Anu’s feelings of the Tg-Jiu trip on the 8th to 11th of September 2007

Romania is a country that arouses such extreme emotions. That’s why it’s nearly impossible for me to express my feelings with words without using overly much superlatives.

Already after leaving the airport in Bucharest you could see the first stray dogs wandering the streets and they kept on coming the whole time we spent in Romania. It’s hard to believe that there are “only” about two million stray dogs in the country since wherever you looked, there were at least one dog there too. Little puppies, bigger puppies, hurt, limping dogs with three legs, dogs of every size and shape. Also small dogs who used to have homes but are now abandoned out somewhere.

I thought how on Earth did or do those dogs ever survive the cold winter. One little dog in particular kept haunting me. On Saturday on our way to the shelter there was a small about 25 cm high dog standing by the road, staring at the road as if it waited for something. This happened in the middle of nowhere, nobody lived nearby. It was clear that the dog had been thrown out of some passing car. On our way back on Tuesday the same dog still stood there waiting with cars and trucks passing by 140 kilometers an hour. You had to “get used to” the dog carcasses, too, since there were bodies by the road all the time.

You could notice immediately that the Gorj province is the poorest area in Romania. Many gipsies have horse wagons and not nearly as always the horses seem very healthy. The traffic is unbelievably fierce and the trucks drive dangerously close to other vehicles as well as horses when passing by someone.

Already on Saturday when we arrived in Tg-Jiu we saw an abandoned dying horse standing apathetically with rib bones poking under the skin. We bought the horse some food but we couldn’t find the horse again until the last day when we were about leave the town. Quickly I took the horse a pile of bread and a few apples. Some bypasser began to explain to me very loudly, using wild gestures, and I took that he thought such a lousy horse was no use of feeding.

The shelter itself was pretty much the same as I had understood from the pictures and what Kiia had told me. Carmena and Patricia are incredibly sympathetic people and they are actually glowing with love towards animals! In particular I was very impressed of how Carmena worked hard to keep the shelter and warehouse building clean and the dogs fed and treated on a regular basis. Every day Carmena also changes the sleeping pads on which the puppies and sick dogs lie. This all is definitely not easy with 400 dogs and working in very harsh and simple conditions. Luckily at least Adi is helping Carmena. Adi works really hard even though carrying 25 kgs of food sacks on one’s shoulder many times a day is terribly strenuous. After seeing Carmena working 13-15 hours a day every single day without having had any vacation in years, I’ve honestly become very worried of how she can keep on working.

The shelter is right next to a road with a heavy traffic. The cars drive by terribly fast which is quite scary. The gipsies who aren’t very happy about the shelter go by with their horse wagons every once in a while towards the field nearby. Along the street you can see clearly that there’s very much construction work going on which means that the city government is putting a lot of pressure on the shelter – it should move to another location since the land could be used effectively on something else. I personally would feel a bit more content if the shelter could be moved to an another piece of land, to a safer place. Last week someone had poisoned five shelter dogs with rat poison. One of them was my god dog (sponsored dog) Maxy. It’s horrific how easy it is to throw baits of poison over the fence.

All donations were more than useful for the shelter. As a small detail I can mention that Carmena was very thrilled about a box of sterile latex gloves that were desperately needed. Kiia, Heli and me went a couple of times to a local supermarket to buy two carts of different detergents, cleaning equipment, paper, cups, brushes and toys for the puppies. The puppies were very happy of our gifts, each of them tried to own one of the balls to their own little nests.

There were about 20 puppies of different ages and sizes living in the warehouse building, also a couple of sick dogs. Heli and I fed the puppies and sick dogs some Nutriplus-gel which seemed to be quite of a hit! Kiia and Heli dewormed the puppies. I mopped some puddles and poops of the floor every once in a while, changed water cups, played with the puppies and cuddled them. A couple of pups were indeed little gremlins, some of them were a little shy, but one thing they had in common and that was that they all wanted attention and to be petted! One 1,5 months old grey little puppy in particular I miss, the puppy had been left a couple nights before by Carmena’s gates.

There is a pack of guardian dogs at the shelter, they are incredibly kind and tender. Especially my god dog (sponsored dog) Gogu and the ever-happy Kiti were always looking for someone, Jukka in particular, to pet them. The shelter dogs were all charming. Everyone wanted to be petted, wanted attention and wanted to climb to one’s lap. Many older puppies were thrilled about my shoe laces and tore them off right away. Well, my sneakers were old anyway so I couldn’t say no to the happy little dogs having a blast with my laces.

