Our first night on the - job - was an interesting one. The
same day that Danielle contacted LAPA and got in touch with their contact on
the ground here, we found ourselves up late helping care for a litter of pups
that were no more than four weeks old.
Danielle contacted LAPA and found out that there was a
fellow expat, Natalie, on the ground here that has been helping at a local
shelter and with some of the strays in the area. The unfortunate part of this scenario
is that Natalie is scheduled to leave on Friday; only two days from the day
Danielle learned of this opportunity with LAPA. Danielle’s goal was to meet Natalie
and learn as much of what she had been up to with regards to helping the
animals, working with the shelter and liaising with LAPA. However, during one
of their phone conversations, Danielle heard some commotion and Natalie told
Danielle she would have to call her back. Hours later, after things settled
down, Danielle learned that 13 puppies had been found. They had just lost their
mother and they were homeless.
The puppies’ mother was one of the many strays that are
being fed by staff in the Olympic Park. All of the venues have at least one dog
running around that has stolen the hearts of the staff working there. So, as
can be expected, the strays mill around the staff areas waiting for handouts
and, of course, a little bit of love. The night prior to these puppies being
discovered, the mother was fed by some of the staff. The next day, the mother
was found dead, just a couple of meters from the litter. Based on the condition
of the mother, and the fact that she was seen alive the night before, it is
speculated that she finally succumbed to exhaustion and any other ailment that
might affect a stray mother of 13 puppies. The circumstances do not suggest
this dog was poisoned, as many people have feared may be happening in Sochi. It
appears this is just another tragic story of a stray dog living in poor conditions
and giving her life as she tries to care for her young family. No one was aware of the litter prior to her discovery and
the puppies were only found due to the high pitched squeals coming from a
nearby drainage ditch. The hungry cries were the only thing that alerted the
mourning staff members of the pups existence. One staff member saw the mom lying
down and he thought she was sleeping. He was the same staff that had fed her the night before. When he went to greet her and give her a little snack, he
realized she wasn’t sleeping. Then, he heard the pleading yelps of 13 very
young, very hungry pups.
We arrived to Olympic Park prepared to offer that the
puppies stay at our flat with us until the kennel representatives could come
pick up the puppies the next day. The kennel is 50 km away, up a winding
mountain road. It is not an easy trek and the last information we had was that
the kennel could not pick up the puppies until the next day. Natalie had
already resigned herself to sleeping in the office with the puppies overnight.
She is staying at a hotel and could not take the puppies there. Furthermore, the
puppies were so young and hungry, they needed to be fed every three hours or
so. So, it made sense that we would offer to take the puppies overnight so no
one had to stay overnight in the office.
However, we learned that the kennel was already on their way
and would be to Olympic Park about an hour after we arrived. So, in addition to
cataloguing the puppies’ sex, colors and photographs, we helped with the
feeding that was due around the same time as we arrived. It took a while, but
we worked out a system of bottle feeding a milk and vitamin mixture, coupled
with some baby food that probably wasn’t the best thing to be given to very
young pups, but was better than nothing. The milk and vitamin mixture, which turned
out to be the best thing for the little guys, was picked up and prepared by
Natalie’s colleague, Nastya. Together, the four of us fed the puppies, provided
water to them and then cleaned them up the best we could. If you have never
tried to feed baby food to 13, four week old puppies, you have no idea how
messy it can be. Then, we photographed them all and prepared them for their
transport to the kennel. Most of the pups were voracious eaters and quite
strong; both physically and in imposing their will on everyone. There is no
question that those little guys and girls will be just fine, especially now
that they are being cared for by veterinary doctors at the kennel. However,
there were two little ones that we are not so sure about. They ate passively,
but not a lot. They were very lethargic and were physically quite a bit smaller
than their brothers and sisters. We kept them separate, holding them most of
the time, in an effort to keep them warm and to provide a little extra TLC. We handed
them over to the vets from the kennel in decent shape. However, there was
concern by all that these two just may not make it.
Either way, as I said, our first night on the - job - was
fun and rewarding. But, it was only a small portion of the work. The kennel the
puppies are staying at is a commercial kennel. It costs a lot of money for
these pups to stay there and receive the treatment they will need in the coming
weeks. In addition to this, 13 loving homes must be found that are ready to add
a special Olympic puppy to their families. Our first night was about three
hours of messy feeding, cuddly puppy breath and nose snuggles. But, there is
still a lot more work for this group and for all the others that we will come
across over the next couple of months.
#SochiStrays #PartoftheSolution
