CINDERELLA THE CAT, PLUTO THE PARAPLEGIC DOG AND
FOREIGN RESCUE STORIES OF HOPE FULFILLED
By
Alexandra George
In Cinderella the Cat, Pluto the Paraplegic Dog, and Foreign Rescue Stories of Hope Fulfilled, the author, Alexandra George, becomes involved in rescuing dogs when she witnesses the terrible lives that befall street dogs in the countries where she is posted. This includes Georgia in the Caucasus, Iraq, Sierra Leone and Kosovo in the Balkans.
By the time she returns to Kosovo a second time to work with the European Union mission in 2009, she and a U.S. embassy friend from her previous posting in Sarajevo, Bosnia, decide to establish a voluntary association called Hope for the Street Dogs of Kosovo. Little more than an informal group of volunteers on a shoestring budget at first, in two years Hope membership expands, networks are established in the U.S.A., Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Soon 80 dogs find new homes with Hope organizing their international travel.
Rosie, a former street dog from the Balkans, in her home in Holland
The first international adoption, to New York, becomes a fiasco due to the cloud of volcanic ash causing havoc to air travel in Europe. In another rescue operation, the car breaks down on the highway near Prague, Czech Republic, for 11 hours with four dogs heading for adoption in Germany. Pluto, the paraplegic dog, rescued by the author, manages to open iron gates of his new home and go walking across fields. Since his rescue he lives with the author and her three African dogs and two cats. One chapter describes her African “zoo’s” rescue and “airlifting” from Sierra Leone to Europe.
Written in a light, entertaining style, the different chapters are filled with rags to riches stories, made possible thanks to the dedication of a few volunteers. The dogs are enchanting despite the terrible, hard lives they’ve had on the street.
The author with Daisy, Hope’s first adoption, at Pristina airport
on their way to New York, April 2010
Alexandra George is the author of three previous political works and is a journalist and translator. She has worked in media and public affairs, including as a spokesperson, with the United Nations, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and European Union, all over the world, although her permanent residence is in New York. The author is fluent in English, French, Russian and knows German. She lives with her four rescued dogs and two cats.
The e-book version will be available at the Nook/Barnes and Nobles online shop and I-Bookstore in early September. It will be available at www.lulu.com in August 2012. $1 from each sale will to the ASPCA.
ISBN no. 978-1-105-99694-8.
"Every dog lover and dog rescue volunteer should read the book NO BUDDY LEFT BEHIND. Bringing U.S. Troops' Cats and Cats Safely Home from the Combat Zone by Terri Crisp with Cynthia Hurn. Terri Crisp is programme manager for SPCA's International Operation Baghdad Pups. She has made over 40 trips to Baghdad by now to rescue US soldier's dogs and cats who adopted these strays while on active duty. The troops are serving on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I really recommend this book. It's so positive and one feels to much relief to know these poor dogs and cats, half starved and sometimes tortured, are brought back to the US thanks to the incredible efforts of Terri Crisp and her SPCA team. They went, and are still going, to great lengths to bring these strays home to the soldiers and their families.
You can also read more about Operation Baghdad Pups and donate at www.spcai.org.
Publisher is Lyons Press, 2012
Athena is one of the largest dogs at the Kosovo dog shelter, and she has one of the
largest hearts. She came to the shelter in summer 2009 with her young daughter, Venus, who was later adopted. Athena is probably around 5 years old. She is very affectionate, loves people and loves to go on walks. She gets along with male dogs but does not get along with all female dogs.
Can you help these four adorable puppies. If you can please contact adoptions@afkosovo.org
More Photos @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=409834255711307&set=a.234733813221353.73046.217702401591161&type=3&theater
Marty was born 5th November 2011 and is a very sweet puppy and a very quick learner. can you help him find a comfortable life?
Contact us on adoptions@afkosovo.org for further info
“It’s what I always dreamed about at the shelter,” says Penny Tu, the cutest brown terrier that appeared at the Kosovo shelter last summer. “My new parents take Lily, their other dog and myself hiking in the woods every day. And I have a huge garden to play in all day long.” Lily, the lovely little white puppy that also appeared in the middle of last summer suddenly one day out of nowhere agrees: “I want to thank Hope for helping me land in paradise.”
Penny Tu and Lily travelled together to Washington DC with a Hope member and were adopted by close friends who also rescued dogs in Sarajevo when they were posted there. So here’s to the power of networking!
We thought readers would enjoy photographs of Penny Tu and Lily at the shelter and in their new home in Virginia, USA.
If you want to make a difference to a street dog’s life please write to us at kosovostreetdogs@gmail.com. The Kosovo shelter has lots of wonderful dogs waiting to find a loving family.
