THANK YOU TO ALL YOU WONDERFUL SPONSORS

There are many people out there in the world that are helping us AWL to be able to work, rescuing animals. Without your help we cannot give them any help;  medicine or surgeries. Food to starving dogs, de worming and vaccinations to Puppies. Or, our Senior Dogs at the hospice.

When treated and healed we fine super wonderful homes for them. To you, you are the strongest link in our chain, Team Italy. That's Amore!

Irena Lamadrid, Sweden
Michelle Gunter "Franka" earmarked puppies. USA
Julie Blair, UK

 Derek rescue by AWL, now having an easy life! Thank you sponsors.

 Our great volunteer Ryan, and his admire from the hospice Stella the Handbag (always want to be carried)

Our small rescue brats that are waiting to be transported to their new families, Germany and Sweden.

Tracey Kleber, USA
China Platou, Sweden
Gennie Greer Day, donated twice "puppies" USA
Clinton & Melissa Gunter "medical help to Franka" USA
Gunilla Tomasson, Sweden
Tracey L Nettles, "our long time monthly sponsor" USA
Helen Dale, USA
Elisabeth Biddle, USA

Franka rescued after many years in shelters. Senior at the hospcie. Barbara with family sponsored one day at the SPA!

Carina Lidbom, Sweden
Ulla Linders 'Capri & Phillipo"  Sweden
Else Marie Pedersen "Gaby", Sweden
Annica Wadstrom, Sweden 

Eva Nordstrand, "Franka" Sweden
Patricia Edwards, Sweden

Elisabeth Kruse, Denmark/Germany who is a great sponsor in every project we have. In one way or another, she is amazing.

Ann Livs Grollmeister, Sweden
Anna Persson, Sweden
Marie-Louise Andersson, Sweden
Henrik Ahlberg,  Sweden

And one donation it only says;- With Love!

One of Rosies pups that was rescued by AWL. That's Amore!

MY ITALIAN JOURNEY PART 2

After a great day in the shelter near Caserta, Martina, Olivia and I drove

home. As with every other day, we stopped by to feed The Mother of all the puppies by the church in Castle Volturno. 
We were very tired after a long day of working in the shelter, but decided we had to stop and feed them. And what a lucky decision! 

One of the puppies' head was stuck in an empty foodcan, totally exhausted and dizzy. We got his head out and could make sure he wasn't cut or wounded. 
We de-wormed them all; mother Bobby, puppies, and sister Chicca, and gave them plenty of food. The place was full of trash,and we tried to clean up a little. 

We found two puppies that had beenkilled, probably by other strays. But it made us concerned, we didn't want any other puppies to be killed. We had to move them quickly! 
Also pushing us was that mother Bobby was old and tired, and needed to have a break. Another big factor, was that other area puppies had gotten out, were killed by the cars on the busy street next to them.

The next morning we picked the puppies up, seven cuties. 

We started to wonder if the puppies were from two litters.  We drove to the hospice and Lori Garcia was there and helped us to make one room into a "nursery room" for the seven bundles of joy.


Dr. Vittorio came over on an Italian holiday, and helped us with examination and vaccination of all the puppies, and even some of our other associates:Valerie's rescue dog, and Chiarra's boyfriend's rescue dog. It sure was one hot, buzzy, busy day.

The next day we had a wonderful lady named Julia Johnson helping us to foster five of the puppies while two stayed for observation at the hospice: Tiny and Marlene. 

Tiny was the smallest and skinniest, he was very low and mellow, so he had to get extra puppy milk. Marlene was shy and we wanted him to grow and glow, and so they both did.

All puppies are now adopted and doing wonderfully.

 THAT'S AMORE!

SPAYED GIRLS

Finally, our Senior Booby living happy as a stray, got spayed. So many litters of puppies during her lifetime.  She was really tired!

And her daughter from "a long time ago" was also being spayed.

The people at the church loves them dearly and feeds them every day. When the girls came back both dogs and people jumped out of joy.

Thank you Also Dr Damiani Clinic

THAT'S AMORE

MY ITALIAN JOURNEY PART ONE.

Still I haven’t unpacked my bags or told you about my wonderful time down at the hospice in Italy. I came home 2 weeks ago!

But let me tell you, AWL has never been so busy as we are now. It’s generating great stories and fabulous adventures. Let me say, we have the best team ever. We are strong and determined to help more dogs. But, as I always say, we are very humbled to our sponsors and supporters, without you in our team, we cannot even consider to do what we are doing.

 I stayed at one of my wonderful friends and volunteer’s home in Martina’s house. With me I had my daughter Olivia that more or less grew up in the shelters with all the volunteer work we did during our four years in the Naples area.

Saturday morning many fantastic volunteers showed up together with their friends at the Hospice. Some husbands with their children came also. 

