Mumnemia & CompassionFatigue

I have been diagnosed by two friends--the two of them don't know each other--

My friend Ylva said to me, "Mia, you work to much, you suffer compassionfatigue."

I actually became happy hearing that beautiful word.....compassionfatigue....lovely.

And today, in the afternoon I took the kids and went to a British Forces Pub. Wow, since I am suffering from compassion fatigue, I thought I needed to be around happy loving British people having a cider. It was like walking into a big wonderful family. I like their relaxed way of having a pint on their way home. I ran into a friend, Jane, and I "complained" that I forget a lot of things lately and it drives me crazy.

Jane said, "Mia, you are suffering mumnemia!" (get it? anemia but since I am a mother of 2 small children and 12 dogs = lack of sleep=mumnemia)

Gosh, there are a lot of beautiful names, and I love wearing these names. I received them because of Amore.

Tragedy in Southern Italy part 2

Read the article from yesterday's blog.

According to my friend who lives here, the media in that article did not write the following: The young boy slammed rocks and stones at the dogs to get to the puppies that the mother dog had hidden.

This is of course not an excuse, but one more explanation to what happened that the media didn't fully cover.

Also the German tourist had thrown something to eat and didn't have enough for all the hungry dogs. She became afraid when one of them got too "close" and started running. Of course, that triggered the dogs' reaction.

Once again, not an excuse but an explanation of what made these dogs do what they did and it turned out to be a big tragedy. Understanding the animals will go a long way to avoiding such incidents. Their behavior is not irrational, when you understand it and can see from their perspective, it is actually quite rational indeed.

Good Morning World

I want her land, her animals...this is so much Amore!

A Tragedy For All

It made my heart ache when I read this article, please read the whole article so you can see the whole picture. It is a tragedy.

I never let Olivia, my daughter, out of my SUV when we are "on mission". She can sit on her knees at look out from the window while I am working with unknown animals. ---Those few times she goes with me-- Normally I do the missions in the mornings when she is in school.

AWL NEWS

Animals Without Limits receives interesting requests from people around the world. Let me share two of them;

"I'm a vet, worked in a private clinic in Israel for 4 years and currently I'm doing a shelter medicine internship with the University of Florida, USA. I thought maybe I can volunteer [with you] later on, after my internship ends, on September 2009 for a period. If it is something we can do we can meet in April, to discuss it. I'm very into animal welfare, early spay and neuter programs and infectious diseases."

And this summer one hard working animal worker will come down and help us out. Her resume is very interesting. She went to the Philippines to rescue dogs in slaughterhouses, thousands of dogs waiting in terrible conditions to be slaughtered in a harmful way.

Back home in Stockholm, she and her best friend run a dog cafe. It is in a very wealthy area, I used to live there, so I know that many women wear fur. So I love the sign on their door "Here only the dog wears fur"

More news will come up later!

One Brilliant Student

I have to say it: Fox is brilliant! It's more me who is having the problem (in 90%, it is the owner confusing their own dog)

Fox is learning so fast, I am very proud over him. Fox, who had been locked inside a small lot his whole life; never have been in a car, never played with other dogs, never got to read human body language. His "human contact" consisted of a plate of food pushed in under the gate. When the plate was not reachable the person used an umbrella to pull it out for refiling. That is the extent of his "socialization". Pretty pathetic, on the part of the humans.

Our teacher said today that Fox is well behaved, since he allowed me to hang over him when trying to figure out how the heck his harness worked. It was tough, a brilliantly designed harness, in two colors so you knew which was up and which would go under the stomach. But still a struggle to put on for the first time.

Then he learned how to listen when hearing his name, and he who didn't even know his name, but after few minutes he got the hang of it. It took me the whole lesson (not my name... to keep track of the different commands, and when to reward!)
We tried a clicker. And gosh that was great, so on our way home we bought a yellow one....important with colors so I can spot it in a heartbeat were I put it the last time.

On our way home Fox and I went and fed the new puppies that AWL is going to try to help at the skeleton houses.

Fox was a brilliant student, like the teacher said, "he is very curious." And that is a good grade for a beginner.


This is Adonis. He is up for adoption. He is one of the five puppies at the skeleton house. More on him and his siblings in a later post.

Some You Can Save ~ Some Not

Giove was saved from a terrible shelter, and is now waiting to go to his new family in Sweden. We are waiting for the results from the blood work that was sent in to an Italian laboratory, to make sure he is healthier than healthy.
Also, we are waiting for the paper work, change of owner, that takes forever, or so it feels. And another one could not be saved.

