Online diary – Slovakia 2007 (finished)
 The first Day: The FOUR PAWS CCR-Team started their work on January 15th. Unfortunately we could not be provided with a proper working place where we could neuter the stray dogs because the shelters in Slovakia where we intend to work are in such a bad condition. So we decided to use our mobile clinic vehicle from Switzerland.
 16th/17th of January: The FOUR PAWS CCR-Team begins their work in Lucenec (300 km from Bratislava) and a gipsy village called Rimska Sobota. The gypsies are being friendly with us and bring the stray dogs to our people. In the picture Katia, a local volunteer, looks through the window of the FOUR PAWS mobile clinic in Lucenec while our vets Marina and Carmen (right) are operating a stray dog.
 20th of January: Today we witnessed a very sad story: on the street some of the inhabitants found a cocker spaniel with a bad disease in the area of belly. Obviously she had been abandoned by an owner who was too pitiless or afraid of the unattractive sight. Perhaps it was the easiest way for him to get rid of the problem – but not for the dog. Nevertheless, we took the dog immediately into our mobile clinic where we were able to effectively treat the animal. Afterwards we entrusted her in the shelter manager’s care with clear guidelines how to go on with this case: after ten days she need to go to a vet to take our the threads. After that the dog will be ready for adoption.
 24th/25th of January: Early in the morning the team with the lady from "Sloboda zvierat" - Etka left for Nitra. When we arrived we went to check the place where we need to work. We were provided with a very good clinic also for large animals there. Enough place to work and a suitable place for operations. The dog catchers were bringing dogs from the local shelter and the local people from the shelter were helping us with the translation. After the operation we are keeping the castrated animals with us until they are totally awake. After that we brought them back to the shelter. During the last two days we castrated 30 animals.
 26th of January: Today the dog catchers were in the gipsy area to catch animals. The local people from the organization were with them. They brought one very old dog with a very big tumour to the clinic. We helped the dog, we operated on him and thus prolonged his life. We finished today with all the dogs from the shelter and from the gipsy area from this town. After we finished with the last operation, we packed all our things to be ready for the next target.
 30th of January: The team arrived in the shelter and after we arranged the clinic we started with the operations. Today we started with the dogs from the shelter. The dog catchers were in the clinic helping when they were not catching dogs. We worked on the two tables to be more effective. The team is united and highly motivated to work and to help the animals. Before the end of the day, the ladies from the shelter brought us an old German Shepard female dog. They explained to us that the dog had very often a problem in the region of the top of the head and till now no one succeeded to help her. We checked what the problem could be and we found out that it is a tumour and needed to be operated as soon as possible. We operated the tumour and we gave her the treatment necessary. We have done everything to safe her life and we hope that she will be OK. (she was still very good on the next morning)
 02nd of February: Today it was our last day in Trencin. We needed to finish with the shelter, to pack and to move to the next place. We finished with the operations till early afternoon, we packed and we left for Bratislava where we need to stay for the weekend. Till the end of the day it was not clear if we will go to Komarno or not. Late in the evening we got the message that we will not work there. We will work on Monday in a place 50 km away from Bratislava and the last days till the end of the project we will be in the shelter of Sloboda Zvierat in Bratislava.
 05th of February: About 8 a.m. Paul arrived at our hotel to lead us to the place where we were supposed to work today. It was a village 50km far away from Bratislava. Our target place was a private house with about 30 dogs and cats living inside and around the house. As the operation room we were using the living room and as the post operation place was the kitchen. The national Slovak TV was in the house today. They were with us in the clinic the whole afternoon recording our work. We worked till late evening and after we finished, we packed again and the two VIER PFOTEN cars with the team went back to Bratislava.
 07th of February: Today a poor man came to the clinic with his wife to bring us cats for castrations. They are collecting the cats from the streets keeping them at their home where they made a small shelter. They are castrating the cats and after that are giving them for adoption. When we finished with the cats we continued with the dogs from the shelter.
 09th of February: Today the VP-CCR team came to the clinic to pack all the stuff and to make the inventory. When the team was ready, we took our cars and we left the shelter heading home to Romania. All in all, during the four weeks of this project in Slovakia, we castrated 225 dogs and 30 cats! We had very good experiences with the local organisations and the local people, and we leave Slovakia with a feeling of having helped a lot of animals and having done good work.
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