Moving

We just had the removal company round to assess how many trips we will need and the say they are going to try for three trips but it will be tight. We have 120 metres of fence wire that is 1m 80cm high. 60 treated ucalyptus support posts, 2 fridges, one for us one for dogs, Two ovens one for us one for dogs, Large catering pans, dog houses, our furniture, over 1000 books, an endless list of boxes of this and that. We have a gas water heater that is large, our baked potatoe oven which weighs 70 kilos. We have two large gas cylinders and four small ones. All these are used for different reasons and expensive to buy again. We have two large tables one for dishing up dog food and one for us. I have cupboards full of dog bedding and towels for them. There sponge beds as well. Just medication for dogs a whole box full filling two cabinets. Hose pipes and buckets for kennel cleaning. Brooms etc. Tools for building kennels and repairing kennels. It's frightening! Also how we are going to finance this is frightening. We are scheduled to move around the 27th of this month. We will be experiencing Christmas in the new home. Hope we manage to organize ourselves by then.     

This week

We have just spent four and a half days without Internet or telephone, so only now can we blog. First news is last Friday Mom and Dad finally found some where to live in Nova Friburgo. The doctor will be taking over our home at the end of the month, so they have to move quick. The house is simple and has enough land around it to support the our needs. They will have to fence an area for us to play as there is not a wall around the property. Mom is going to try and raise funds to get us on our way and has  managed with one donation to put the required deposit down to secure the house. Here is a picture of it. Mom is happy to have found somewhere,but sad to lose her home. Still!  it had to come sometime and the eleven month wait to sell the home ate up all the equity. So, poor mom and dad got nothing out of it. Mom says she got to save her babies,  so she isn't crying. We are all going to the new place too. We will have small temporary kennels until they can sort something out for us.

It will be a lot colder there as it is a lot higher up at around 3300 feet above sea level. Mom has to somehow get eight wooden dog houses for us. She has five,but the rest of us have brick built in houses or sleep in the house. It will take two trips to move us. First trip with furniture and our stuff then a second with us all. It will be quite an operation. Please,  if anyone can help Mom and Dad with the huge cost of removals then they would be very grateful and so would we otherwisw we won't be moving far.

The second piece of news is that the film about the disaster shelter opened by Mom and Dad's good friends in Teresopolis has won first prize. Bebete who opened the shelter as a response to the terrible natural disaster all around this region is very happy and Flavia who made the film is also very happy. They said Nicki appeared in the film more than any other dog and Dad is in many parts of the 70 minute film about Estimacao (the non profit). They called mom and dad from Curitiba where the first public showing of the film was and said it was really emotional. They all cried and so would mom if she had been able to go and see it. It will be shown in Rio next  then   Manaus and some other places. Mom will see it in Rio. Apparently the number of animal rescues achieved by Estimacao and with us helping almost daily is the largest number of any rescues for any one group during a disaster. We are all very proud and emotional about it. We thought and talked a lot about it at the weekend. Mom has hundreds and hundreds of photos of what happened and what we all did to help in Teresopolis. There were some very emotional and sad moments and some very happy ones. Bebete, Flavia, and  all  of  us now have become inextricably linked due to this disaster. When you go through something like this you aways remember your comrades,or so mom says. So,  the film will eventually have sub titles and go out to the English speaking world. Maybe it will be famous who knows? Winning the award in Curitiba was a real good sign.

As soon as Mom, Dad and us are settled and unpacked Mom says she will collect the Spinning dog and bring him to his new home and see if they can help him. She has told us all to be nice to him because he has special problems.

Mom and Dad are hoping to be able to complete their own registration for a registered charity very soon now. Somebody has promised to pay for this so that we can continue being a shelter and helping special dogs with special needs. The have ambitions to grow and one day run a spay and neuter programme and vaccination programmes too. Their statute would allow them to rescue wild life too. Mom and Dad missed a beautiful opportunity last week. Their friend who is a biologist in the National park rescued a jaguar with a wounded leg. He shot the animal with a dart to tranquilise it and then treated the animals leg. He invited Mom and Dad to go and watch it being released back into the wild. They couldn't go and were very disappointed about that.

We are hoping to go in front from now on especially once we get charity status. We want to make a difference to the terrible suffering of street animals here and around here. Only time will tell.