Richie, an old, light-brown dog that reminded much of a greyhound was very touching to me; Richie kept pushing his head or even his whole body between a person’s legs to ensure he’ll be petted. In other ways Richie was very calm and quiet, didn’t even as much as growl to some other dog.

The local people adopt 10 dogs a year at its best from the shelter. Patricia told that very often people ask for aggressive guardian dogs that people want to put in the end of a chain. The shelter doesn’t have those kinds of dogs and they certainly wouldn’t give a dog to be put on a chain. A lively little dog, Lily, caught my attention in the front shelter. I wondered how come that little dog hadn’t managed to find a home. I told that those kinds of dogs are very desirable in Finland.

On Monday evening as we ate dinner at the hotel Carmena was very interested to know about the stray dog situation in Estonia and was very surprised to hear that it’s not as a bad as in Romania and that actually there is no stray dog problem in Estonia, people just abandon a lot of dogs to eg. shelters. Patricia couldn’t believe that there were only about million citizens in Estonia, in Bucharest alone there are two million citizens! The women were very curious to know about the dog situation in Finland. Kiia and Heli told that also in Finland lots of dogs are put to sleep every year much due to difficulties in keeping the dog. You could see the shock on the women’s faces. Patricia couldn’t understand how the vets can put young healthy dogs to sleep. For a moment I, as a Finnish person, felt deep shame and thought that the Finns are not much more civilized than the Romanians when it comes to animals.

At some point we got to talk about Carmena and how she’s coping. Very discreetly I tried to tell her that there are a lot of people in Finland thinking about her and worrying how she’s doing. I could tell Carmena was touched by this. We talked about Adi, the employee, and how we could motivate him to continue working at the shelter as long as possible. Adi is the first employee in the whole history of the shelter who is really hardworking and has been willing to sign an official contract.

On Tuesday Jukka literally forced the modest and quiet Adi to accept a bonus of 50 euros. At first Adi had said no telling that Carmena pays her enough. When Jukka had told that the bonus was from us and it was because he had been such a good man, Adi had told that we would find him at the shelter also the next year. Goodbyes with Carmena and Patricia were very emotional and despite of my good attempts I couldn’t hold back tears.

The whole time I was at the shelter, the main thing on my mind was gratitute towards all the sponsors who enable that the shelter functions. Carmena and Patricia are pretty much the only hope many animals have in the whole Gorj province.

In addition I must tell you how some situations in Romania just surprise you without a warning. On our way to the shelter on Saturday we stopped at a gas station by a highway after two hours of drive from Bucharest. The place was in the middle of fields and there were no people living anywhere nearby. All of a sudden, out of nowhere appeared a sweet little dog. It approached me in a friendly way though a bit slowly. The little one was very charming and after giving it some water I was totally in love and demanded the dog to be taken with us. The little furball of fleas with infected eyes and stiff hind legs was clearly a stray dog. The poor thing was pretty skinny too. I ran to the gas station to ask if I could take the dog with me, one customer managed to translate my words somehow. The employees laughed and told me I could take the dog if I wanted, the dog belonged to no one.

The little thing was quickly named Ceasar (I came, I saw, I charmed) and Ceasar settled nicely in the back seat with us to enjoy our strokes. In Tg-Jiu I managed to hide Ceasar under Kiia’s poncho and take it to our hotel room. The next morning Ceasar was washed clean with a shampoo for blonde hair, he had been treated with fleas and ticks already the previous day at the gas station. We figured since the dog had little white teeth, he had to be young, about a year old dog. After the little thing had cheered up, he really knew how to be a little rascal!

From a supermarket we found a collar and a leash for taking the dog out. A dog on a leash really amazed some locals. If I really had wanted to shock the locals, I could’ve taken a little poop bag with me, how’s that for a shock! The next morning we moved to a hotel we could take the dog with us - officially. The little thing was completely housetrained from the start. Ceasar spent four days with me, sleeping contently in the back seat of the car while I was doing some chores at the shelter. Every once in a while we went out, cuddled and ate dried fish chips that he really enjoyed. On Tuesday when we left I felt as if my heart broke while Ceasar stayed and sat in Carmena’s car looking as we walked away.

When I arrived in my home in Finland, we decided that Ceasar will come home with us. So it seems that I’ll be heading back to Romania in about a month after Ceasar had had proper vaccinations and microchipping.

With travel regards,

Anu