THE EXPERIENCE IS ENDING... :(

Almost two weeks left for the end of my EVS.   I´m alredy very sad but I know that life will continue in my country or wherever, with a lot of projects to begin.

It will be hard for my colleague Ioanna (EVS from Greece working in Lesė as well) and for me lo leave our animals. 

They are an important part of our lifes here, our conversations, toughts, worries and so on. So, in a bit more than two weeks our life will change completely again, without them. Only we will see and follow them throught Internet. At least it´ll be something. 

Before leaving, we wanted to do something for the shelter and some days ago we decided to use the money which the European Union gives us for our projects for painting the shelter. 

For us nothing is enough for our shelter. We love to take care of the animals as much as we can and of course the place where they are living.

In Lesė, there are always something to do, to fix, to clean... the work never ends. Like in any animal shelter. That´s why is sooo important the labour of all the volunteers who come to the shelter everyday, or once per week, or even once per month... every little help is important for us. 

I really want to say thank you for all those voluntees who came to help us during all this time and who will continue. 

These days in Lesė are great because fortunately many people are coming. Youngsters from the high school or people who are alredy on holidays. They are hard workers and they love to be there.

Our time here is almost over but Lesė has a great team of volunteers who take care in the best way of all the animals who are living there and they try to find the best family for them. 

All the new volunteers that would like to help they are very welcomed :)

Untill the next entry!

FERTILITY OF CATS

Fertility of cats depends on hours of sunligth. That´s why Spring and Summer are the most fertile seasons fot these animals.

I remember when I arrived to the shelter the first time in September. We had a lot of adorable kittens, all of them were adopted very fast. Then they stopped to arrive and now in Spring started again. We have few litters without the mum and some of them with the mum. 

Some litters are abandoned from people and some others are found as babies from stray cats.

Lesė Shelter is doing a really useful and important project  with the cats currently in Vilnius to stop the reproduction of the cats. http://www.lese.lt/en/sterilizacija_tvarka

Sterilization is a very important step to reduce the problem with stray cats in Lithuania. It would be also important to make the people aware of the importance of this.

If you find stray kittens It´s very important to know how to act in case you have to take care of them. They are too sensitive and delicate and they need some decisive cares to survive.

Actually it is really easy to get information about kitten´s care. Here you can check a webpage with the most important advices you´d need:

http://www.wikihow.com/Care-for-Orphaned-Kittens-Less-Than-Three-Weeks-of-Age

Here is a video of the beautiful kittens we have in the shelter:

In this video you could watch some of the kitten we have currently in the shelter. 

Most of the kittens are coming without the mummy, so depends on the age of the babies they need some special care.

Fortunately we have the best mum ever. She was raising her babies till they know how to eat and survive alone and now she is taking care happily of  other kittens as the best.
She is giving them all the necessary cares they need to grow up strong.

Not always we have the luck to have a mum who adopts kittens, so in these cases we sould take care of them carefully.

If some of you are now in that situation I wish you the best luck. Be patient. At the end it will be amazing to see them growing up :)

MORE THAN DOGS AND CATS

Our Shelter takes mainly cats and dogs in, but as an animal lovers  we cannot turn a blind eye from other animals.

Actually we have another Lese shelter in kaunas, where the volunteers are taking care also of some wild animals.

But here, in Vilnius currently we have  some animals who were found lost from the mums or injured.

This raven was found injured, and unfortunately the wound was serious and they had to amputate one of his wings.

This baby squirrel was found in a park. One raven was attacking him.

Also we found two rabbits. They came to the shelter when they were babies and in short time they became really big. They rescued one of them from dog´s attack, and the other one was found defenceless without the mummy because she was killed by a car.

Vesta is taking care of these animals (rabbits and squirrel) 24 hours because, as a babies, they need to eat very often. They started eating only goat milk with syringe but they also put around them grass or grains

When they learn how to eat properly, will be released.

Daily routine :)

PET RESCUE FINLAND

I will dedicate this page for Pet Rescue, an organization from Finland which is collaborating with us for finding home to our animals.

Here is a short summary about Pet rescue:

´Pet Rescue Finland is non-profit animal welfare organization, which started January 2016 in Finland by family, Liisa, her mother Marjatta, her brother Jorma, Jorma’s wife Heidi and Jorma’s daughter Jenni. 

We know that there are no street dogs in Finland and many Finns decide to adopt dogs from Spain, Romania and Russia. We thought, why not Lithuania? We contacted Lese, since we know they have been working with abandoned animals for many years and Liisa’s veterinarian recommended them for their responsible work. We like co-operatin with Lese, since the people are very honest and knowledgeable about their animals. They always know everything about the character and health of an animal. 

We choose animals, which have good nature and post photos in our web page. People in Finland write to us and ask all kinds of questions and we try to send the videos and photos. Once the decision is made and the animal has home in Finland, we get EU passports and do many tests to see if the animals is healthy. We have to organise transport, which is the most difficult part. Sometimes the animal has to wait for 5 months in Lese before the trip, either we need to cure them from some illness or we can’t find transport. We have to visit the vet many times and the Ministry of Agriculture for passports and TRACES European Union health certificates. So this takes a lot of patience from Lese. 

