32 (Yes! Thirty two!) little ones are now safe, sound and warm in Austria after our fabulous transport that left the shelter on December 10-th.
Huge thanks to our friend Sandra Stibi of Stibi’s Hundeparadies and the tireless fosters who opened their kind hearts and warm homes for our sweethearts!
Thank you, dear friends, we hope our babies bring you happiness! Happy Holidays from us and all our friends here in Bulgaria to you, kind people!
The Vivacom Puppygarten is a heavenly place in the Bogrov shelter – it is the home of the little ones who just got out of quarantine, but are too small to be placed with the big dogs in the large dog building. The only problem is – the puppygarten is outside and it has to be emptied out for the winter. Here is how it happened!
31 puppygarteners and our sweet three-legged Chichi have left the shelter on this trip. Chichi – you know her well, because it was with your irreplaceable help that we were able to operate and remove her dead front leg. What a sweet kid she is! We can now rest, knowing she is safe and sound in her foster home in Austria, waiting for the kindest family to find her!
We can say little or nothing about most of these babies. Almost all of them were found dumped in a cardboard box somewhere in or around the city. The unwanted offspring of unsprayed yard guard dog females, that would have been gone long ago if they had not miraculously reached our shelter.
The worst part of it is that the mothers of these poor souls remain unsprayed. This means that their destiny will be repeated over and over and over again until the world ends. Or at least until we “win the war” on puppy abandonment. We hope you help us in it, because otherwise many more of these angels will continue to suffer on the streets of Bulgaria:
4 brothers and sisters from a box…
This here litter is one with a typical story. It is the litter of a village guard dog – neglected and chained forever. Kind neighbors cared for and fed the mother, they took care of the puppies as well – vaccinated and kept them until we could admit them to Bogrov. They made an arrangement with the owner of the mother that they would help him with the puppies if he let them neuter the mother. So – he did. These angels must have been born under a very lucky star:
All these sweet eyes have faced a similar destiny – abandoned babies, thrown away like trash. We have raised them from tiny pieces of life and with great care and efforts, raised them to become healthy, good babies in front of our eyes. We are sure each and every one of them has their own sad story, but none of them can reveal it to us…
If we count the puppies we keep in the Puppygarten + the ones we have in quarantine – there are about 100 puppies at the shelter at any given moment. Their care, health, food, hygiene and socialization costs us a huge resource and is also time-consuming. But you can see for yourself – it is not possible for us to overlook them, we simply must do all that is in our power to help these sweethearts as much as we can…
When a puppy comes to the shelter it is only the beginning of a very long preparation process. With so many dogs passing through and living at the shelter, we have a high risk of infection for organisms with low immunity such as puppies. For that reason the quarantine cells where the puppies live are only accessible for the vet and keeper on duty. Each cell has its own disinfection basin at the door so the infections are not transferred on the sole of the shoes.
We begin treatment at the moment a puppy is admitted. No matter if they show no symptoms – we give them a special serum for two days, meanwhile removing the external and internal parasites. If the puppy shows no symptoms of illness – on the second day it is vaccinated. We repeat the vaccine after two weeks, and if we have the money – do it again for a third time two weeks after that. Yes, it is hard, yes it costs us a lot, but it guarantees maximum protection against the deadly viruses that the babies can come in contact with in such a huge shelter.
Among the many nameless heroes of this story is also Christopher. A boy we picked up at a gas station. Sadly, there is only one destiny for the babies that get dumped by the road – they become “stickers” – flat reminiscence of dogs on the pavement, ran over by cars over and over until they disappear forever, leaving nothing, but a stain on the asphalt. But it was not meant to be for our Chris! He will have his loving home in Austria!
Meet Buria – one of the puppies hand-reared by our friend Teddy Kosturska – foster mom to an endless flow of abandoned sucklings. Buria’s lucky brother Shreck already headed for the same destination on our last transport to Austria, we are very happy she will not stay behind and also enjoy a cozy bed and a loving home for the New Years Eve!
Well, this is them – the little ones that we promised a warm home for Christmas. With a strongly beating heart we can tell you that this week we sent our third, dreamy transport that you helped us achieve, but… the bus hasn’t returned yet and we dare not speak of it until we know all is fine and well.
Our very special thanks to Stibi’s Hundeparadies for the 400 kilograms of puppy kiblle they sent for the poor babies that remain in quarantine:
And again – THANK YOU to our Austrian colleagues for the kindness and big support. Thanks to them – hundreds of unwanted souls from the streets of Sofia have found love and happiness in kind Austian families over the past 3 years.