It was love at first sight when Spencer Sekyer stumbled upon a litter of stray puppies in a sewer ditch in Kabul. Eighteen months later, the 44-year-old Alberta schoolteacher has been reunited with the grown Afghans hounds on the Canadian prairies.
“I almost broke down,” Sekyer said after catching the first glimpse of the white Labrador cross dogs at an airport hangar at Calgary Airport on Friday night. “It was one of the happiest days of my life. I can’t begin to tell you what these dogs have endured.”
The dogs landed in Calgary after a grueling journey that began in Kabul Wednesday with stops in Dubai and Frankfurt.
Their arrival marked the end of Sekyer’s year-and-a-half long bid to find permanent refuge for the animals.
He was teaching street children in Kabul in the summer of 2010 when he stumbled upon the crying puppies and their mother outside his downtown guesthouse. The dog lover was instantly smitten. He scooped up the pups and took them to his school. The white-haired mother – later named Emma – followed.
A British-run dog shelter called Nowzad has cared for the dogs ever since. It spayed and vaccinated the puppies and found homes for two of the dogs. During an interview last summer at the Nowzad shelter on Kabul’s outskirts, volunteer Louise Hastie said the animals were healthy, but an Afghan kennel was no place for a dog.
A former Royal Marine, Hastie adopted a slew of stray animals during her tour of duty in Iraq. In Kabul, she played with and fed Seyker’s dogs, but their future was uncertain.
Kabul’s dusty streets are filled with stray dogs. Some are bred to fight. Others are poisoned with strychnine. They’re often seen in packs outside Western guesthouses, scrounging for scraps.
Sekyer knew he had to get the dogs out of Afghanistan. But the price tag was steep: about $4,000 to fly each dog to a Western country.
Last summer, Sekyer and his wife Christie raised about $5,000 climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. He put together a YouTube video, posted Facebook pleas, and sent dozens of emails to airlines, animal shelters and private corporations.
The publicity blitz paid off. An Air Canada employee saw the YouTube video and paved the way for the dogs – dubbed the Super 7 – to fly from Frankfurt to Calgary. In Kabul, Hastie arranged for the animals’ transport to Dubai and Frankfurt.
Now, Sekyer must find permanent homes for seven rambunctious, but untrained young dogs. Emma, Snowy, Buffy, Flossy, Suzie Q, Tara and Sadie will stay at Sekyer’s acreage outside Edmonton while he searches.
While many Canadians have responded to Sekyer’s efforts to bring the Afghan dogs to Canada, others have criticized the animal airlift, arguing that people – not pets – should be the top priority. Animal welfare activists have said there are already too many abandoned pets here in Canada.
Sekyer, who spends his summer vacations volunteering in developing countries, disagreed.
“You want to help all these kids. But you can’t show up at Kabul airport with a child.” You can, however, rescue a family of dogs, he said.
The volunteers in Kabul who cared for the dogs agreed. Marnie Gustavson, an American aid worker whose charity shares its Kabul property with Nowzad, said in an email:
“I think that living in a place like Afghanistan, when you are able to accomplish one thing to alleviate suffering, dogs or people – it somehow pushes us all toward a certain special peace and creates possibility.“
The dogs will stay with Sekyer and his wife until he finds permanent homes for them. They appeared to enjoy their first weekend in Canada, galloping across Sekyer’s snow-covered property.
He said he’ll be a tough screener. The last thing he wants is for any of the animals to wind up in a Canadian shelter.
“I’ve been fighting to get them a better life. I’ll make sure they get good homes.”
Jane Armstrong is a Toronto freelance writer. She spent last summer in Kabul.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/01/09/afghanistan-stray-dogs-alberta_n_1194229.html
Over the past few months here in South Mitrovica, Oliver and I have befriended a lovable mutt named Ella. She is a mixture of Shar Mountain dog and Kosovo street dog. She is one and a half years old, happy, healthy and extremely affectionate. Pictures are attached.
Most of you are aware of Kosovo's practice of shooting dogs dead in the street as a form of "animal control". It's culling season in Mitrovica and so we have rescued Ella from the street and are now looking for a loving person or family to adopt this furry, playful girl. She has all of her vaccinations, a pet passport, and a clean bill of health from the vet. She is great with all people, really gentle, and even doesn't chase the loose chickens in the grass!
All Ella needs is an owner. Could this be you or someone you know?
If you are willing to share your heart and home with Ella, we will help transport her to wherever you are. She already has everything for entry into the U.S. and the paperwork for the E.U. can be completed once an adoption is confirmed.
Contact: Tara.Khan@eulex-kosovo.eu for mor details.