Yet again, the wonderful staff of LIDL have donered 200 kg of dry and canned food!

200 kg of kibble were donated anonimously by a close friend!

Food, towels and blankets – as usual, our wonderful friends at Ovidefarm have sent treats for the dogs of Bogrov on the return of the bus.

It is really interesting to observe how the walks are organized during the weekend, the differences and the similarities between the two days, the tendencies in time and how they change. Often we are witnessing two absolutely different days of walks – because of the weather and because of the number of the volunteers. And this week wasn’t an exception. It wasn’t long ago when there were more volunteers visiting the shelter on Sunday, but the last few weeks things have changed.

So this Saturday the shelter filled with a lot of volunteers – a group of 15 kids who enjoyed their meeting with the dogs in a pure innocent way, a group of about 15 more new volunteers and 6 regular volunteers. It is wonderful when there are so many volunteers in the shelter – new ones and old ones. The energy they give to us and the dogs is amazing, very strong and motivating because we need to know that there are many other people caring about the dogs and our cause. At the same time, having so many people in one place is also very difficult for organizing and we know it from experience. It takes some for the Senior volunteers to explain to the new volunteers how we manage the walks and what are the rules in the shelter. And for the new people is also needed some time for adjustment.  That’s why we are thankful to all of you for your patience and understanding. Thanks to the big number of volunteers on Saturday were walked 10 cages. The dogs and the volunteers enjoyed the newly made sunshade in the playing yard. It was made last week by Ico and Rosti for which we thank them a lot. We promise to use it wisely and a lot during the hot summer days ahead.

On Sunday things were a little different. There was very strong and cold win trying to blow away the little number of volunteers or to freeze them. The Sunday group consisted of our Senior volunteers and two others. We might have been little in number, but we have learnt how to work together and have became such a good team that nothing can stop us, at least not some wind – so the rest of the cages – 8 by number – were also walked. The dogs enjoyed playing with us in the yard and made us run so we won’t get cold.

The final result is that all of the dogs were walked again. This week Saturday is a working day bud we hope to see you in Bogrov. Your four-legged friends are waiting for you. And we want to know  what the walks will be like

Bruce sends his regards!

After the success of last year’s campaign with the Sofia Municipality we are neutering the dogs in the Roma ghetto’s once again. As some of you know, we will be working with “the little Gypsies”  from the 08.05 to 22.06. We will treat between 500 and 600 animals (depending on the numbers in the field), brought by Ecobalance dog catchers and with the help of the local Roma leaders. We are very glad to be going back to these problematic areas and hope to drastically decrease the number of dumped puppies emerging from the Roma ghettos of Sofia.

The campaign has already began and going well. Unfortunately, the same as last year – the dogs are in a terrible condition. Now too we will keep the ones in need of medical assistance and send them back healthy and recovered to their owners.

One of the dogs we are keeping for treatment

It is absolutely shocking to see the quantity of parasites (internal and external) on these animals! At the moment we are using a generous donation of spot-on flea and tick treatments we had received for the shelter dogs, but we are using them up with great speed. Without any exaggeration – we are sweeping full rakes of ticks and fleas from their cages after treatment! Even our own doctors have been unpleasantly surprised to receive “visitors” of such a kind whilst operating…

We are concentrating on females, but will not skip any males

We don’t want to upset you , so we will not show you photos or stories of the intestinal parasites that literally crawl out of the dogs whilst under anesthetic. We will simply say: the parasite situation is out of control and the dogs are suffering greatly from it. Even if we somehow set aside the huge risk for the health of their owners – such an infestation can be brutal for a dogs health. Fortunately we do have a lot of internal parasite treatment medicines. We have quite the opposite situation with external parasites – we only have enough for about 300 animals.

We appeal to you: Please, help us purchase external parasite treatments for 200 dogs. The price of the treatment we are using now is approx. 1,6E per dog, approx.320E in total. These 320E will guarantee that the dogs we have processed in the shelter are returned home free of parasites at least for a couple of months. Such a treatment will help them recuperate after the surgery and gain strength and health. If you prefer – you could also donate flea&tick treatments to the shelter directly. We only ask you to keep in mind that we purchase medications at much better prices. You can DONATE here or directly at the shelter. Thank you!