Blogging

We haven't been blogging much lately we are  way too caught up with serious problems but hope to be back soon.

The Spinning Dog

Here is the spinning dog. Still waiting for Mom and Dad to be able to sort out their lives. He is circling all the time now and Mom and Dad would love to give him a home. They can't because they can't even find a home for themselves. There are so far no cheaper properties to rent at all. The people who all lost their homes in the disaster have rented evrything in that bracket. There are many cheap houses for sale for as little as $20,000 a small shack can be bought with enough land for all of us rescue dogs here. It seems so little to solve the problems here. If we had $1000 per dog then we would have a home for life for them.  Mom keeps trying but it is getting very difficult to survive like this and she is extremely stressed and thin. Dad just walks around wearing a very worried face. We all know something is up. They are going forward with the charity status but it will take a couple of months probably to sort out. Dad visited him yesterday and tookhim for a walk. On he leash he walked perfectly. He always spins in the same direction. Jessie had similar neurological problems and did recover. He may not recover but may improve with constant therapy. Mom just wants to bring him home and give him a hug.

Meanwhile the spinning dog who has neurological problems caused by distemper awaits us. Mom is so sad things have come to this. Mom did everything for us dogs and now needs an Angel to save us all. We all pray everyday for life to go back to normal. Since January 12th 2011 nothing is the same. When it rains everyone is afraid. Mom is still fighting for us and trying to get someone influncial to back our cause and help us raise funds to survive. It is difficult though. Everything is a problem when you don't have a net to catch you when you fall. One day we might have good news let's hope so. Meanwhile the battle for survival goes on. 

Another Foreigner's take on Life in Brazil.

Posting this today because we read it a while back on http://jillinbrazil2011.blogspot.com/2011/04/life-of-street-dog.html It' s called The Life of a Street Dog. We thought it was an excellent post so here it is

Life of a Street Dog

Having one of those days...  I have 25 glorious days a month here and then there are the 5 that really suck.  These are the days where I know I am living in a foreign country and I am the Foreigner. 

Last night my dog escaped from my house, she put her nose down and followed it far away from home.  There is so much shit and garbage to smell in the streets here... when she comes home I know after this adventure she will be happy to have her little boring life behind bars with tons of people food at her disposal, short walks on the leash and blankets to sleep on.  The life of a Street Dog in Brasil is not one to be envious about.

I know Bhellie is a smart dog and I know she is out there trying to get home.  Not only is she probably hungry but she is also now fighting with the other dogs as they are very territorial.  Dogs here work the streets just as people have specific corners or streets where they pander for money or “watch your cars”.  Dogs here work hard every day to find food and they are infested with fleas, weathered and scarred.  They are hit by cars and most of them always seem scared of everything.  I was a Veterinarian Technician and the problem with dogs in the street is so large that I do nothing…  I do not get involved and I am sure for the safety of my children this is the best thing but how does that really make me feel inside knowing that my job is to just forget that it exists.  I can’t feed them from my door because that too will become a problem. 

We have been driving around looking for Bhellie and hanging flyers in BRASIL.  Let’s just say that I am not in the best of spirits because I am missing my dog and because of this I am sure this is why I am feeling like saying this next bit.  BUT... while driving around I realize that I am living in the dumps, some areas around where I live have kids selling crack on the street, trash is everywhere and I keep thinking that even Bhellie wouldn't like these smells.  I realize that life is hard here; it is not even easy for the people who have enough money to get out of poverty and to provide more for their children.  Those kids go to school full time and then work the rest of the day for a better life because they know what they will have if they don’t, they see that life every day.
 
The lack of education in these areas it so profound it becomes scary and it is so unreal to think that being educated is something new; only a generation of people away & for many, they still won’t get educated in their lifetime.  The minimum wage of someone working in Brasil is $540 real a month.  This is $337 in U.S dollars.  The cost of products in Brasil is more expensive, going out to eat is about the same as in the U.S. and the prices of Groceries are about the same or higher.  No wonder why we have shipped all of our jobs overseas.  We sell the products to Americans and then take the U.S. dollar and exchange it to pay foreign workers.  I don’t mean to get off on another tangent but this fact seemed appropriate now. 

