We are grateful to have Save the Animals as our AKI partner. Imagine how life would be for these dogs in Yerevan if it wasn’t for Save the Animals! Read these stories from Ovsanna and you will see why AKI support for Save the Animals-Armenia is so very important.(click on any photo for a larger view) Read a great article about Ovsanna's work. click here.
See this heartwarming video below of Shurnukh's rescue by Save the Animals and friends in Armenia.
Someone called me from Yerevan State University and told that the cat of their garden died, and kittens were left alone. I went there and what did I see? 4 little kittens, with eyes closed, they even could not eat themselves. I was in hesitation... would I be able to help them live?
But I tried. 2 of them died, unfortunately, but the next 2 are alive, and now have loving homes. They are "queens" of their homes )))) The 1st picture is the first day I brought them home. The other picture is one of the cats in her own house.
In Armenia there was no dolphinarium. So that was very good, because Armenia is the worst place to keep dolphins. But one day we heard that a dolphinarium is going to be opened. We decided to organize a protest on the opening day and to share leaflets for people, who don't know what is dolphinarium realize how cruel it will be to keep dolphins. So the day came, and we are there...Next to the Dolphinarium is Komitas garden, and from that garden a very little dog joined our protest. He was so little, so little, that even normal size cat was his double size. He was so sweet, played with us and we all were in love with him. After some days a girl wrote me, who lived next to that park. She told me, that the little dog is injured, cannot walk normally. That was his leg. And she told us, that during the building of dolphinarium, the workers loved him, fed him and he grew up there, in that garden, with workers.
So when construction was over and the workers left, the dog stayed all alone, 1 year old, cannot find food, used to live with human. He would not go on living without human help, because he was just too small size to be able to survive in a cruel city like Yerevan, full of animal hating people. So I began my searches for a new owner. There was a woman, who wanted a puppy, I asked her very much to see that dog, she said she didn't want old dog, she wants a puppy, but after too long requests she decided to see him. When she saw him and fondled him, he suddenly felt that he mast behave good, he jumped on her knees and hugged her with his arms like a baby, that was a miracle. And after that she called and said so many thank yous that we asked her to see that dog, because he was just what she wanted, and she loved him just too much..
This is Doby. He had a family for several years. One day, because of an accident he became blind and his "family" just threw him away. He became a street dog, a blind street dog. Except it was very difficult for him to find food, and he also became a subject of fun among the people of the place he used to live. People began to make him go mad by hitting him from his back and running, and had fun! A woman called us and told about him, and so he is in shelter now, has his home, food and no one to laugh at him : ).
Here is Arjuk, one of the smartest and most beautiful dogs of the Shelter. Some years ago a woman called and asked us to arrive there immediately. When we went there, she told, that near her house lives a dog, his owners wanted to get rid of him, and decided to hang him. They hang him but that woman rescued him after an hour. The dog was in a big shock and ran away. But in his neck was a huge wound, which needed to be healed. That woman tried to get closer, but the dog let nobody closer, he was too frightened, even didn't eat any food, but didn't leave the place as well. So the woman called us asking for help. While the woman was telling us the story, we saw the dog from afar. Nune set on the ground and began to call him. And a miracle happened. Dog came closer and put his head on Nune's knees...
And now he is in shelter, healthy, loved.
Here is Shoko (Chocolate). This is a 1 year old girl. She used to live in a place, where many people loved her and fed her. But one of those people hated dogs, and decided that Shoko should not live in that place. He called to the organization, “Unigraph-X” [AKI note: this is the organization that has a contract with Yerevan municipality to “manage” the stray dog situation] and told that it is an aggressive dog and needs to be killed. The organization workers came and took Shoko away. But those people who loved Shoko called us and asked to do something, to take Shoko back from that "Slaughter House". It's really a difficult thing to take dog back from "Unigraph-X" because they kill dogs at the same day they take it.
We went there and found Shoko still alive. After a big fight we could take her back. We took her to her place, but that human, who disliked the dog (and dogs in general) warned us, that he will poison the dog, if we don't take her. It is a real problem, because in the shelter it is already too much amount of dogs, if consider the fact, that it has no finance and holds up to 240 dogs. But what could we do? We took poor Shoko away from that evil-man.
But keeping him in the Shelter was impossible. So I wrote her sad story and shared by my network and even by press. Press was so impressed with the story that some magazines wrote about it. After a day a girl called and told she wants to adopt her. I was so happy, because in Armenia, re-homing a street dog, especially if it's already 1 year old, is almost impossible. Now Shoko lives with a loving family, has a warm house in this cold winter season :)
In October 4, I organized a chalk drawing and donation day dedicated to animal protection. Different children came to draw on the ground and to bring money or food for shelter dogs.
Suddenly I saw a girl, who came with 2 little puppies. She came crying and asked me to help her. She found those puppies in the street, being bitten by boys, who killed their mother as well. But her family didn't let her to keep them, and she didn't know what to do. It was really a problem. Because to take those little puppies to the shelter was impossible, as I told already in the shelter there is no more place.
I really didn't know what to do. Suddenly a hard rain began, everybody went, and I also wanted to run, but I noticed the girl, under the monument with the puppies, not knowing where to go, and what to do...
So I decided to take puppies myself (I have a problem of taking other dog to my home, because I already have 2 dogs, and a cat, and my big dog, who is rescued dog as well, is very aggressive to new arrivals). I was coming home with puppies with fear... how will I keep them? What should I do? 4 dogs it's already too much for such a busy woman like me.
I had to keep my big dog in different room... puppies were so frightened, but to sweet. On the next day I took them to Dilijan (a village in Armenia) and found 2 wonderful owners for them. So now they have homes, fresh air, and a big garden to ran all day long ...(and when it is time for it we make sure they will be sterilized so as not to reproduce more puppies).
