VISIT AT DR DAMIANI CLINIC

Our sweet VITA was escorted to Dr Damiani clinic for health test and new blood work. Our volunteer Angy drove her and Dr Longo was there to assist to our little sick VITA.

Results, waiting.

A TRAVEL OF LOVE

What a journey! What great teamwork!

A friend of mine, Minna, was flying down to Milano, Italy to pick up a car and then drive it back up to Sweden with her husband, Mats. I saw the opportunity to maybe get some animals driven back up from Southern Italy to Northern Sweden, with a small stop in my town outside Stuttgart, Germany.  Down in Napoli, we had the three legged cat Willy Wonka, that had been rescued by the veterinarian team at Dr. Carlo Damiani’s clinic. Willy Wonka was fostered by Dr. Carlo and his wonderful family. We also had Fochetta, our senior from the hospice, which was to be adopted by my lovely friend Mia in Sweden. I asked Minna if she could possibly bring some animals with her back?

Minna is also in the rescue business and didn’t hesitate one second to help us out. If only all the animal papers were ready, and if someone could drive Fochetta and WW up to Milano, then there would not be any problems.

Two wonderful American ladies volunteered to drive up to Milano with the precious cargo. They packed the car and only drove one hour, until their tire exploded! They called a tow truck and were being towed back to Napoli. These ladies didn’t go back to their homes, sobbing over a cup of coffee. No, these remarkable women rented a car, un-packed the broken vehicle, re-packed and drove up North. Delayed because of the tire mishap, they floored their gas pedal and arrived right on time. We are forever thankful and grateful for what Lori Alston Garcia and Valerie Funk did. 
You started a new chapter for Forchetta and WW in their “book of life”.

Minna and her husband continued the drive up to Mia’s (President) place outside Stuttgart, Germany. WW was being introduced to his new family, Mia’s (President) wonderful neighbors. Already, he is very much loved and happy there.

 Everybody got a late lunch/dinner, and Fochetta got to stretch her little sweet legs in Mia’s garden. After the small break, Minna and husband started the long remaining drive back to Sweden, a 23 hours drive. With them they also had another dog named MIA, (there are a lot of “Mia’s” in this story) that had been returned from her first owner after nine months, but was going to a nice home with a lady and her daughter in Sweden that Mia (President) had found. (That story will come in another blog update.)

Hours later, in the middle of Sweden, MIA the dog was dropped off to her new family, and after some remaining hours of driving, the journey for Minna, Mats and Fochetta would finally end. Fochetta had to sleep over at Minna’s place. It was midnight by the time they got there, and everyone was bone tired. The next day my friend Mia and her father drove down to pick up Fochetta from Minna. My sweet friend Mia was totally in love with Fochetta, just as she had imagined it during her meditations. Fochetta already loves Mia and gave her so many kisses and snores loudly during the nights.

This couldn’t have been done without you all. And especially a big thank you to Lori and Valerie, that was amazing what you did. Minna and Mats, for sponsoring the whole drive from Milano to Sweden. And being the contacts to MIA dog’s home and Mia with Fochetta.

The Mercer family sponsored from Naples to Milano.

And to all hospice volunteers, thank you so much for taking such great care of Fochetta. Loving and nurturing her back to life, I know you all loved her dearly. To AWL’s board who got her picture and story about Fochetta several months ago, and decided to take her away from the horrible place: A Governmental shelter with nearly a thousand of dogs locked in cages and nowhere to go, ever.

A big THANK YOU to the brave Italian volunteer who got her out from that hell-hole.

And lastly, to Mia, my friend who dared to adopt a senior dog.

Now, That’s Amore.

OUR POE IS HAVING QUIET SOME PROBLEMS

Our beloved Poe is having quiet some problems. He have started to faint again, up to once a week. He can walk around very low, then suddenly he faints, wakes up, and makes cartwheels.  

Angy our Poe volunteer, drove him to Dr Damiani today for blood work and ultra sound over his bladder so an urine test could be taken. Dr Damiani checked the prostate and found some cysts. But that is not the biggest problem. Dr D also made a EKG  and found out that this time Poe's heart rhythm is not "prefect" Last time Dr D made the test it didn't show that cause. 

We hope with the tests that we can find another hidden disease.

Dr D spoke to the Cardiologist and to get more information about Mr Poe heart we need a recording machine on him. And since we know Poe, he will eat it up. Its a very expensive machine, so he would have to be monitored for 24 hours. This time we are very worried for Poe.

This is very expensive for us and we ask for help (500 euro). When do you turn to your client and say; "sorry the only money we have is to put you into the internal sleep"

Dr D will tell us for sure, and we have worked with him for many years, when its time to put that needle in. But not right now! First we need all the answers.