Brazilians are proud, they have a good time, they laugh, they cry together and they are good people.  More and more I understand why there families are so strong.  People who want something more work very hard and do it with pride.  People who are less fortunate have a life on the street and struggle to have their basic needs in life fulfilled.  I saw people on crack... I said “people”; Neighborhoods of people.  In my life I had only seen one here and there or heard stories... these last few days of driving around looking for my dog have been so eye opening for me because there is no escaping the reality of where I live. 

For those Brazilians who are offended by what I am saying... I am not talking about you and I will speak my truth.  I am talking about people who live 3 streets away and struggle every day for food and whom struggle every day for money and for a clean place to sleep if that even mattered anymore to them.  I am talking about the people who do not have a choice of where they can send their kids to school and the kids who may never have a choice.   It is a tough world out there and maybe not as tough for the people who have grown up in this manner for generations but when you are from a place where you have 3 styles of everything in 15 different colors it will open your eyes and change you.  I can’t even begin to imagine myself in a life like what I saw today and I can’t imagine that for my children. 

Maybe I sound too Naïve, but maybe I am. I will thank God every day for the life I have been given and spend the rest of my life trying to make it better for someone else. 

If you are reading this… remember sometimes people can’t choose where they are in life and when you run into someone from another country or someone who is different from you, be patient with them and learn something new. 

And for my dog, who has taught me another valuable lesson, please come home.  We miss you.

This Week

Dad is frantically trying to find somewhere for us all to go. Yesterday he was out and about in Teresopolis looking around and he stopped by to visit the spinning dog. He also passed through the area where Nicki came from. Nothing much has improved there. It is a constant reminder to us all here. Mom still cries every time she sees a picture of it. Dad took these so the world knows just what it is like there nearly nine months later. 

Looks like a scene from an earthquake.

 People are still living amid the wreckage.

So many lives torn apart.

Others just taken. Maybe this was Nicki's family. Who knows?

Then people say 'Get over it'. Difficult for those that see it daily and suffer the consequences daily.

Or maybe this was Nicki's house?

He felt depressed as he passed through the area. Imagine having to live there. He then saw a friend of ours who is a biologist working in the National park. Here is an Owl he saved. It has one wing virtually torn off because it flew into an iron support post on a building site. It can never go back to the wild.

Here is a monkey. Not sure what was wrong with him. Dad forgot. After seeing the destruction again.

The film made about the disaster featuring mom, dad and Nicki and has shots of them here in what was our home has now been accepted for the film festival in Curitba and in Goiana. So, that was good news. When the sub titles go on hopefully it will be screened in English speaking countries. Dad also visited the spinning dog, which we have pledged to take in and work with as soon as we find somewhere to live. It was dark in the shelter so the film did not come out too well. He was just the same. Poor fellow needs to have a home very soon. Just like us!

Well that is another week here in Brazil!

Friday

Well we can say with utter and complete honesty that the last nine months have been the worst in Mom and Dad's lives. Since the disaster nothing much has gone right. There have been some terrible days and a huge amount of stress. Some people think Mom is strong well she feeling pretty weak right now. The panic has set in and still they haven't managed to sort the mess they call a life out. Mom and Dad have both lost a lot of weight and aged a lot this year. Mom was always so confident that someone would want to support a rescue. We know many people want to support our work but they needed some sort of stability not living hand to mouth as they have been for months. They never managed to finish the non profit status and time has passed by so quick. The bank will own a new home soon and mom and dad will be somewhere with us in the world. The uncertainty is terrible. Eight months of publicizing all this and not one large charity helped us get off the ground. All the organizations that claim to help dogs out there and not one could even provide food for us here. Simply because we are not a non profit. Mom asked one once, 'When you see a tramp in the street with a dog and both are hungry do you ask him if he is a non profit before you buy him a MacDonalds and if he isn't then you don't help him and also leave his dog hungry'. Of course, she got no reply to this. Not one could get our non profit going and not one would take us under their wing. The world is an ugly place. People would rather give money to charities that euthanize millons of animals per year and many celebs give thousands and thousands to these in good faith but ignorant of the reality of corporate charities. Well mom tried them all. All she is going to do now is find somewhere for us. In times like this mom says you find out who your friends are and some people we have met on the internet are our new family they have helped us survive since january. They cared whether we ate or not, whether we were sick or not, they helped mom to stay strong. Thank God for people like them.