D-r Stankova, keeper Miro and d-r Stoyanova at work

Up till the moment our vets d-r Stankova and d-r Stoyanova are doing a wonderful job. They are also receiving great help from two visiting veterinary surgeons from Utrecht, Holland who came to help out with the neutering of the Roma dogs.

We don’t remember if we’ve shared that with you before, but the Roma dogs are amazingly good and kind. As a population and as a whole – they are the best. Perhaps our fellow citizens from the minorities have zero tolerance for biting dogs. Or maybe they have experienced some drastic socialization “techniques” – we don’t know which. But it is a fact – the animals we get from Roma families and areas always have friendly and kind temperaments. And are in the worst possible physical condition. Sadly.

Our list of lucky souls simply must begin with the only adult in the group – a very kind and people-oriented female dog. Before this transport she didn’t have a name – she is one of those “invisible” animals – noone would ever look at her a second time, she is simply “too mongrel”.

This Lady Invisible has been with us for 2 years, ever since she was a tiny little puppy and now  finally has a name – Selma, after the kind lady who gave her a chance of a new life:

Lot Nr#1 of the puppies that will be living lives as happy Dutch adult dogs!  Two sweet sisters, aged 4 months. They were brought to the shelter along with their dumped mother. She is still waiting, but happy to see them go:

And these two boys are also brothers, now about 5 months old. As usual – they come from a box in the city, dumped babies of an unspayed owned dog. By looking at them you can tell that mommy was a German Shepherd:

These here also come from a box. Only their box was dumped at the Sitnyakovo market. They are two brothers and a sister, 3 months old:

Three lovely sisters, take a wild guess where they come from… Yes, dumped pups. Here are three sisters, but you will be happy to know that they also have a brother – a sweet boy who was adopted in Bulgaria!

Two brothers and a sister who came from ourter space and landed in Bogrov. No, sorry, my bad, yet another set of dumped puppies who will be greatly loved instead of becoming hated Sofia mongrels:

Too charming!

Another two lovely sisters! These lovely ladies are about 3 months old. As you can guess they… are dumped puppies!

Finally, the only two sets of puppies on this transport who are not “pups from a box”. The two brothers below are now 4 months old. They were brought by the municipal catchers along with their nurzing mother. She is still with us, but they have found happiness:

These here sweethearts are two 5 month old brothers. They were born by the dog of a wherehouse, but were left to starve by the mother’s “owners”. Some kind people from the neighbourhood did their best to save them. The happy new Dutch will never know hunger again:

So, this is it – we count to twenty for each life saved! It is wonderful to know that these angels will never be lonely, hungry and hated.

It is a sad sight to see so many dumped puppies in our city, but at least there are very few females with pups on the streets of Sofia. If you live here and have neighbours who keep dumping their unwanted puppies on the street – please, talk to them about free Spay/Neuter and let them know there are huge fines for people who dump dogs. For every neutered female – there are tens of lives saved. Please, make the effort – it is totally worth it!

Probably this is what dogs think when the weekend approaches. You can’t even imagine the thrill they are experiencing every Friday. Only one more they before our “prisoners” get their weekly visit. For the dogs the volunteers are bringing not only joy and variety, but you are also their friends and that’s worth a lot.

Last months the usual walks weren’t usual at all with all these holidays and working days after that. Nevertheless week after week you didn’t forget our dogs and they got their walks although in different days. And this week their happiness was even bigger. Because of the many volunteers not only all dogs were walked but some of them got the chance for a second walk within a few days.  Dear friends that is something really incredible. It is something every dog dreams about – more walks, more love and attention. Unfortunately the time in the weekends is enough only for the walk of all cages so every dog can get a walk of full value. We always wish there is something more we can do, some more time to spend with them. And finally this week you made this possible. The lucky dogs are from cages 1,2,3,7 and 8. And for them this was more than celebration, be sure.

Thank you for surprising us and the dogs. And don’t forget – the weekend is just around the corner. Are you ready for walks and new accomplishments? We are waiting for you

It was a weekend of true friendship and tireless games. Once again all dogs in the shelter got their deserved minutes of happiness and walks. And what kind of minutes they were! A minutes of running, chasing balls and all sort of games like hurdle-race. If you wonder what hurdle-race means in this case we will tell you – imagine a volunteer in the playing pen and one little playfull dog that finds it very interesting to bite the volunteers shoes. You make a step and someone is pulling you back. You finally rescue one of your legs and the other one is already under captivity. At the same time a bunch of 5-6 other dogs is trying to get your attention and to win a caress or hug. What a fun game, don’t you think?

