As you know, we work all over the world, often in difficult situations where people are poor and resources scarce. We would like to share with you just one incident where we received a desperate plea to help a dog in need, in a remote corner of Montenegro. Montenegro is not a rich place, cars are a luxury, incomes are low and life is hard. It is not, sadly, a place where street dogs are well cared for.
A university student spotted a street dog she had often seen around the campus area. She was very concerned. The dog was clearly injured, very thin and struggling to move.
She sent us this email:
“We have no transportation and cannot get this dog to a vet who is literally dying of starvation. The dog has a leg injury and possibly a snakebite. Last week it was able to get up slowly and take food and water. This week it is barely able to rise and his(sic) lost interest in food and water and is really struggling. The dog is very sweet, very gracious, very appreciative of attention and pets. We simply need someone to take this dog to the vet that I have listed. The vet is willing to help us. This is [an] urgent need. Vet is posted above and will help with this one dog, the Vizsla. [The] Dog is at [the] parking lot of Blace Eko Park and never leaves the lot. Very easy to find. We have no car.”
It sounds like such an easy problem to solve, surely some local person would help get the dog to a vet? Nope, no one helped – until she found us.
We swung into action, we activated our volunteer team in Nikšić, the nearest town, and they dropped everything to help. All of them have jobs and busy lives, but the dog’s life came first. He was rushed to a vet and will make a full recovery from what was possibly a snakebite. He’ll be back at the university soon.
Because of NFA’s supporters who make our work possible, one street dog in a remote place has a new chance of life. If we could, we would help every street dog in the world; we can’t help them all, but we can try.
It makes us feel really good that, in spite of our heavy workload and demanding projects we have around the world – spay and neuter programs, financing animal shelters, working for better animal welfare laws, protecting wildlife etc., we can still drop everything for just one dog in a faraway place and save his life.
It’s what makes NFA so special – we really fight every day for animals.
We want to thank all of you who support NFA for allowing us to do our vital work, and we hope you feel as good as we do about saving one nameless dog.