This is Nicki our flood victim dog. She is fully at home now although this won't be her or mom's home soon. Mom says she will miss it here. Mom has been here ten years and we all ahve a lot of memories here and there are the graves of some of our fellow pack members here too. We have to move on though. Just like Nicki she lost everything once and then was lucky enough to find love. We are hoping to find somewhere suitable. Mom will stay with us no matter what. That is worth more than anything in the world. Nicki is chasing a monkey in this video. Let's hope there are monkeys for us to chase wherever we go. Mom's not had much luck finding anywhere yet and no celebs want to help. So we wait and see what will happen to us all. Daisy is doing real well and very happy. Here she is leaving her kennel for playtime.

 She is such a lovely girl and nobody here regrets her rescue even though mom and dad didn't have much conditions to do it. The lil white pup has also gone to a new home in Rio. So that is three more lives saved and you can't beat the warm glow that gives us all here because as they say when you die-- God won't ask what you did for yourself . He will ask what you did for others.

Friday's News

Yesterday we had a call and one of the little pups is coming back. The new mom decided she didn't want to keep her. So, a friend of ours picked her up in Rio and will deliver her to us soon. The new mom thinks she has mange. So, our friend took her to a vet to get her tested and on Tuesday she will be back with us. We originally thought it was the black one, but it wasn't, it's the little white one. They all came with ticks, lice, fleas and worms which were all treated. We think it's just a fur failure where they scratched with all the irritation of the parasites they were carrying. She is going to be tested though just in case. Mom will be happy to see her back because she was the sweetest of them all. 

Meanwhile Daisy is really happy. Here some happy shots of her settling in.

 She nows goes for her playtime with Sol and up until now no fights. They aren't playing together yet, but at least they are not showing any aggression. Mom thinks that with time thet will be fur buddies. Now onto other news. Yet another dog dumped yesterday at the bottom of the road. Several people saw him thrown from a car.

This dog, a young male, is just beautiful. He is a bit scruffy and has a slight defect with one paw but other than that he is in reasonable condition physically. Mentally he is lost.

Dad gave him a hug whilst mom took photos and he clung on and tried to follow them. The Guy in the yellow T shirt is the local drunk. There is another street dog by his feet. She is a female in season.

It was heartbreaking to leave him out there alone. He clearly was begging for someone to help him. We asked a few people if they wanted him but nobody did. Mom was very upset because he reminded her of Harry our first rescue dog. He was a pure bred GSD.  When Mom passed the river she looked down where the little pups were found and saw only two ducks. Dad asked her if she wanted to rescue them and laughed.  Apart from this Mom and Dad have three nasty looking letters from the bank. They have not got the courage to open them. They have been there since yesterday. If we had the space and more resources then Mom and Dad would have kept the dog until the next adoption event and given him a bath then maybe someone would take him. For this you need spare kennels, money for vaccination and food and gas to make the trip and also to be prepared to keep him if nobody suitable wants him. They just can't take the chance. They will keep asking aroound to see if anyone wants him. Mom is going to deworm everybody and just worked out that she needs 53 pills at one pill every 10 kilos. That is 13 packs at R$7.80 per pack. So you see it isn't easy.  We are still looking for a corner to run too. So far nothing has been found. We just need some land with a shack on it somewhere in Brazil. The miracle hasn't happened yet but mom is still dreaming.   

Photos of Adoption Event Cool!

Here they are our three pups awaiting their new furever homes. It was a chilly day in Rio. They were all given beautiful collars with bells on them.

They looked adorable! The black one was a bit chilly so she was given a little woollen coat to keep her warm.

Now who could resist her? Dad did turn down three prospective adopters as unsuitable and he believes that they all got good homes. Here they are with their new mom's.

The big white one with the little heart shaped mark on her nose went first.

This lady has a Cocker Spaniel and lives with her mother. She fell in love with the little black one and called mom to see if she could adopt the lil black one. She began to cry whilst talking to her Mom.

The conversation went on quite a while with dad observing! She wouldn't let go of the pup all through the conversation. Then suddenly her Mom agreed and look at her face then.

We think she will be a very lovely mom.

And here are the new family for the lil white one! So they went from near death in the river abandoned covered in Ticks, lice, fleas and had worms to luxury in central Rio. We all hoping they have long and happy lives with their new owners. Mom felt happy and sad at the same time. She was getting quite attached to  

them.