JACK GOT THE KITT

 This is rescue Jack (Jake) that we wrote about earlier. He got neutered, rabies vaccinated and microchip yesterday. And today he got home to his foster rescue family. Now that's Amore.

Thanks Dr Damiani Clinic and thank you all sponsors that helps our projects.

FOREVER IN OUR HEART

I saw her picture on FB. She was gorgeous. Big and gray-black with a wonderful smile, or was it her aura I saw?

Her name was Colomba and she was a senior dog that had been in a not-so-very-nice shelter in Southern Italy since 2005. In a cage with some other dogs and all together maybe 180 dogs.  All on concrete floors, and in a kind of darkness. The volunteers worked hard to do something; you could see in their eyes how tired they were. 

In the picture she sat in the sun, and around her neck a big thick chain. On our way down to Napoli we made a big turn to the eastern coast of Italy, into the shelter to pick Colomba up. My joy was enormous. Olivia who normally loved shelters and who always was my best volunteer didn’t like the place at all. She became very sad.

Colomba was mentally tired and we lifted her into our SUV. She smelled like a big horse barn with pigs and everything else included. My children sat and held their noses for the 3 hour trip to our Hospice in Lago Patria. There were a lot of giggles.

She was full of matted hair, and a big lump infection hanging from her neck. We had a veterinarian for a very short time at our clinic that did a fantastic job trimming her matted hair and generally helping Colomba.

Colomba loved her room at the hospice, with bed and mattresses. She was such a good girl, no accidents.  When the volunteers opened the door she would run out into the garden do her business, then straight back up to her room again.

In December, Colomba went in as an emergency to Dr. Damiani’s clinic for a long surgery. She made it through the surgery, our brave lady.  At the same time she also had dental work done. She came back to the hospice and recovered wonderfully, our Princess.

She was so loved by many, and they cared so much about her. The volunteers were amazed over how well she did.

Then one day recently, her internal organs started to say, “stop”. Cancer was growing fast within her, and we could see she was not doing very well. We worried, “another hard surgery and she would get maybe a couple of months?”  Was it worth putting her through the pain and suffering to only forestall the inevitable for so short a time?  Or would we could give her the peace that she so deserved.

My heart cried since I wanted her to have so much more experience with freedom, to love her bed, her room, her volunteers to have more of her around them.  But I realized then freedom was what she would truly get if I let her go --- her ultimate freedom.

My wonderful Colomba, it is a little while since you left us but my heart wouldn’t let me write. It was filled with such tremendous pain. You had a little taste of one kind of freedom, now you can lay truly free in the grass across the Rainbow Bridge, and wonder at the butterflies that are dancing on the warm breeze around you. Colomba, I am sorry life wasn’t better for you, but I hope you felt all of us loving and adoring you at the Hospice Casa dell Amore.

Forever loved. That’s Amore

TIGRE OUR HOSPICE QUEEN

 We would ask you to take a moment and send this girl some light and love. She is since yesterday at Dr Damiani clinic for observation. Yesterday she got a seizure and was rushed to Dr Damiani by Martina from receiving emergency calls from Amy and Valerie (Thank you girls for great work.)

Tigre had to stay over night with an IV and today we are all waiting for news. What ever the girl want, we will fulfill. What ever Universe want we will listen to. No suffering but if fighting we will do so.

That's Amore!

OUR FANTASTIC COLOMBA & VET TEAM

 This is a super fighter girl!
 She is fantastic, amazing and beyond the words I can find to say about her.  As you could read on earlier blogs about Colomba, she was picked up from one horrible shelter and was sick. She had been there for 7 long years. She went in for emergency surgery her uterus was bleeding and had to be removed. After that she was the wonder dog again. She is always happy wagging her tail, loves her own room with bed and comforts (no dogs are in cages)

Then a couple of days ago she didn't want to eat and she got a fever. She was rushed to Dr Damiani's clinic and an ultra sound was done. Internal bleeding.

Dr Fransesco was called in (22 december) to assist the surgery.

 For several hours they worked on this 15 year old girl. Yes Dr Damiani and the team knows and are extremely upfront to tell us if the dog is suffering, or....if she would be full off cancer.

 This was taken out, tumor and the spleen. It will be sent for examination so we can know more about the "alien" looking thing.

Colomba is back at the hospice and doing wonderful. Thank you Dr Damiani & Dr Fransesco for saving her life, despite Christmas closing and with all the Christmas stress they went in and saved our Colomba.

That's Amore!

