("Spring" at 1st advent 2022)
The situation at the dog sanctuary is tense, and there are also disagreements between Dita and Jade, which are due to our difficult situation. Jade is not very stable mentally, she never learned how to socialize. Years ago, Dita helped her distance herself from Jade's family, a family that treated her badly, didn't send her to school and fed her along with the animals on their farm. Understanding the functionality of a state is a blag rag for Jade. Why you have to work to put a small plastic card in a machine, to enter a few numbers so that some cash appears from a slot... All of this is incomprehensible to Jade. She is at the mental level of a 10 year old. In addition, she has been living almost exclusively at the dog shelter and with the dogs for years now. She doesn't know meeting up with friends in the evening, going out and having fun. It's a complicated situation for them and for all of us. She is needed at the dog sanctuary, otherwise Dita would be there all alone. On the other hand, Jade will probably only be extremely difficult to bring up to the point that she could manage to take care of herself. She is now 26 years old and has a learning disability and will probably not be able to overcome her prepubescent mentality anytime soon.
(Bradesco Bank - symbolic pic)
The power went out on our yard last Friday at noon and has not been switched on again until today (Sunday, November 27th, 2022). Apart from lack of light in the dark this also means that our water pump - down in the well on the neighbor's property - is not working and we are cut off from the "running water supply". Carrying fresh water for all dogs by hand from bottom to top is the first idea that comes to mind. But it's difficult to explain exactly what it takes in terms of energy and time with only 2 people taking care of so many dogs. Just as you can't make someone understand what it's like to have lived like this for several years.
Dita tried to contact the electricity supplier several times over the last few days, but the only connections were with a telephone bot, no real person could be reached by phone. There is a fair with many stalls in the village, and the matches of the World Cup in football are also shown. We cannot rule out that in rural areas the electricity will simply be switched off in order to maintain the power supply for such public events.
We can only imagine it here in the "first world", but even then it's only a fraction of the whole. This is everyday reality in Brazil.
Right now the feeling is comparable to a ship that has 12 holes in the hull, so water is constantly coming in, but you only have 10 fingers to plug the holes.
(November 15th 2022: fallen power pole from our power supply)
"100Hunde" ("100Dogs") is not just a project that you can just let go and call it a failure. It's the life of the dogs, the cats, the chickens, and Dita and Jade. Even the center of my life revolves 100% around the shelter. There is no going back, there is no security, there are no options... We can only move on one way or the other. But we also get strong support from some dear people who support us and whose help gives us all the courage that we lose bit by bit every day. We can currently record monthly permanent donations totaling €168.30. That is 1/6th of the monthly requirement just to secure the food for everyone on the yard and means a great relief. In addition, there are single and irregular donations, which also give us a breath more. At this point, many thanks again to all...
Permanent Donors:
Gudrun S.
Christine S.
Udo M.
Gabriele H.
Ellen M.
Tobias S.
Nicole B.
Thomas N.
Timea K.
Siegfried M.
Odette S.
Margitta P.
Kerstin S.
Stephan S.
Linda S.
Mandy T.
Sylvia S.
and all irregular and single donors:
Tanja L.
Senjo T.
Katja P.
Mario P.
Lenka H.
Gero V.
Heike H.
Witali M.
Susan M.
Sören S.
Stephanie Z.
Erik D.
Claudia V.
Sinem T.
With the donations we were able to buy dry food again to make it easier for Dita and Jade to feed the dogs for at least a few days a month. It often rains for many days, so that firstly it is difficult or impossible for us to get from the dog shelter into the city because the roads there become rivers, and secondly the meat suppliers cannot come into the city with trucks because roads are often closed because of strikes, or because a bridge collapses. When it rains, it becomes very difficult to find dry firewood to cook the dog food. then dry food is necessary, but we cannot feed the dogs only with dry food. We can always only afford offers and cheap dry food, which often only has a low nutrient content. This time we were lucky and used an offer from a dry food manufacturer. A 20kg pack costs an average of 90Reais (approx. €17.30) and on sale this time it cost us 78Reais (approx. €15) per 20kg per pack.
Some dogs have already left us this year. Brava, Barriguda, Ratinha, Maio, Amigo... It hurts to know that they will never see the new land. That we didn't manage to build the new and urgently needed shelter in such a way that our protégés could live there safely. We are still living on a powder keg that can either soon earth-slide down due to the geographical situation, or that will be withdrawn from us by the political situation and we will then be out on the street with the dogs. On the same streets that we wanted to save the dogs from. Even if we can no longer take in dogs in our situation, they continue to be placed at our feet or in front of the gate to our farm. "Suri" and "Spring" are new to our sanctuary, not because we're crazy or underestimate our situation. But it's more because we don't want to hear how loud howling echoes to us from the neighboring property. A loud, frightened howling of an abandoned dog that doesn't come to our shelter because it's being chased, bitten and often eaten by the neighbour's dogs. A loud, help-seeking, heartbreaking howl that suddenly stops and gives us the certainty with deafening silence that the cry for help has led to nothing but inactivity.
Donation-Link:
(November 22nd 2022)
(November 23rd 2022:"Spring" at the vet)
(November 24th 2022: "Spring" spending her first night in shelter)
(November 27th 2022: "Spring" spend her 1st advent alone because she needs stay in quarantine to not infect other dogs)
Apart from Jade - who certainly has the wish to be able to have a normal life - Dita and I only have one wish: that we can offer the dogs a safe home and continued food. For each of the problems described here that stand in our way, everyone will surely come up with a solution, yes. But that all costs money, and many things are either not available in Brazil or are of very poor quality. Sending parcels has become much more expensive since Corona and the Ukraine war, and since I lost three parcels with a total value of €1300 in 2018, I'm not sure about that either.
Nevertheless, I had to risk sending a package to Brazil again because the bank card (which Dita uses to withdraw the money in Brazil from my old donation account) will expire at the end of December 2022. I have now opened an online account and had a debit card made, which I have hidden well in the package. I've been praying for the last few days that this card will reach Dita safely. Otherwise we have a completely different problem that pushes all other problems into the background...
written November 28th | 2022
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