of the dogs there. Some of these photos may be shocking.

Shelter photos 

Lastly, I want to quote a recently passed Finnish poet Tommy Tabermann (translation by AK, not official):

“Those who come the direct way, arrive with empty pockets.

Those who have turned every stone, come with sparkly eyes, bruised knees, carrying strange fruits in their fragile sack.

That’s how it is, my friend, that’s how it is, that without getting lost you will never arrive.”

-Kiia-