ANGELO NEED SURGERY ASAP

This is Angelo, he is +10 years old-- we think. He was rescued by Family Callahan  when they saw he was injured and "hobbling" around on the streets. Dr Damiani explained that Angelo had radial nerve palsy and couldn’t use his leg. We d

ecided to try antibiotics, Vitamin B injections and some physical therapy to see if we could get any function back. So far nothing. It has been agreed that the only solution is amputation. 

Tomorrow Angelo will have his leg amputated since he is liking and seems to be very bothered of his "hanging" leg.
AWL would like to sponsor this surgery to give Angelo his quality life back. Family Callahan have promised that he can stay and heal. Angelo is no barker, he is house broken, great with other dogs, cats and small children.

Please make it happen and help us with donations. The surgery will cost around 500-600 euro. Ear mark it "Angelo"

www.animalswithoutlimits.com/donations or leave an envelope at SS vet clinic. Thank you for helping us helping the animals getting a quality life. That's Amore.

COLOMBA IN CRITICAL CONDITION

This morning did the volunteer team notice something was strange with our Colomba, a note was being made. Martina went there in the afternoon and realized something was really wrong. In her little red Fiat she rushed Colomba to the Dr Damiani clinic (Dr Fransesco in background)

She is suffering from pyometra, and since she already is not very strong after several years in a cage, under weight and old she is in a very big danger. Right now she is under a lot of fluid and antibiotic.  Keep your love, prayers and thoughts going for her. We will keep you updated as often as we know anything.

In the papers it says she is sterilized, but we can tell you she is not-- a uterus never lies!

Our love Colomba.

COLOMBA OUR NEW CLIENT

 When I saw this picture my heart melted. When I read she was 15 years old and had lived in a shelter together with 180 dogs on a concrete floor for many years, my heart stopped. I had to have her adopted to our hospice down in Italy. To find a candidate for our hospice and to chose only one is heart breaking. Some shelters do not adopt out their dogs, they only want the money (we turn these down).  But in this case, we knew these volunteers from before and they accepted our wish to adopt Colomba.

 My family and I drove and picked her up. The poor darling was so filthy, with a lot of matted hairballs together with old poop dried in. Her teeth were rotten and green and she could not eat dry food, and that had caused her to be just skin and bones.  She also suffered with a chronic ear-infection that was so painful that she didn't want you to pet her head. She was anemic, and had an abscess as big as a man's fist on her neck, horribly infected. Colomba's heart was strong but body and mind exhausted.

 We are very lucky at the same time to get a wonderful new volunteer. Ellen is an American veterinarian who recently moved to the Naples area. With her skills and passion, Colomba got her treatment right away. I loved when I heard Ellen call her "Princess." Together we took her for blood work and extra health examination at DR Damiani clinic.

We are all so madly in love with Colomba. Despite being in a cage on a concrete floor since 2005, her tail kept wagging when we bent down, looked into her eyes and told her how pretty she was. That tail tapping out the morse code for love: "thump, thump, thump." That's Amore.

UPDATE Mr Edgar Poe's Heart

Thank you Angelina for being Mr Poes private VIP driver to see his heart specialist.

Dr Damiani wrote last night; "Today, we had the cardiologist at the clinic . She performed the heart ultrasound on POE. Very good news, because she said that POE' s heart does not lo

ok that bad . As a matter of fact, we decided to discontinue all the drugs for the heart. Unfortunately, we do not know why POE had those symptoms like fainting. The cardiologist would like to perform a couple of x-ray and , more importantly, she wants to put an Holter device on POE in order to monitor the heart rhythm in a 24 hours period."
So we are back on square one. But we wont give up, we will find it as long as Mr Poe allows us and most important, want to.
We have wonderful news too. Mr Poe has a fan in Los Angels that sent him and his Hospice friends a check of 2000 dollar

A Big Bark Thank you Mr Craig Kleber. That's Big Amore

EDGAR POE'S HEART

Friday; Our little Edgar Poe is not feeling well and is at the vet.clinic (Dr Damiani) since last night. As many of you know he has a heart"problem" and been on medication since Martina found him on the streets(very sick).Poe is also coughing, and have diarrheaea/vomit. He is getting IV and blood tests are being sent to the lab.
After some hours he was already doing much better. Growling at the nurses, just like "old" Poe. But, he is scheduled to see a heart-specalist on Tuesday.
 Saturday; As soon as Ass. Roberta gave the antibiotic and IV he collapsed in Martina's arms.. But luckily they were at the clinic and Roberta could put oxigen on his face.After some minutes he was better, low but better, and the good news...he was hungry and ate.Ass.Roberta gave Martina/Poe a can of the special food ID for his stomach. Martina bought other two cans.
Tomorrow morning they will go again with Poe for another IV and antibiotic shot. We will also have the blood test results for tomorrow morning since Dr Damiani said to the laboratory that it is urgent. So we will know more tomorrow.
Now he's at our hospice.
Poe has to be in a quiet atmosphere and luckly now that the young ones are downstairs (Ombra, Gaby, Sassi), he has a really quiet living with the oldies. That's what our Hospice is about. Please keep sending healing and love and prayers ♥ He is not suffering, constantly under control with AWL's veterinarian team and Tuesday we will hear what the specialist will tell us.