The dogs in Lese are super sweet and they become very friendly with people, since many volunteers walk with them and socialise with them. They just need more time with people and more training. 

People in Finland are very good with dogs. Dogs are always family members and treated well. Many people don’t like, how pure breed pedigree dogs have become so over-breed, that they have many illnesses, allergies and so on. Also, pure breed dogs are very expensive in Finland. So many families decide to adopt a dog instead of buying a pedigree pure breed dog. 

We think people in Finland don’t know that we have a problem of street dogs in Lithuania.  Finland is so close, only one hour by plane or 12 hours by car. When people learn that so close to them there are abandoned dogs, they want to help. 
We have also been collecting donated items, which we will bring from Finland to Lese on May.´

Simutė, Lordas and Lokė travelling to their new home in Finland

Uta And Vidas arriving in Finland

Find more information and happy endings on Facebook ´Pet Rescue Finland´

or in the webpage: www.petrescuefin.fi

R.I.P HARLIS

Sad new for this blog but I would love to write some words about Harlis.

I remember when he arrived to the Shelter. Two girls brougth him in a terrible appearance, very old and dirty. They found him next to the road. His first days in the Shelter was downcast and sometimes didn´t want to go out of the cage. I guess there he could feel protected, without any danger.

As soon as days passed, Harlis was cheering up more and more. When we went to take him, he was jumping for joy. Obviously none of the dogs is happy living in a cage but finally they get -at least- a bit use to. One day some volunteers took him to the Spa and he came back as the cleanest doggy ever!

Harlis stole the heart of the volunteers. he was very old but with so much vitality.

Short time ago he started having health problems, he couldn´t pee properly and this last days he couldn´t do it alone. The last vet consultations informed that the problems were very serious.

As I´ve alredy said, he was really old we didn´t want to see Harlis suffering for the rest of his life.

The decision was very hard and sad for all the volunteers.

Always in our memories. Harlis.

MARKUSAS, A SPECIAL DOG

This is Markusas,

I would like to dedicate a whole page for him because he is a very special doggy.

When I arrived to the shelter 8 months ago I met Markusas. He was very scared of me, they explained me  how I had to feed him, the way to take him from the cage and the place where he always wanted to go.

I didn´t know what was the problem with him in that moment and actually I didn´t ask either.
I was sure with the time he would trust me a little bit. It was impossible to pet or brush him and I really wanted to do it.

I was triying tricks to pet him like cover my hand with towels and pet him or putting a big glove and brush him the dead hair... but I noticed that it was really scary for him even with the time passing, so I decided to stop because I didn´t want to stress him so much.

Now after 8 months, Markusas is at the same point.

For me it is really sad because with every doggy who arrives to the shelter I can notice big improvements in their behaviour when they get used to the new place. I could also notice the difference between the beginning when they didn´t know me and days after.

When they explained me the true story about markusas I could understand him better.
The situation of Markusas was very complicated. He was living in a village house with "not very friendly" people. Markusas was one of the 20 doggies who was living there. All of them were in really bad condition, they were hit by their owners frequently.
Due to all these factors markusas is now like this.

These are some of the pictures:



Sadly, a lot of stories of animals in shelters are similar, but the animals are also very different and the way to channel everything is distinct.

They told me Markusas improved a lot from the beginning till now. Before this little dog didn´t want to go out from his cage and nobody could be close to him.
Currently the volunteers are feeding him from the hand - as a suggestion of one trainer- , and he is comfortable with that. Anyways he is not able to be ped and to go for a long walks. He only wants to do the same routine everyday, to eat in the same place and go through the same route.

So Markusas´s life is sad in the shelter and although the volunteers give him a lot of love, he needs more. The situation makes it really difficult to give markusas for adoption.

Hopefully some day someone accepts to take care of him and makes him happy :)

Lesė Shelter Location

Here you can see where we are!

SPRING IS COMING... :)

I´m really happy to say: ´Spring is coming´.... Actually I say ´is coming´ because we can not be sure alredy. 

Some people say ´it is probably to have snow again´, other people say ´Spring is alredy here´... and I am a bit confuse. 

Everybody is alredy wearing different clothes, I am looking forward for real Spring after long time with cold, and snow.

The weather is amazing these days, and all of us are enjoying more staying outside. In the shelter - after finish our tasks- we can be as much as we want outside playing, brushing, going for a long walks with the doggies and so on...

I would like to share with you a video I made during these warm and beautiful days. Altought the cats have to be inside, we can also have fun with them -playing, brushing or even petting them-. They also really need human contact to socialize, this is an important step for them to be adopted. 

I encourage you to visit us and have a good time :)

ONE DAY IN THE SHELTER

I´d like to share with you my daily routine in the Shelter.

I´m working everyday in Lesė 6 hours (to 9am till 3pm). It depends on the volunteers we have, some days we finish our tasks sooner or later. 

