Today's Mission

Always when I worry it goes great! The obedience lesson went very well. But first I took "Harvey" to LegaProAnimale for castration. He was dumped in Sara and her husband's yard one morning, no microchip, no collar of course. He stays at a foster home, and is the sweetest thing, child friendly, loves to go in the car. Thank God my husband is not home or he would have kept him.

Ok, Fox concentrate please! I went out and picked him up at the kennel and hung like another old rug after him as he pulled me out of his shelter area. He refused to jump into the car so I had to go and get help. 45 kg is not easy to pick up! The whole way to the obedience class, I told Fox we "will make this". I even stopped to meditate since we had time and we both needed to calm down.

We were greeted by the dog trainer Nikola at Agility Club Campania (professionally operated for 10 years and I have heard such good things about her from different nationalities and different problem owners ). I liked how she talked, I liked how she observed every movement I or Fox made, she really has the eye.

I told her the whole story about Fox and that I knew inside of myself that he is a good boy. Fox has nearly his whole life (well 1 or 2 years) been locked into a small lot without anything to hide inside for shelter. Kids would throw rocks or fire crackers, but one English lady fed him every day. As she was leaving, she asked AWL for help and I got this picture taken from above so he looked like a Jack Russel sized kind of dog. So I said yes to the lady's tearful, begging eyes. To my surprise when I met Fox he was not a 10kg Jack Russel, he was a 45 kg Goof!

But there is something he is sending, since many people that meet him, in person (dog) or through pictures, like him. We are a professional team and can be realistic in dog cases. (Well if I am not, hopefully someone else in AWL is, or our AWL vet Inga.)

Fox simply doesn't know anything. But it's not his fault. He has not grown up on the street learning how to think and survive in different situations. He has never lived with a family (or person) so he doesn't know what jumping into a car, or walking into a house means--it makes him insecure. He has never socialized or lived with other dogs, so he doesn't know how to read doggy body language. He is just a big goof that needs a calm, secure, motivated, consequent, hand....love comes through this. He needs a calm leader that can guide him, and he will give back a lot. I'm sure of it.

After one hour together with Nikola, not training, just talking and observing, she said "I thought he would be worse."

Also, "He is an honest dog!" Meaning, he will not try to fool us. If he is demonstrating something, it is real not a ruse.

Nikola thinks that if nothing else comes out (behavior) he should not be difficult to work with." Nikola, a million thanks today for your advice and great observing eye(s).

See you next Tuesday!

Yesterday's Mission

( The mother is on the second floor looking down on her puppies that are hidden under the big thorn bushes. This way she is confusing people and animals from where they really are. She is a smart mother)

Yesterday's mission together with Dr. Inga was a short "observation" mission at the skeleton place (you who have followed my blog are familiar with this place).

The puppies there are now getting big and my fear that someone will poison them, or have their dog kill them are tremendous. My instinct was right and confirmed when we stopped at the place nearby were a big dog lives and Dr. Inga asked the men to keep their dog under observation and let us be able to come and go for a couple weeks to work on the puppies.

I froze when I followed the vet into this place, like I could sense danger, the whole inside of me started to get nervous. I just wanted to leave. Thanks to Dr. Inga and her brilliant ability of telling them about our project, we have their permission and hopefully now can work on this mission. I am going to the puppies feeding them to get them to know me so we can catch and vaccinate them; we already have a foster family who can take care of them until May.

Ana it is so wonderful of you. The puppies are very hungry and have started to eat from the carcasses of the puppies from before. We have to hurry but we cannot hurry the puppies, this is what makes it difficult.

We cannot catch them since they are hiding in a big area of bushes with big thorns. That's also why it is easier to give hungry animals food with poison in, they come out and eat and then the poison starts working in them slowly and painfully.

We need a lot of good pates', good luck and good speed.

Visit My Tail Wags For You (animals for adoption) blog today too.

Follow Up from an AWL mission

Bella was also "distance adopted" by the AWL volunteer veterinarian Dr. Inga. Bella is staying at the same kennel as Nebia and Ariel. Her adoptive family routinely goes to take her to the beach, walking her and playing with her. She is doing wonderfully too, and they cannot wait until she can come home for good! This is Amore both ways.