Sunday; 

Poe Hannibal Lector. 
This morning Pio and Martina went with Poe to the Dr Damiani clinic for IV and antibiotic shot.
He looked better today. He was happy when he saw Martina at hospice and was running and wagging his tail.
He ate well.

Poe was  super crazy again at the vet, they had to "fight" to put on the muzzle! Bad boy!
We got the blood test result and it was good...nothing bad in his body! Next will be the visit with the heart specialist on tuesday morning. One step at the time. 

Thank you all Poe Fans. We love you!

STELLA BELLA HEARTPROBLEM

 Our client Stella Bella is not doing so well. She has been with us for a long time at the hospice. She started to cough and was brought by Angelina to Dr Fransesco. She got a xray today and it looks like she got lung edema. Water in her lungs and has to stay at the clinic.


She got a problem with her heart but her cough is not caused by that.
It's a respiratory infection, a sort of bronchitis.
Stella is now on antibiotic and anti-inflammatory for some weeks and then she should be better. Keep your paws for our loving Casa dell'Amore Mascot.

Angy thank you, also a big thank you to Dr Damiani and Dr Fransesco and The Dr Cardiologist

 Thank you all for your support and loving thoughts to Stella Bella.

BONNIE, HER STORY IS TRUE

 This is a true story about friendship, loyalty and commitment, from the beginning until the end ---  and it will have a good ending.  Not everyone is this lucky, but AWL focuses on the life they are holding in their hands.  It is a promise to life and soul.

Two loyal animal rescuers, Martina and Chiara Ricci, recently stopped outside a fenced in field owned by a farmer.   There was a lock on the gate. They sensed something was not right and went to the locked gate to have a look. Their eyes widened out of horror when they saw the skinniest dog --- she was only skin and bones --- in a tragic condition, She even wagged her tail when they said some kind words to her. They couldn’t leave her in there.  They saw a farmer and asked him if this was his dog? He said “no,” he was also upset and knew the owner wouldn’t come back in some time.

The farmer got the fence open by kicking it and the dog was brought out. The young women took her to the veterinarian. The female dog seemed to feel safe with the young women; she already had faith in them.  

But at the veterinarian clinic her anxiety broke out, she didn’t understand that they wanted to help her.  For her, the survival instinct kicked in. The veterinarian did his best to examine her, but he was concerned .

She was brought to the hospice and medication together with nutritional food was her treatment, and of course security and affection.  They sat with her on the floor talking to her, taking it slowly to earn her trust. Bonnie noticed that she could trust them and started to open up like a flower in bloom. Chiara took her for check-ups at the veterinarian clinic, and slowly she started to gain weight, her stomach became much better and her trust was magnificent to watch grow. 

She played with the other dogs at the clinic; she started to greet other volunteers that came. She became a beauty. When she became healthier and had tripled her weight from when she was found, she was ready to be sterilized.  Chiara was teary eyed when she saw Bonnie being more confident at the clinic, they had

 worked hard to give her the promise that no more pain or abandonment. Bonnie, it seemed, understood.

One woman wanted to adopt Bonnie, and a lot of research went on to see if this woman was right for Bonnie.  In the end,  they found a loving couple with another dog in the beautiful area of Lugano in Switzerland. Rabies and Leichaminiosis tests were started to make ready for the Passport. 


21 more days and her new mother was eager to have her with them. 

The day came when it was time to say good-bye to Bonnie and it was bittersweet. The volunteer women’s hearts were going to miss Bonnie tremendously but their heads were telling them this was the best thing for her future. Bonnie’s new mom made the transformation much easier by posting pictures about herself and home so we all could follow Bonnie’s continued development at her new home.

These are the beautiful pictures that we all volunteers can sit and admire, a normal beautiful girl having her dream home. That’s Amore

Thank you Martina & Chiara for never giving up on her, never complaining or showing a lack of patience.

AWL Hospice volunteers for giving her love and hope and building her up mentally and healthy. As always Dr. Damiani and Dr. Fransesco for helping us holding the bills down. And to all you supporters that make this possible to rescue a wonderful souland carry her back to “normal”, thank you for your donations. Without you, we can not  exist.

Mavi Meo thank you for opening up your home to Bonnie and also for all the donations to Hospice Casa dell’ Amore.

 Thank you all, you give us and the world hope.