Besides all the fun and original games with which our dogs always impress us, this weekend they had a chance for some lazy time spent with the volunteers. The dogs not only lay down basking in the sun but they also ate some grass. You should know that the grass is such a delicacy especially when it is freshly grown and green. If you don’t trust us just ask any dog.

Of course what a weekend it will be if there aren’t any caresses, combing and all kind of treats and buscuits. But don’t think that all the dogs do is laying around. They love walks but usually we don’t know who is walkin whom. In most cases I think the dogs are the one walking us around. They do it because they really love us and want to keep us in good shape. Summer is coming – swimcases, beach, sea…Oh, how smart they are : )

This week the weather also decided to be on our side making us happy with it’s warm rays. What a smiley and positive weekend it was!

We know that a lot of free days are on the way again. But our dogs don’t know what are all these holidays about and why there are not many volunteers visiting them. For the dogs there is only one holiday – the meeting with the volunteers! Let’s give them that holiday once again this weekend! They will be waiting for you – please, don’t disappoint them!

You can ask when there will be Senior volunteers on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Animal.Rescue.Sofia

We are very pleased that we were able to send a large group of dogs from Kremikovtzi with this transport – as you know cage 14 at the shelter is booked for them only. As soon as there is some free space – we take in new dogs from the run-down factory.

Besides the orphans of Kremikovtzi this transport was also a ticket to heaven for a large group of dogs who’ve lived with us for over 6 months. There are also a number of fostered dogs as well as one lucky guy who left straight from the municipal shelter in Seslavci. So, here they are, these 22 happy souls:

Kremikovtzi dogs:

Rossy is one of those wonderful, calm animals who love you very much, but aren’t pushy. Calm and stable she is a clever dog who must have learnt quite a few lessons whilst living her hard life at Kremikovtzi.

Lilly (who is everyone’s favorite) became the spoiled little baby of our d-r Stankova. She is a dog who believes to be a kangaroo – spends most of her time standing on her two legs, begging for some love and attention. Her lovely son Zhivko is still with us – he is just like her, you are not late to find the love of your lifetime =}

Milly is a dog we know from the first time we entered Kremikovtzi. Back then she has some puppies that we rehomed, we neutered and put her back outside. Later on we decided to try and rehome her – she is such a wonderful dog! You’d not be surprised to find out that Milly was rehomed on her second day in Austria! What a wonderful outcome for this wonderful girl!

Maximilian or simply Max is somewhat of an idiot! Although he is absolutely perfect with people and such a tiny little dog – he insisted to prove to much larger males that he is the true macho! And for that – he got quite kicked around. We had him for some time for nourishment and then neutered and released him. But Max was being stupid on the street as well, the other males bullied him and didn’t let him access the food, so we had to take him back. Males! Stupid males! Anyway, that is all behind him now, everything will be fine.

Berta is a dog who came to the shelter accidentally. She appeared out of nowhere at the factory one day – pregnant, we hadn’t seen her before. We neutered and returned her. The next time Marietta and Vessy went over to Kremikovtzi they were supposed to pick up a number of dogs, but couldn’t find one they were planning to bring over to the shelter. Whilst they were wondering what to do Berta came over and simply got into the car. What a smart dog!

Milka (or Shokoladka) is a lovely dog from the large group of animals that live at the gated of Kremikovtzi. She has been greeting our car from hundreds of meters away, she knows and loves us – a very lively and kind dog.

Old friends from Bogrov:

Ochka or Ari is a dog we got at the gipsy neighborhood. She was pregnant, skinny and tied to a 70 cm chain. Her so-called owner didn’t mind giving her up to us, he was going to kick her out on the street with the puppies anyway. At the shelter it turned out she was a fantastic dog! Friendly, curious, sweet and despite her having one eye less – it was clear she would be rehomed quite quickly.

Josh – absolutely lovely as you can see. He left together with his sisters Mia and Nia. The three of them are siblings with Dorothy and Kevin – dumped in a box outside. The people who took Dorothy (she left for Germany a month ago) were so impressed with her that they wrote to ask us if she had any relatives that needed help. Why certainly!