It was like a Swedish summer yesterday, it was great being outside today after what has felt like a long period of rain and dreary weather.

Two of the dogs rescued from the "terrible shelter" in February (see earlier blog) have been doing great in "distance adoption" mode, at a very good local kennel. These two came to socialize with the AWL director's "pack" for the weekend. It was simply wonderful. Twelve dogs in the house and everyone got along so great. Ariel and Nebbia are these two dogs, and they enjoyed the freedom and good weather too.

Nebbia was labeled as "aggressive" and sat alone in a small cage. When I met her the first time I knew it wasn't true. And it isn't. She's been tested several different times, in different ways, she lives together with Ariel. She's been with us at Carney Park playing with many different dogs. And, now this weekend, together with the whole pack. She is brilliant.

That's the danger when you label someone, the label sticks and it takes some great heart to see past the label and give them a chance (same goes with humans).
Nebbia the "aggressive dog" is resting on our patio with Roberto, who also was rescued a little earlier from the same place (remember him with the ligament injury, also earlier blog). Roberto is doing great, happy, yappy and charming and his leg is completely healed.

Ariel has been in four shelters, her whole life; Nebbia in only one but they think for three to four years. Neither of them had ever been inside a house and it was so sweet to see them standing in the doorway, kind of thinking "what do we do now?"

We had to lift them in and they walked around just smelling and looking and then they laid down on their blankets and cuddled up with us. This was Amore news for them!

Morris Medication Memorial

Animals Without Limits wants to thank the organization Chans in Sweden for their generous donation. Thanks to them, we can continue our work on the streets helping the wonderful strays.

Medication, prevention and spay and neutering will be done in Morris' name and memory (see previous entries last weekend).

We will work in the territories he lived in, helping others who may share his diseases or circumstances, document and prevent, return every week to make sure that no one suffers in pain.

Also we want to thank Linda who donates one bag of dog food every week.

Now, we can feed the hungry ones in Morris' area as well.

All money goes to veterinarian care, that's what AWL's Amore policy is about

Thank you so much to everyone who make our work possible.

And by the way, Giove is recovering great from his hernia surgery that he had yesterday.

Happy and playful! Wouldn't we like all our patients (human adults) to be like that?

Others in Need (it never ends)

I got a phone call from another Animal Worker who wanted to ask me what to do with some dogs (5) that are trapped in an empty warehouse area. Two of the dogs are pregnant.

I went there to look at the situation. Traffic around the area is horrible.

The phone number posted on the fence didn't exist, and the company name.... well, nothing.

Currently we are feeding through the gates and providing water.

This fantastic Animal Worker called the Carabinieri (national police), and hopefully they can do something.

I think we need help!

A picture ~ A hope

This is Giove (Jupiter) from "the terrible shelter" I think many of you remember this picture from past blog entries.

A wonderful Swedish journalist Erika, followed our story --- me and AWL --- and is making a reportage for an upcoming new magazine. I sent pictures, she visited the blog and fell in love with this little guy. Thanks to Ylva who took this picture, now Giove is going to have a family for the first time.

After "the terrible shelter" was closed the dogs from there were taken over by LEDA, an Italian organization. I went there today and picked up Giove. It is one month between the pictures.

This is Amore, Amore. Erika thanks for making this guy happy!

Mission: Morris

Bella, one of our wonderful reader, sent in a donation today in Morris' name. She suggested that she wanted AWL to help other dogs with medication on his behalf.

That made me think "what a wonderful idea", a focus area as a memorial to a long suffering soul who really touched my heart well beyond the time I knew him. (And judging from the comments, his plight touched many others, too.) To go on "Mission Morris" and medicate strays to prevent them from what caused Morris' sickness in the first place.

Why does one have to give his life and suffer for us to work harder?

Don' t let us forget Morris, let his work begin through us, to show his spirit that his life taught us something about ourselves and others.

He didn't judge us even for what the humans had caused him.

Morris, my little mini Buddhist! Let us show you that we can change.