Hope for the Street Dogs of Kosovo

Update on Michelle enjoying her new life

Hope has received news about Michelle. Our readers will remember she travelled to Munich in mid-2010 to be with her new family: We just received some photos of Michelle enjoying the summer in Germany with some news about her adventures:

 

Dear Hope Members

Me and Michelle are fine. In the summer we often went to a little lake near my hometown and enjoyed the sun. She always waited for me to come out of the lake, because she doesn`t swim. I think she is a bit afraid of the water. When I made the internship my mum took her to the office, everybody there liked her very much.

Also she often comes with me to the retirement home, where my grandma lives. All the old people love her very much and she really likes to be there, too, because everyone wants to pet her.

Former Kosovo shelter dog Amber takes part in Best Friends Animal Society walk in New York!

You will all remember Amber who travelled to New York last June to go and live with his new family Laura and John on Long Island. Well now Amber is himself an animal advocate. Here he is taking part in the latest Best Friends Animal Society walk at Peir 84 in New York!

 The Kosovo shelter has lots of wonderful dogs like Amber waiting to get a loving home. If you would like to adopt one of the dogs there please write to us at kosovostreetdogs@gmail.com.

 Laura and John found Amber through this website! You can too!

  

Shelter dogs go on their first hike with Hope members

On Sunday 18 September 20 Kosovo shelter dogs set off on their first hike in the hills behind the shelter with 9 Hope members. Three old timers, Rosie, Sheba and Jasper walked without a leash.

Athena, the big white and black dog, had a grand time but got puffed out up when she reached the top of the hill and had to rest in the shade before going down again. “No wonder. I’ve got such a thick coat and it was 30 degrees. But it was so great being altogether with Hope members and 19 other dogs,” Athena said.

 Some of the medium sized dogs got tired more quickly so some members went back down earlier. But Penny Tu, the cute brown terrier, enjoyed every minute: “It was such a great hike. I love the Hope members. They’re so nice to us. And they always bring us lots of food, treats and milk so I feel so good. So does my son Bobi.”

 Athena, long time shelter resident, left, and in front is Tux, who was abandoned at the shelter by an American judge.

Tux, the cute black and white dog, formerly called Lumi, who was dumped at  the shelter several weeks ago by his owner an American judge when she went back home, was yapping in approval much of the way. Lucy Tu on the right

As we hiked into the village behind the shelter we were joined by some village children. One boy joined us and walked with one of the dogs. The kids too had a grand time with us.

We plan to do on such hikes every two weeks. If you would like to join us on one of these hikes please email us at kosovostreetdogs@gmail.com. We are also trying to find a home for Tux who was dumped at the shelter a few weeks ago so if you would like to consider giving Tux a new chance please contact us at the above address.

Latest News on Amber .... What A Difference Adoption Makes!

Our readers will remember Amber travelled to New York last June to be with her new family Laura and John who found Amber through this website. We just received some photos of Amber and Avery, adopted from a New York shelter, during their stay at their Long Island summer cottage.

Below is a photo of Amber before she was adopted - just look at the difference in her now!  Go on make a difference in a dogs life - ADOPT TODAY!

Remember Me? ..... A Message From Pickwick

Hello everyone - do you remember me? I'm one of the twin shelties Hope members helped to find a home for last year. Three of us triplets arrived at the shelter when we were 3 weeks old. Picnic got adopted by an American family in Pristina and I flew to a new family in Western Europe. Here I am in my garden enjoying the summer  sunshine. Please say hello to all the dogs at the shelter. Thank you Hope members for all you did for me and my twin, Picnic,

 

Best Wishes

Pickwick, the twin sheltie 

 

We want adopting! How can you resist us - we are soooo cute!

Here are some very cute puppies and terriers that recently arrived at the shelter. Hope members fell in love with the little darlings and we hope someone will open up their hearth and home and adopt one.

     

For more informations contact KosovoStreetDogs@gmail.com

 

Pablo, Rosie and Tommy send their best to everyone at Hope from Westchester, New York: "Keep up the good work!! We're having the time of our lives!!"

Some of you will remember that last December 29^th, Linda, who found our  Hope volunteer organization while visiting relatives in Kosovo, decided to take two adorable puppies that had been placed at the shelter by one of our Hope members Susan.  In a quick rush all Pablo and Rosie's papers were prepared, who at that time were about 5-6 weeks old.

As soon as they arrived in the luggage area at JFK international airport in New York, we photographed the two cuties with their heads sticking out of the bags after a gruelling 15 hours of travel time. Now Pablo and Rosie have been adopted and live with families in Massachusetts and Westchester.

Tommy who travelled with another Hope member in early June is still with his foster family, Linda and her husband.  As you can see all three puppies look very big and very happy! 

Pablo, Rosie and Tommy have a message for everyone at Hope: "You don't know what all your kindness means to us tiny helpless street pups. If Hope member Susan hadn’t rescued us from the street we'd all be dead and if Hope members didn't come and see us at the shelter and arrange our travel to New York we'd be dead and forgotten for sure. Please can everyone who reads our rescue story think about saving a street dog or a Kosovo shelter dog. You can contact Hope at Kosovostretdogs@gmail.com.  HOPE MEMBERS are ready to help the other dogs but they need to find families willing to adopt the dogs.  Thanks ever so much. We also want to thank Linda our new foster Mom, for taking care of us so well."