Nelly was found as a tiny little baby – newly dumped at an apartment block building. She is very smart, very lively, very playful – just a wonderful friendly soul. Unfortunately when she arrived from her fosters home to the shelter she thought she could climb up the hierarchy. She was bitten quite badly on numerous occasions. When she lost her tail we decided it was too dangerous for her and moved her to the “outsiders group” in the outside enclosures. There she was very satisfied and made many friends. She became a huge fat lady; hopefully her new owners will quickly fix that little habit of hers.

Amanda is one of Tansy’s babies. Tansy left for Germany a couple of months ago and left her daughter very sad and miserable. Although she came with her mother and siblings Amanda never learnt to cope at the shelter and was feeling very unhappy. Contrary to her sister Payton, by the way, who is loving her life with us.

Jilly is a sister to Tasha – the dog who made it to the calendar and was adopted by Elena Yontcheva, the famous Bulgarian journalist. Jilly is the last of the litter – finally everyone is rehomed!!! It was a bunch of stray-looking babies, 10 of them, dumped in a box by the trash. Put a big “happy end” sign to this story!

Parker is a puppy from the neighboring village – Musachevo. Our colleagues had gone there for lunch and guess who was shivering and looking miserable under the post-office stairs??? Crooked legs, sad eyes – of course they would pick him up! Lucky for him, he will have a wonderful home despite his crooked legs.

Fostered dogs rehomed:

Gia is a wonderful dog who was lucky to have a wonderful foster family. Lucky and kind and pretty and smart… God was generous when he was giving her so many lovely qualities!

Sarah looks like she is a crossbred Turkish Kangal or maybe some other large guard dog. She is so gentle and pretty, but that wouldn’t stand in the way of people who want to harm her – large dogs are most hated on the streets of Sofia. This beautiful and kind lady will be quick to find a loving family in her new homeland.

Bimba was supposed to come for neutering only, but we fell in love with her kind attitude. Luckily the volunteers who brought her agreed to foster and prepare her for the trip. Such a lovely dog!

Berta, Berry and Rizhko were looked after by a kind woman who is an active Spay/Neuter volunteer. She has neutered half of the animals in her neighborhood – how sad that there aren’t more people like her, we wouldn’t have had this stray dog problem. Anyway – she was neutering and saving many dog, but in time they just became too many, so we tried to help her by rehoming these three – all of them rescued from near-death situations on the Sofia streets.

Artos is a dog from Seslavci, he spent quite some time at d-r Stankova’s foster home. A lovely dog and you can see even on photos what a stable, happy-go-lucky guy he is. One of those favorite dogs – stands like a rock and nothing can shake him up. Plus – he loves people greatly!

“Bialo” means white. Means he didn’t even have a name here in Bulgaria. He took off straight from Seslavci – since there was no space neither at Bogrov, neither at any fosters the white boy was prepared for his journey by d-r Stankova at Seslavci. He will be so happy to find there is love and comfort now in Germany!

So, what do you think, what kind of day are these 22 lucky ones having today? Do you think that they are like people – wandering what happened with disbelief, or are they simple-hearted dogs who accept the reality such as it is and just enjoy their new happy lives??? It must be the second choice. We can never be sure what goes on in their minds, but we can surely say that we are very happy!

Regards to our restless Nadia Stancheva who seeks, finds and organizes transports sending our dogs to lovely organizations abroad. Regards to Petar and Valko who have once again driven the dogs safe and sound to their new destination. Regards to all our donors who have saved so many innocent lives. Well done to all of us!

Here is what happened in the shelter during the holidays:

13^th April – Friday – walked cages -19 and 20
14^th April – Saturday – walked cages 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
15^th April – Sunday – the volunteers took a break
16^th April – Monday – walked cages 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21

Outcome – ALL dogs were walked again! Everywhere you can see dogs hanging out their tongues and wagging their tails. And our volunteers tried their strength against each other with the beautiful Easter eggs that Nadya  has made. The men won against women but we won’t tell you the names of the winners as we are waiting for revenge next Easter! : )

We wish ourselves all people to be better, more responsible and united and to smile more not only on holidays but every day!