Thank you Lori Garcia with family, Valerie Funk with family, Barbarann with family, Sandra Jontz, Martina and Pio. And all the visitors. Sharon Kenney for the very generous donation and dog food, Aaron Kurschner with wife came with dog food, Emily Frazer came with dog food and toys for the Orphan home. And the three painting guys, Ryan and his painting brothers thank you so much.
Two rooms were painted, and we received many donations, too.
It was a lovely day.

It was amazing how much we got cleaned up in the hospice rooms and basement. The purpose was that we should clean up before closing down the hospice in June. The reasons were many!

But in the end I couldn’t fulfill what I had planned. I felt so happy being in there, it was my dream! I thought about all the wonderful clients that despite their disease, their mind was going towards one direction, to get better. They could suffer from great pain, but still their tail was going, thump, thump, thump. 

I had to re-think about having a new structure for operation of the hospice, and listen to the volunteers --- what their strengths and powers were ---- what did they want to do?

Sunday, we drove to our friends, the Caserta girls. They “took over” a Governmental shelter were the dogs more or less starved to death. They are working so hard find homes for their dogs, to not allow any of them to stay in the shelter any longer than necessary.  They are actively working to promote adoptions.

We love to work together with them since they allow us to adopt dogs, or bring them to our hospice. There is a lot of trust and love are between the Caserta Girls and the AWL Team.

We were a big group of 13 adults and children. It was a good opportunity to bring the volunteers with us so they could see one of the “better” shelters in the Campania region. With us, we had 900 kg dog food, some cat food, and cleaning material.

Amy Gardner had done a fantastic job at the Commissary on Base. She had made a cart were people could go and leave a bag of dog/cat food. It had amazing results...

Thank you to everyone on the American Navy Base, you are a wonderful community that helps us to help those in great need.

As always, it was heart breaking to go through the shelter with 304 dogs and 21 cats.  In one section there were five dogs in every cage on a cold concrete floor.  You want to give them all homes. They are adorable.
Many people think the dogs are damaged after being locked in for many years. But not every one is damaged, it’s a very low percent, maybe 3 % need special care.  Their ability to love, even after neglect and abuse, is truly inspiring.

Typical of the stories we hear in Campania, the Government promised to help the Caserta Girls with food for the animals, but it never seemed to happen. It is always, “domani” (tomorrow).

Please if you can start to collect food of any kind of dog or cat food we would be very thankful, and the dogs would be even more thankful. You can also donate money and earmark it “Caserta Food”. We have a good connection with a pet store that also gives us some amount of discount.

We have adopted some shelter dogs to Sweden that are the most warm hearted good dogs I ever met. We like these girls who run the shelter, since they want to help animals and not keep them in cages.

Suddenly Martina called me and pointed at an English Setter laying along the concrete wall now looking up.  Her name is Franka. I saw the love, and I nodded my head as a “yes” to Martina. Franka laid in a section were there was a lot of noise, after only five minutes even I started to feel like I would go crazy from the racket.

Franka had been there since 2005 and before that she came from another shelter. No one saw her, she was invisible!

Franka is now at the hospice with her own room, bed and volunteers that just adore her. What is even more wonderful in this Franka Cinderella story, is that she got her own private sponsor from Texas, The family Michelle & Clinton Gunter.  Since Franka is in very big need of medical help --- as well as dental help --- this is amazing how they came in and offered to help her.

Back at the Hospice, Barbara Ann and her daughter Chloe Rose took Franka to the groomer, and had her bathed and groomed. She looked fantastic and you could see her prancing like a ballet dancer, full of pride.

Her tests came back, showing a high count indicating leichmania, and her kidneys are working hard. Thanks to her guardian angel sponsors, tomorrow we can go and buy special medicine, and food for our Franka. Thank you Team AWL for the great work, I am proud.

That's Amore!

More to come.

FROM LOS ANGELES USA TO REXINGEN GERMANY

 Our hospice client down in Italy, Mr Edgar Poes own sponsor, Craig Kleber came to visit me  in Southern Germany. It was a great opportunity to met the man behind many and big donations to our hospice and clients. Him and his father are also the sponsors with the Vincent VAN, at the hospice.

 Craig got to meet my own hospice  dogs (12) that wouldn't let him be alone for many seconds, they totally adored him.

As a present he donated joint and vitamin chew for the dogs....and they tastes yummi thought everyone.

Now that's Amore! Thank you Craig, it was a great pleasure to have you here.

MR PRESIDENT IS SEEKING A NEW HOME

 Mr. President Before and After.