My routine starts at 7.30 when I wake up. I prepare all my stuff and I´m ready to see all those beautiful and little faces of my beloved animals.

The first image I see when I arrive is this:

And Meškis... :)

He is a special doggie, The volunteers who are working with him need to follow some special instructions to treat him. He follows the rules perfectly and he is educated. He lives always outside but he is going often for a long walks with his volunteer friends. Every morning Meškis is the first who takes our attention :)

After that, the first step is Mafia, they are 4 friends called Romeo, Bimas (those are brothers), Mėta and Dora, they are get on well each other and always together. Mafia is living free in the shelter during the night and sometimes when we arrive we find a big mess because they really like to play and investigate everything. So the next thing is to be ready to see Mafia´s job and clean everything to start properly our daily tasks.

I cannot forget to talk about Justas, he is screaming like a baby when we arrive because he´s very happy, The room where he lives is next to the exit door. He has an important disease and they estimate short life for him. Until now he has vitality, so for the moment it is a good signal.

After cleaning and greeting, Mafia is the first one to go for a walk or sometimes they really like playing together in the cage outside. 

This first tasks in the morning I usually do alone, and after that, one or few volunteers (if we have them) start to arrive. Many days we don´t have volunteers to go for a walk with the dogs so Rasa (my tutor and the responsible of the dogs in the morning)  and me keep the work going together. 

We start to go for a walk with all the dogs and to clean every cage. 

Mornings in the shelter are always very loud. Doggies are looking forward to go outside and to eat their food so until this moment they are really anxious.

When we are two, we take turns for cleaning and going for a walk.

When every single dog went for a walk it´s time to feed them, They exactly know this moment, They are really excited and barking very loud so we need to wait until they are in calm to feed them.

TIME TO EAT!

After this moment, they are completely relaxed. They satisfied their needes and they take a nap, 

Now is time for Kaktus, this beautiful cockatiel.

He is cowardly when we are next to him. Everyday after finish my job with the dogs, I clean his cage and I change the water and food. Sometimes he delight us singing ;)

Having done all this stuff, we have to clean the floor deeply.

It´s very important to keep clean and put everything in places.  

Afterwards, usually we have a little time before going home. I take advantage of this time brushing the dogs, going for a long walk or just playing or petting them. I also like spend some time with the cats.

THIS IS ONE OF MY DAYS IN THE SHELTER :)

-HOW YOU CAN HELP- ShArE yOuR TiMe WiTh Us :)

I would like to invite you to share a little bit of your time with us, with this wonderful animals.

They don´t need material things, they only need basic things to be happy.

You can help us in a different ways:

- Going for a walk with the dogs

- Brushing and petting dogs and cats

- Playing with them

- Donations

THE ANIMALS

I WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE YOU SOME OF THE ANIMALS WE HAVE IN THE SHELTER CURRENTLY.

                                                                      

This is Kukis, he is in our shelter long time ago. Althought he is a little bit old, he has a lot of energy to go for a walk.

This is Atas, he is a young and big dog that´s why he is full of energy. He loves playing and he is ready to share all his love.

Dodis is this lovely doggie. He arrived short time ago to Lese. He doesn´t know very well how to go for a walk with the leash because he was long time enclosed at home without leaving.

Simutė is around 6-7 years old, she is a very active and lovely doggie, She is all the time demanding attention. She is get on well with everybody and she really likes playing.

Balis is the cutest kittie ever. He has an alergie that´s why he is always wearing E-collar. He loves to be petted specially in his belly.

This is Karlas, he is really young, not older than 1 year. He is kind and sweet with the people.

LITTLE INTRODUCTION ABOUT "LESĖ"

Lesė Shelter was founded in 2007. It is supported by donations and it was one of the first "no-kill" animals in the country.
Lesė is based on volunteering, 

• These are the people who are working voluntarily in their free time.  
• This means that volunteering person does not receive any financial reward for his work.

LESĖ VOLUNTEERS NOT ONLY WORK IN THE SHELTER, BUT ALSO:

• take care of homeless animals at home,
• take photos of homeless animals,
• put ads on Web pages and newspapers,
• write articles,
• take part in television and radio broadcasts,
• give courses and lectures about animals,
• manage websites,
• transport animals to the vet, to the hairdresser,
• organize “trap–sterilize-release“ (PSP) program,
• organize events,...

VOLUNTEERING IN LITHUANIA

My name is Paula, I am doing European Volunteering Service in  Lesė Shelter. I came here from Spain for 10 months and at the moment I´m already in the seventh.

I really love animals so that´s why I decided to leave everything in my country to make this experience. It´s hard to start working in this kind of places where you can see and heard many different stories about animals who arrive to the shelter.

The daily job which all the volunteers do in the shelter is brilliant! They are completely implicated and worried with every animal, some of them are available 24 hours to take care of them.

We are trying everyday to make a bit better and happier the life of those amazing animals.

With this blog I will try to show you how is the work that we do everyday and I want to encourage you to visit us :)

I hope you like it :)