Be happy and appreciate the little things just like our dogs do!

Capture the moment and be united.

Be friends for example and always help the needy.

Take care for others and don’t take them as granted!

Love and be loved!

Thank you for your big hearts, open mind and support! 500 dogs in Bogrov are waiting for you to visit them this weekend! Come be their friends for a day!

Just in time for the Spring puppy-dumping festival of Sofia. No, we know it’s not funny – but dumping dogs is somewhat of a national sport in Bulgaria. Bitches are left unspayed in yards and when they have their puppies the little ones are dumped heartlessly on the street. But neoutering – “noooo, it is so so inhumane”…

So, here they are – the lucky 20 souls who have found safety, comfort and loving families in Holland and Germany. First – the new Dutch:

These five little angels were dumped in a box outside at about 25 days of age. What a surprise. The shelter was full as usual, but these little ones were lucky – there were two kind foster moms who decided to give them a chance of life. That explains how white they are, ha-ha! See them grow in foster care.

Then come these three Bandits – Bebo, Bucky and Buddy.

A man was walking to work when he saw two kids with puppies in their hands, talking to people and trying to give them away. It turned out they were the babies of their pet dog and their mom put them in a box and told the kids to get rid of the pups…

They were lucky that there was a foster mom who wanted them and raised them through their vaccines and to safety. They will no longer speak Bulgarian, these three!

Here are two most wonderful sisters – Samara and Grace. You can rarely find a baby so sweet and kind as these two. We are very happy to know they will be loved:

With black dogs it’s always so difficult. People don’t care that black dogs usually have the most wonderful temperament. The two boys below are not related but guess if they are pets or not – yes, of course. Both come from dumped litters. And Topcho was fortunate enough to have lived in a loving foster family.

This summes up our new Dutch fellows. Germany welcomed only one family, but what a family it is. A wonderful kind mother and her 7 tiny babies. Since she is so perfect on a lead and with an ideal hygiene we can be 100% sure that she is an owned dog who was dumped for being pregnant.

These babies were actually lucky – they were dumped along with their mother, so they managed to survive. Had they been put in a box or a bag at the age when we foudn them – they couldn’t have survived. Babies need mothers – it’s as simple as that.

We can’t even begin to describe what a lovely group this is – such lovely little ones, really, really lovely. Here they would have been hated and kicked around. And now in Germany they will have happy homes – each and every one of them!

Once more – Hip Hip HURRAY! These precious little mongrels will never know what pan, hunger and loneliness are!

Our thanks to the donors of Animal Rescue Sofia; to our fantastic drivers who got them to their new lives safely; and of course – our partners abroad who give these angels the chance they deserve.

Some say that we are crazy; some people don’t understand us; some judge us, blaspheme us, mock at us openly or secretly and some are just indifferent. But do you know what we say – I am proud to be a volunteer : ) This isn’t a place like any other! It’s magical and full with charming, playful and loving dogs and their friends – people who are calm, reasonable and very cool.

 
The youngest inhabitants in Bogrov are hiding because of the bad weather

Here I found new true friends and one really fun and relaxing hobby. If you don’t believe me, just come and see yourself. You might meet old friends, make new ones or maybe you can find your dog. If you don’t enjoy your stay or you don’t like us at least there will be stories to tell : )
We are waiting for you – every week day but mostly during the weekends when we gather into groups of 15-30 cuties ready for achievements! But be warned – in some cases, like mine, you become addicted ((( :

  
A warm jacket and raincoat help against bad weather – a Bogrov recipe.

  
This is what people say to be – to get out of hand.

Compliments for all of our volunteers! For the time and money you spend to make our dogs happy; for being there for them no matter what – in rain, wind, storms, snow, sun, heat, and cold winter days. When you have family troubles, somebody made you nervous, no matter the differences between us, in health and illness and more and more. You are the heart of the shelter!

And to all of you reading this article right now – THANK YOU! For helping our 500 dogs with money, toys, blankets, leashes, food, medicines, love, good wishes, positive thoughts, adoptions and many more. Your help is priceless, and you are the soul of the shelter!

At birthday as it has to be – with cake and presents!
Dear Evgenia, be happy, healthy and always devoted to our cause!
Thank you for your good heart and the chance for us to know you and to call one of Us!