The area of the Trusesti retirement home
At the village border of Trusesti is the old people's home. The home also has a large compound, which is not much used by the residents. But it is used by a group of street dogs that have taken up residence here. They are peaceful but shy animals who were simply looking for a place where they can rest after foraging for food, where they are not chased away or pelted with stones or other objects. The director of the home tolerates these packs because they stay in the back of the compound, are not pushy and keep a certain distance from people.
This pack consists of 10 dogs, males and females, of child-bearing and procreative age. Again and again, puppies were born and died in agony from the almost always fatal puppy diseases, such as parvovirus and distemper. The nursing staff and the residents felt sorry for these animals. But they did not know how to help the puppies. Again and again they had to watch the animals suffer and one puppy after the other died.
The director of the retirement home heard about Anca and her commitment to helping street animals. He approached her, hoping Anca could help somehow, had an idea of what could be done.
And yes, Anca had a plan.
With the help of her vet, Anca wanted to catch all the adult dogs living there and have them neutered. This would stop this pack from reproducing and also stop the female dogs from being chased by males to mate - as well as the males from getting into mating fights.
But, there was a BUT.
Anca's plan did not work overnight. The dogs were rather shy towards people and ran away as soon as someone came too close. So a relationship of trust had to be built up so that Anca's vet could get close enough to the dogs to hit them with a tranquilliser dart. Anca set up a feeding station in the senior citizens' compound. Every day after school Anca went to the old people's home and stocked the feeding station with new dry and wet food. She was often observed doing this and as the days went by, the dogs came closer and closer. The wet food also smelled too good :-)
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It took a little while until the dogs came so close to Anca that she could almost touch them. Now it was Anca's vet's turn. "Armed" with blowpipe and tranquilliser dart, they managed to anaesthetise one dog per day like this and bring it to the clinic where he/she was neutered. After the operation, the patient stayed there for a while to be monitored, cleaned of vermin, given a worming treatment and a spot-on. Small wounds were also treated, of course. And only when the female dog or male dog was fully conscious again and the scar had not become infected, did Anca take the street dogs back to their pack at the senior citizens' home.
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It took a few weeks for all 10 dogs to be neutered, as Anca gave the dogs a rest between capture days so that the trust relationship could be re-established.
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Of course, this feeding place remains until today. However, the pack has wandered a bit and now also stays at the cemetery opposite. Every day Anca visits the pack at the cemetery, scatters dry food and leaves treats there. And whoever wants gets a big portion of wet food. For the senior citizens' home pack, this feeding station is vital and most of the dogs in the pack wait eagerly for Anca every day.
Addition:
There was one last litter (there were 4 female dogs) before all the female dogs could be spayed. Anca did her utmost. Two puppies (Anja and Anita) survived and found their own families. :-)
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