Finally He Got His Freedom!

Thank you Dr. Gigi for your love and support to Morris. You still have your sensitivity, that makes you a wonderful veterinarian. Morris finally got his freedom. He had to get the injection directly into his heart, his veins had collapsed.

He was covered with these wounds. He couldn't lay down, he was in severe pain. When we tried to lift him he wailed like a puppy. His male part was so infected that it was black.

Click on the image to get it bigger. I asked Dr. Gigi, "On a scale 1- 10 is he a number 9?"

"I would rather say a 10."

Morris was around 8-10 years. His teeth were bad from eating rocks, he was a skeleton.

This was a bittersweet morning. Morris, I am proud over you. Rest finally in peace!

More later!

Ariel & Nebbia in Freedom

After emptying the "terrible shelter" we took "our" four dogs to get washed by Vivian at Cucciolandia. Ariel had so many dreadlocks with poop tangled in her fur. The smell was horrible even after one wash they smelled!

The next day me and my family went and picked Ariel and Nebbia out for a walk in a beautiful park. Ariel have been locked in in four different shelters. This was her first day in freedom, with grass around her and trees, alot of good smells.

She is around 10 years old, and her front leg is like Charlie Chaplin so she walks very slow. She would be great with an older person who cannot walk fast, or much.

Great with children and other dogs. I just love this dog so much.

Some people glared at her twisted front leg and on one woman you could see her disgusted crumbled face, "Doesn't that dog have a terrible problem?" she asked.

"No mam, I think you have more problem with it than her."

My Ariel deserves a dog bed, and a warm hand petting her, some Amore pay back.

I have been told that Nebbia means fog in Italian. I like that.

Nebbia is around 4-6 years old, sweet and great with kids. She have been by herself in a terrible cage because they claimed she was aggressive. When I met her I sensed right away that was so wrong. I took her out with another dog and she walked great. Yesterday we had her lose with other dogs in the park, it also went great.

I asked "them" why she was labeled as aggressive?

Once when she got her food in this terrible shelter, the cage door was open and another dog went in. She growled and defended her food in her own cage.

That's why she was labeled as a bad dog, she defended her food that normally came once or twice a week.

What would you have done?

My Furry Partners

After the vision this weekend("terrible shelter") it felt great feeding "my" puppies. Even if I don't know if they will survive, and for how long....at least they are not aware of anything else. And, they got their freedom.

Amore pictures, Copyright (C) 2009, Todd A. Mercer. All Rights Reserved

Homeless People and Dogs

While in Bosnia and rescuing stray dogs, the months turned into more than a year. The organization we helped had tiny doghouses where they chained the dogs 24/7. When the President would go to Germany she took approximately fifteen dogs with her to be left with another organization in Germany (she did this maybe twice a year).

Some dogs didn’t make it out of her “camp” especially the older ones had to stay. Also the bigger dogs that seemed to have too much energy. But what would you expect from a dog that was chained up all the time on a one meter chain?

Sometimes I helped with feeding them. It was very stressful for the dogs and for me. I still don’t know how the other workers felt, they never complained or had any negative comments. Being Bosnian and having nothing after the war, maybe they were afraid that the money would stop coming in if they complained?

One day I noticed that some off the dogs had changed. Their spirit wasn't "glowing" anymore.
I realized it was a high price they had to pay, being caught-- kept on a short chain-- after being "free" roaming around for several months and for some, even years.


Did we do the right thing to kill their spirit by holding them and keeping their body alive?


Years later an Italian friend asked me about Sweden. One off her questions was about our welfare. I told her that we had homeless people and soup kitchens and some places the homeless could live. Suddenly I remembered what one volunteer had told me.
“There are some people that don’t want an apartment, they just come for the food.”
I didn’t understand why --- why wouldn’t anyone want an apartment?
“They love their freedom, and they have learned how to survive on the street for a long time. They feel like they would die with what they think is being "locked in" and living by someone else’s law that they don’t agree with.”

This made me think off the dogs in Bosnia chained up, and also the free older dogs here in Italy that love their area. The people around them are so used by feeding them every day. They also want their freedom and not anyone’s law, a chained up law.


Liberta e Amore!

Happy Month

We are now in the month of Pisces, also known as the month of joy!

Is it joy for all God's creatures, or just humans? Is it meant to be?

~~~

On my way to a client--to have his picture taken--this beautiful "girl" was relaxing near where I parked my car.

This is her home. A cushion and some blanket scraps. A man comes every day to feed her and her "room mate"--another dog companion. Are they happy stray dogs? Is perhaps freedom their happiness?