CHAINED ANIMALS IN THE HUMAN WORLD

Some of you have asked if I cannot translate my columns that I write for Magazine Nara. Here is my latest. Happy Reading!

Chained Animals in the Human World

He stood frozen with a thick chain around his neck. The beautiful Rottweiler’s neck weighed down and I could feel his pain along his entire back. Our eyes met!
I could not understand why the owner kept him chained and locked up in a cage! Despite the dull eyes he did radiate a strong wisdom. I feel a strong despair about chained animals, for all animals that are being held in captivity. 

Suddenly I heard an inner voice from him:
"You people show more fears than any other animal on this planet. You want to own and claim the lives of those who radiate love and wisdom. Your fears go on for generations and wont end until every single person says stop.
We animals have an important role in your life. Together!
What comes out from you affects the chain of life. It affects your neighbor, zoos, families, friends, strangers and most importantly, children."

My daughter Olivia, was maybe three or four years old, when she went a couple of hours a week to an Italian kindergarten. One day the Kindergarten would go to the circus. My heart clenched. I did not want Olivia to go there, the circus used live animals. I expressed my despair to a good friend.

"Mia let her go there and get her own impression. If she does not get to go, it will be even more difficult for her to understand all the children's joy the next day in school. She will feel excluded. In addition, she will never learn to argue either, " said my wise friend.
It was with a fake smile, I waved goodbye to the happy children at the school bus. A few hours later I picked Olivia up at the schoolyard. She was walking towards me with her head bowed. Her little arms hugged me, "Mom, it was so horrible to see these animals, they do not feel good!"
My eyes filled with tears, I whispered quietly, thank you universe, and to my friend and to my wise little daughter Olivia.

You're probably wondering what happened to the Rottweiler? I tried to talk to the owner of the Rottweiler and the police, but they all looked at me with empty, bland eyes. One night, "someone" cut the padlock and the neck chain with a bolt cutter. Today King lives at an unknown location with protected identity.

That’s Amore!

You can read the column in Swedish on Tidningen Nara

Its Not Right!

(look at earlier blogs)

I didn't feel right to leave them back out on the street again. From being strays, to rescued they were now back to being strays.

Cucci and Grace are the sweetest dogs I ever met. So says the others who met them too. But why can we not find anyone to help out by fostering them, or even better up, adopt them?

My husband and I even said that if somebody would foster them for one to two years, we would pay the bills if needed. And then we could take them back into our home. Right now we have 12 dogs and in a month we will foster a dog for two months before he goes to Sweden! There is a limit, after all!

It's wonderful that some are making the call to tell us about animals in trouble, so we can help them... and to a man, they all profess a great concern for the animals. Yet, they never seem to consider helping with the expenses, very few does (my hat off to Michelle and Maria). Even a small amount would go a long way to providing the assistance these dogs need. Ok, I shouldn't say never. Mario and Lupo's former "parents" did make a $300 donation in connection with us helping to find a new family for their dogs.

Grace would need "only" to be a stay-at-home dog. Lay in the yard, have some one who pets her and tells her how pretty she is. She needs very little exercise, because she simply can't do it. Right now she walks three meters and then must lay down (but with right treatment she will do better), thats how difficult she is having it living on the street.

Put her to sleep? It is only her difficluty getting food on the street that she is having a problem with.

According to Dr. Gigi, she is ok now but when it gets cold here, is when she will really have difficulty.

Cucci --- what a guy! Holly Molly he stole our heart at the clinic and people around. Rottweiler mix, so happy, so sweet, so gentle. He sat in the waiting room amazed looking at all the dogs that passed him, right in front of his nose. Absolutely no aggressive or territorial moves at all.

Driving them back after one week at the vet clinic, it was with a sad heart I had to leave them. During the 30 minutes drive they sat like two saints in the back seat.

When we were back on their old "home" street they went out in the grass and pee'd and poo'd. I was so impressed that they "knew" to hold themselves in the SUV, until we stopped.

So easy to have, so loving, and so fast learners, why doesn't anyone ......

Broken Painful Amore

Today I went out to the vet. clinic to pay some bills and to hear how everything went with Grace and Cucci. They were doing fine, and again I am amazed how strays are so friendly, brought from the street into a very strange, possibly threatening area. A lot of dogs around them and no one knows their own territory. They can hear a lot of other dogs barking, but not see them.

It seems like Grace's problem is not her hips. It is her two front legs. Her front "wrists" are not right, and it causes her to wobble when she tries to put any weight on them.

Some time ago, she probably jumped down and broke both "wrists". That explains why she suddenly became a skeleton, she couldn't walk to find food. Poor thing.



Tomorrow am I going out there again and we are going to do some x-rays to determine a good solution for her. It is so painful in my heart and her wrists to put her back out on the street again. It doesn't feel right! (For either of us.)



Later on this afternoon it was time for Olivia's riding lesson. I sensed something was wrong when we came back home. Most of the dogs were out, but one I couldn't see. She was laying under the back stairs bleeding. My heart ached when I saw her, Shiloh. (She is the one that narrowly survived getting hit by a car last year this month.) Jack, our kind of new-comer was bloody over his chest and legs. I was so disappointed, and my head was spining around. WHY?

I gave Shiloh a bath so I could spot all the wounds and see how bad they were. Luckily not too bad, but this poor girl hasn't had it easy since we arrived to Italy. Poor Girls!

Another Dumped Dog

It breaks my heart--and those of so many others--to see a wonderful dog that has had a former home and family, but is now out on the street. No home, no food, no health care, no love.

Animals Without Limits was asked if we could help Rottweiler Bruna--living on the street--to get sterilized. You could see she had already had puppies many times, and we needed to keep it from happening again. Could we also re-home her?

I picked up Bruna and the woman that feeds her on the street. With eyes full of worries Flavia the woman, was so totally concerned about what would happen to Bruna after recovering at the vet. clinic. I could well understand her, Bruna, a loving and very polite dog was snuggling up to us while we were talking. A gentle lick on my hand, and with brown, watery, begging eyes she asked for just a little. "Just" a home!

Flavia don't want to put her back on the street, many people get afraid when they see a lose Rottweiler and they could go out of their way to hit her!

Please help us help Bruna with Amore, she is a sweet dog, one who doesn't deserve to be cast to chance on these mean streets. She needs a loving family that will receive her love in ample return.

Amore and Amore.