It is with great sadness that we must announce the passing of the wonderful Elsie. Elsie came to us in June this year. We knew she was an oldie but it became very quickly apparent that she was not in great shape. A vet visit revealed that the dear old girl had severe arthritis and a mass in her stomach. Knowing that her time was going to be precious and short with us we asked one of our wonderful fosterers to take her in and love and care for her for however long she had left and undertook to provide her with all the veterinary care she needed for however long she had. Last night at 10pm she was taken to an out of hours vet for an emergency appointment as she was showing signs of pain and discomfort. The vet gave her two injections to make her comefortable and sedate her through the night and she was to return to our regular vet today to check on her progress. After a day of remaining in her bed and refusing food Elsie was taken to the vets to see if there was anything further that could be done Sadly the vet felt that she was having the maximum pain relief that she could take for the pain in her stomach and spine and we all felt that the kindest thing to do was to allow her to peacefully sleep. We would like to say huge thankyous and condolences to all who were involved in her rescue in Romania.. and to Maxine and Helen and their families for caring for her during her time with us. Run free little Elsie, sleep peacefully free of pain and fear at last xx Here is Elsies story...... Craiova the 6th largest city in Romania and for dogs like Elsie the land of death!! The way animals are treated is barbaric, dogs stoned, puppies thrown out on the streets like garbage, tortured, purposely run down by cars and left dead or in immense pain with horrific injuries, beaten to death or poisoned. Its hard to imagine how any dog could survive this hell looking over their shoulders day after day, scavenging for food, hiding from the perils of what might be their final day. Hated by many and their only crime, being born in a city full of corruption and governed by evil with a strong hate for the street dogs. We will never know Elsies full life story and how so many years ago she ended up another statistic in a Craiova street dogs life, we will never know if once did she have a home or was she one of many born on the streets. What we do know from the wonderful angels who saved her is that for many years Elsie lived in the local park. We dont know how long she struggled to survive the long, cold winters scavenging for scraps of food, struggling to keep warm in temperatures way below freezing, sleeping with one eye open, looking over her shoulder, waiting for the next bad thing to happen, wondering, curiously where her friend suddenly disappeared to, but what we do know is that when her angel found her she would never go a day without food in her belly ever again. For a long time Elsies life became a little easier, she still had to look over her shoulder and she still often wondered whether this day would be her last but the worry of whether she would eat that day had gone. Sadly when the Romanian government changed the law last year Elsies life like many others became more dangerous than ever before. Alina called on Safe Rescue for help, we agreed to take her but there was the added problem of rescue space in Romania, there was nowhere safe for Elsie to go, she had to wait on the streets until a space became available. Elsie is old, slow and an easy target for the dog catchers. Unfortunately in february this year while she was sitting in the park she was caught and taken to the notorious public shelter. Alina had to act quickly to get her out. She not only had two weeks before her life would come to an horrific end, I say horrific because the dogs arent humanly put to sleep, they are either electrocuted or bludgeoned to death!! Sadly hundreds of dogs are brutally killed like this every week. Life in the public shelter is not a great place to be for any dog and is survival of the fittest but for an old lady it is doubtful that she would survive the two weeks anyway. A plea went out on Facebook for foster space and luckily a place was found. Elsie was saved and that is where she stayed until she was able to travel to the UK to find her special, loving, retirement home.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 19:00:05 +0000