It's a rollercoaster Amore work.....it is not always about saving lives.

What A Weekend

The weather was fantastic this weekend, and together we worked and fed our wonderful new mission-puppy, and worked with our loving goof Fox. Even the Vet thinks he is doing great in progressing with his manners.

We walked, washed and loved up on our own twelve dogs, too. This weekend was a lot of sunshine Amore.

Photos copyright (c) 2009, Todd A. Mercer. All Rights Reserved.

Today's Mission

Always when I worry it goes great! The obedience lesson went very well. But first I took "Harvey" to LegaProAnimale for castration. He was dumped in Sara and her husband's yard one morning, no microchip, no collar of course. He stays at a foster home, and is the sweetest thing, child friendly, loves to go in the car. Thank God my husband is not home or he would have kept him.

Ok, Fox concentrate please! I went out and picked him up at the kennel and hung like another old rug after him as he pulled me out of his shelter area. He refused to jump into the car so I had to go and get help. 45 kg is not easy to pick up! The whole way to the obedience class, I told Fox we "will make this". I even stopped to meditate since we had time and we both needed to calm down.

We were greeted by the dog trainer Nikola at Agility Club Campania (professionally operated for 10 years and I have heard such good things about her from different nationalities and different problem owners ). I liked how she talked, I liked how she observed every movement I or Fox made, she really has the eye.

I told her the whole story about Fox and that I knew inside of myself that he is a good boy. Fox has nearly his whole life (well 1 or 2 years) been locked into a small lot without anything to hide inside for shelter. Kids would throw rocks or fire crackers, but one English lady fed him every day. As she was leaving, she asked AWL for help and I got this picture taken from above so he looked like a Jack Russel sized kind of dog. So I said yes to the lady's tearful, begging eyes. To my surprise when I met Fox he was not a 10kg Jack Russel, he was a 45 kg Goof!

But there is something he is sending, since many people that meet him, in person (dog) or through pictures, like him. We are a professional team and can be realistic in dog cases. (Well if I am not, hopefully someone else in AWL is, or our AWL vet Inga.)

Fox simply doesn't know anything. But it's not his fault. He has not grown up on the street learning how to think and survive in different situations. He has never lived with a family (or person) so he doesn't know what jumping into a car, or walking into a house means--it makes him insecure. He has never socialized or lived with other dogs, so he doesn't know how to read doggy body language. He is just a big goof that needs a calm, secure, motivated, consequent, hand....love comes through this. He needs a calm leader that can guide him, and he will give back a lot. I'm sure of it.

After one hour together with Nikola, not training, just talking and observing, she said "I thought he would be worse."

Also, "He is an honest dog!" Meaning, he will not try to fool us. If he is demonstrating something, it is real not a ruse.

Nikola thinks that if nothing else comes out (behavior) he should not be difficult to work with." Nikola, a million thanks today for your advice and great observing eye(s).

See you next Tuesday!

Yesterday's Mission

( The mother is on the second floor looking down on her puppies that are hidden under the big thorn bushes. This way she is confusing people and animals from where they really are. She is a smart mother)

Yesterday's mission together with Dr. Inga was a short "observation" mission at the skeleton place (you who have followed my blog are familiar with this place).

The puppies there are now getting big and my fear that someone will poison them, or have their dog kill them are tremendous. My instinct was right and confirmed when we stopped at the place nearby were a big dog lives and Dr. Inga asked the men to keep their dog under observation and let us be able to come and go for a couple weeks to work on the puppies.

I froze when I followed the vet into this place, like I could sense danger, the whole inside of me started to get nervous. I just wanted to leave. Thanks to Dr. Inga and her brilliant ability of telling them about our project, we have their permission and hopefully now can work on this mission. I am going to the puppies feeding them to get them to know me so we can catch and vaccinate them; we already have a foster family who can take care of them until May.

Ana it is so wonderful of you. The puppies are very hungry and have started to eat from the carcasses of the puppies from before. We have to hurry but we cannot hurry the puppies, this is what makes it difficult.

We cannot catch them since they are hiding in a big area of bushes with big thorns. That's also why it is easier to give hungry animals food with poison in, they come out and eat and then the poison starts working in them slowly and painfully.

We need a lot of good pates', good luck and good speed.

Visit My Tail Wags For You (animals for adoption) blog today too.