(rain and myst in shelter)
The constant rainfall and landslides in the region of our kennel are still a big problem. Two bridges have collapsed, which can no longer provide access to other cities. A two-week hard lockdown began on Wednesday, January 12th, 2022 and is making things even more difficult. We were able to get a few sacks of cornmeal from town by car, but Dita got stuck in the mud about 100m in front of our farm on the way back. she had to walk back and in the last few days carry the 50kg sacks of cornmeal uphill to the dog yard piece by piece. Nobody can imagine what work and what circumstances weigh on Dita and Jade at this time if you haven't been there yourself and seen with your own eyes what circumstances we have to defy every day, and now also larger hurdles due to the weather have to take.
So far I have not entered a single house in the region that is equipped with a heater. I don't remember seeing a heater in City Hall. Airtight apartments/rooms, as we know them from Germany, do not exist there either. We cook the dog food on a homemade wood-fired stove, and when there is enough foundwood (which is becoming increasingly rare) we also cook our own food this way.
(cooking place for the dog food)
In November/December last year we had some support from Dita's father and her uncle, who rebuilt the rickety fireplace in the house on the new piece of land and immediately connected a hot water heater in/at the fireplace. This means that we can also take a warm shower when the work is done on the new piece of land. For us, this is huge progress on which we can build and which we are very happy about.
(fire place and water boiler for the shower in the new land)
Unfortunately, we are still a long way from our goal and therefore need at least 20-24 months of support of any kind, but it is planned to put the rest of my savings this year (as soon as possible) into a solid concrete foundation for the new dog shelters. Once the foundation is in place, we have to close and secure the shelters and the enclosures with a long wall so that the dogs don't jump into the neighbor's pasture and possibly injure cows or sheep. Aside from the fact that we don't want it anyway, it can also cause a lot of trouble and cost a lot of money.
The area for the dog shelters and free runs should cover a total area of 600 square meters (20m x 30m). The currently 92 dogs have enough space there and are initially safe from landslides and other dangers that lurk in our current dog yard and are increasing every day.
(video from earth slide close to Dita´s fathers place)
(non stop rain in shelter)
We also consider ourselves very fortunate that the local newspaper in Merseburg (my hometown) took up the subject of our kennel and wrote and published a report about it. Here is the link to the article:
Also a big thank you to all previous donors who want to support us and follow our website to see how the progress is and how the money donated is being used. Thank you so much from all of us!!!
I will try to reduce my own living expenses from 600€ to a maximum of 550€ in order to be able to raise even more money for the kennel from my own pocket. At the moment, 900-1000€ of my income goes directly to the farm, the rest is set aside for building materials. About 70% of my income goes to the dog yard, and we have to manage to leave the old yard, otherwise all the effort and work might have been for nothing.
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Sonho is not doing well at the moment, he had mango fly maggots under his skin, which we removed, but unfortunately not all of them could see and grasp. He probably has an infection and is very weak as a result. Mango flies are one of our main problems, which we can solve ourselves, but can also become problematic in such cases. They are fat, black, slightly greenish-shiny flies that lightly scrape the skin with their legs and lay their eggs under a host's skin, where the maggots then feed on the host until they hatch inside the host's body, and then fly out and leave the cocoon inside host body, which can become inflamed.
(Mango fly - Tumbu fly)
We removed another 4 mango fly maggots from Sonho, gave him medical attention and hope he will show his happy nature and get fit again soon.
written January 14th | 2022
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