February Updates: battling freezing winter cold, our first overseas adoption to Dubai and stopping owners from abandoning their pets
Winter hit Georgia hard in the past couple of weeks. We’ve had to place a large focus on alleviating suffering and securing survival for the thousands of strays suffering from record cold temperature, snow, starvation and disease. Unfortunately, this remains a very painful struggle and we are grateful for every cent you are willing to donate towards emergency feeding and care.
We’d love to welcome you as a Patreon member, where a monthly donation of $5 per month could make a big difference. Check it out https://www.patreon.com/c/zerostraysgeorgia/membership
Lots of love,
The Zero Strays Georgia team
Adoptions
Amidst all these painful circumstances, there is also positive news to be told. Our beloved Femi found her forever home in Latvia and Jenya found hers with teacher Petr in the Czech Republic. We also received a lovely postcard from Fritizi who is loving life in his forever home.
Furthermore, we pulled off our very first adoption process to Dubai and are thrilled to see Charlie running around the palm trees in his forever home together with dog mum Lorraine. Tallulah travelled to Poland and we were thrilled to see the excitement of families and dogs alike when Nigel and Heart moved to Germany.
Seeing all these lovely strays becoming a beloved family member is what motivates us to continue striving for a better life for every stray – they deserve it!
Sterilisations
Besides battling winter emergency care, we’ve focused on sterilising over 15 pregnant strays this month – preventing close to a 100 puppies from being born to a life of misery as well as reducing the suffering for the neutered stray. Should all puppies have the prospects of being born into a comfortable, safe and loving environment, we would never sterilise a pregnant stray. However, the reality in Georgia is different where many puppies face unbearable conditions during the first weeks and months of their lives; often resulting in a painful death in the end. And that is something we truly seek to prevent.
These are some of the sterilisation highlights from February:
“Neutered stray, she survived the distemper virus. She is our new foster baby”
“She was neutered, had an owner, and was pregnant. They wanted to leave her in the street with her puppies, but when the neighbour promised to neuter her (she contacted us) they changed their mind. A neighbour took her to the clinic and I funded the taxi. The family even didn’t bother to pay taxi”
“She was neutered today. A few days ago, she was freezing in the street and was rescued by Nona. We found a home for her but she will go to her new home neutered and vaccinated.”
Emergency feeding
Winter hit hard and stays were very badly affected, freezing to death and starving. Together with our volunteers, we covered the following areas during the emergency feeding: Zugdidi, Ingiri, Kakhati, Darcheli, Kombinati, Octomberi, Shamgona, Koki, Jvari, Onaria.