He is looking for a new office.....
He is an amazing little man, and I'd really like to see him find his perfect family. This is his story. About six months ago I noticed that a shaggy black dog was helping the gate guards at the entrance to Carney park Italy. He could always be seen laying near the guard shack. I nearly never went to Carney Park without seeing him. The guards affectionately named him "Mr. President". About two months ago, I noticed his absence and asked the guards where he had gone. They didn't know. I heard comments from other park goers about seeing him in the park with an injury and limp. About two weeks later he was again at the gate, this time with two separate sets of stitches for either a mauling or a brush with an automobile. It was very very cold and rainy and he was shivering uncontrollably in the weather, and the wounds were open to infection. I took him home. At the time, he could not navigate up or down the single stair required to get to the grass to pee. He immediately went to sleep and slept for what seemed like days. After about a week, I noticed that he was moving better up and down stairs, had a nice strong appetite, and his expression in the face looked happier. I got him a haircut, vaccinations, deworming, neutering (with your help- thank you AWL) and began looking for a home for him. He did a home trial with a woman who was interested in him, but she decided to return him to me. Since then, he has fattened up, had another clipping (He looks like a full bred wire hair daschund!) and become a big personality in our house. He gets along with cats, dogs, and little boys (I have two), and has excellent manners in the home. He has never had an accident, rarely barks, and always greets you with a wagging tail and a little daschund dance. He is between 5-7 years old according to Dr. Longo. He has some grey in the face-- but I think he has some great and happy years to spend with a family that is ready to love him.

NATO LOVEBUG FROM ITALY TO SWEDEN

 Pictures NATO's new home in Sweden.

 It was around Easter time that I got an email informing me that there was this big puppy --- 6 months old --- that was just horrible. He ate himself through the house when left home alone. The young man that had had him since he was a really young puppy declared that he would throw him in a shelter or out on the streets!

He had enough!

A woman that was dog sitting this hooligan contacted me, also saying it didn’t work with the Puppy. He was a destroyer!

His name is NATO and he is a strong 22 kg puppy. It was of course over the Easter holiday, when most everyone was gone or otherwise involved in family time.  Even without the holiday, not many would like to volunteer for such a challenge. I asked the foster mother for some time.

I contacted my Swedish volunteer Maya, could she help me find a home, and quickly?  At the same time NATO needed a passport, and to get a passport in Campania, Italy isn’t the easiest.  It’s always complicated, changes to opening hours, and procedures, and then to find the office is a challenge. Our volunteer Sharon (UK) offered her time to pick up the foster-mom and NATO, and together drive them to the passport office. At the same time we were working 24/7 interviewing people in Sweden, making home visits, several phone-calls every hour to various possible adopters. I knew NATO was special, and it would take a special family to take him in and not damage him further. We couldn’t afford having him going back and forth to different families.

Maya loved the idea to fly down and pick up NATO and another dog. I took my Birthday money and bought a plane ticket (thank you Minna (SE) for helping me booking the ticket—flying with animals.) Our wonderful member Henrik (SE) sponsored the dog tickets.

Maya flew away from Copenhagen, Denmark to Rome, Italy where I had sent her the train guidance and timetable going to Napoli. Our other great volunteers Martina and Pio were waiting at the train station and welcomed Maya. She was escorted to our hospice to meet her dog that she had adopted, Leona.  Leona would come a little later to Sweden. I couldn’t bear the thought that Maya would be in Rome over the night without meeting her beloved dog, if so only for one hour. Martina and Pio escorted her to Hotel Agora, our wonderful friendly hotel. Our volunteer Barbara (US) had donated a night stay there for Maya. At nine o’ clock that evening came the foster-mom and her husband with NATO.  NATO slept on Maya’s arm until it was time to leave at 0400 in the morning.  Flavia and her husband were outside the hotel waiting with the English Setter, Eva, that was also going to Sweden.  Our volunteer Patrick (US) came at 04.15 and drove Maya, NATO and Eva to the Rome airport (a 2-hour drive) and helped Maya put the crate together and since we knew that NATO was a Houdini escape artist they put duct tape and white plastic zip-ties to secure him. Patrick left, and Maya went to check in the dogs, only to know that you had to take out the dogs and weigh the crates and then put the dogs inside. On top of everything, we’d tranquilized NATO since we were worried he would go wild. I told Maya to use her beauty, and blue eyes to get help. A security guard helped to secure NATO again.

At Copenhagen two hours later, were the family was waiting and they loved NATO. They had borrowed a car to drive down from Gothenburg.  Eva went home with her family, adored and loved. Sadly, the boy in NATO’s family developed an allergy to him after several days, but we had kept contact with the most disappointed person that wanted to adopt NATO originally, Henrik (different Henrik than he who donated the tickets for the dog-flights). He was over joyed and jumped in the car, and drove 4 hours to pick up NATO and take him home. He loves NATO.

When I asked him if NATO was horrible, Henrik laughed and said, “He is not horrible he only wants company”

That’s Amore.

Thank you everyone in this big mission. One dog, one big crew! Happy Tears!