Hope also wants to thank the owners of the Kosovo Dog Shelter, Nedj and Florim, for working to make the lives of the street dogs better and working with us to make the adoptions a success.

If you would like to make a difference to a street dog's life please contact us at kosovostreetdogs@gmail.com. Consider adopting a dog and taking him/her back to your home country.  So far in 2011 Hope has gotten over 10 dogs adopted in the U.S. and Germany. Last year we got about 35-40 dogs adopted.

 

A special appeal to all dog-loving families: three special pooches!

 Our voluntary association Hope for the Street Dogs of Kosovo wants to appeal to dog lovers everywhere – not only in the Balkans but also in Europe and the U.S. – to consider giving a loving home to any of the three dogs we are featuring here: Jasper: a 9 year old gentle male, who has been at the shelter for 5-6 years; Sheba: female, around 7 years old, has also been at the shelter for a few years; and Rosie: female, who arrived last summer as a puppy but who has won all our hearts and whose turn has come since her smaller friends got adopted last year.

We chose to feature three dogs that have been at the shelter for a really long time and with wonderful temperaments. They’ve stayed so long because families tend to want smaller dogs. It’s also been easier to transport smaller dogs on airlines. But this year we decided to focus on the larger dogs. As you can read in our features section several medium size dogs found homes in New York, Washington DC and Germany recently thanks to families finding on this website, or through our own networks.

We think it’s really important to adopt a dog: Everyday people see stray dogs on the streets, wandering neighborhoods, and going from door to door begging for food. Others languish at shelters. For many dogs that second chance that comes with being adopted literally means the difference between life and death. Saving the life of a stray dog is really doing a good deed for abandoned creatures of the earth who can’t speak out about their plight!

Below are photos of JASPER - SHEBA - ROSIE

     

If you are interested in adopting one of these wonderful dogs or require further information please email us at: KosovoStreetDogs@gmail.com

 

Tommy goes to New York! Another succesful adoption ...

Late last year Linda Demiri, who lives in Westchester, New York  was visiting family in Kosovo. She had heard about Hope for the Street Dogs and about the good work that Nedj and Florim, the shelter owners, were doing trying to save street dogs. She fell in love with two puppies that she took to New York.  Now those puppies have grown into huge dogs, one lives in Massachusetts with  a large yard, the second puppy, also very big, lives in upstate New York.

At the time Linda also caught sight of Tommy, another puppy, who she swore she would foster  later. So during our board member Alexandra's next trip to New York in early June 2011, Tommy also travelled with her. Thanks to another Hope board member Kim, Tommy spent a few nights at her house and arrived at Pristina airport at 5 am for the early morning flight to Vienna. Thanks to Nedj, the shelter owner, Tommy got his vaccinations on time and was able to travel.

Here you can see photos of Tommy as he arrives at JFK airport 15 hours   later.   Linda met us after we cleared Customs. As soon as we opened his carrier Tommy did a big, big pee. The coffee shop gave us a huge pile of paper towels to clean up the mess, another passer by admired Tommy and soon Tommy was on his way to Westchester.

A few days later Linda posted a video of Tommy playing with Linda's cat. Unfortunately though a vet visit revealed Tommy has colitis (he has trouble going to the bathroom) but we think that won't stop him from finding a loving home.

 

If you are inspired by such rescue stories, please consider fostering/adopting one of Kosovo's street dogs. Even if you live in Europe or the US, so many of our dogs have travelled to loving homes there. We have lots of great rescue stories... Contact us at kosovostreetdogs@gmail.com

Letter from Seattle: Congratulations on Amber's adoption and latest news on Daisy and Rosie

Hi all

I am so happy Amber got a new home finally. When we adopted Daisy, I was really torn between the two. I had planned on one, but ended up with two, following my finding Rosie. Good luck with Amber and house training.

For an up-date on our two. Daisy and Rosie just passed the one year mark here. Daisy will still wet, if we leave her in the house if no one is home and sometimes at night, if we're not up early enough. When we are home we have to rush her out as soon as she runs for the door. (She doesn't bark or anything, so we have to watch her) We're hoping she will do better over more time, as she has SLOWLY improved. We continue to work on it. Since we both work, we're gone for most of the day and my retirement is still a couple of years away.  

 Although Rosie is trained, we built both dogs a large kennel each with an extra-large common play area. Each girl has her own large dog house with carpet and a big dog pillow. The kennels and house areas are both covered and raised for their comfort. Both dogs LOVE to dig, just for the fun of it, so we are constantly filling in the holes. They dig around the base of some of the large trees; I think some ground squirrels used to live there. They also love to play with their toys and make them  squeak, especially Daisy, she will throw her squeaky toy up in the air, catch it, over and over. I still haven't gotten her to catch it if I throw it. On the other hand Rosie loves to play catch with a "soft bite" frisby. During her long surgery and recovery, we were afraid she would lose her enjoyment of the game; I'm glad she didn't. Both dogs love to go on long walks, and the neighbours enjoy petting them as we go by.
 Again, I'm really glad Amber was adopted.

Carlene