Merry merry X-mas!

Leo

I finally got a photo of Leo, the pack leader He is a beautiful dog, but not very willing to do the modeling thing (or most likely I'm not a good enough photographer for him ;)

Anyway, here he is:

Hope you are having a good weekend!

Pet Therapy Course

This morning I went to the University of Veterinary Medicine here in Messina to drop of the application for the Pet Therapy course. I still find it a bit strange that you have to do everything in person here, but I am happy I went because I got to meet the professor that is in charge of the Pet Therapy Center and he was very friendly, which is a good sign.

Now the only concern is to have enough applicants for the course, because if they don't reach the minimum number of 35 they will not be able to do it.

So please all readers out there wish me good luck!

Hi from Nocciola!

It was pretty cold this morning with only 11 degrees C (52 degrees F) which is a big difference from yesterdays 19 C (66 F). I guess the winter has finally arrived even to Sicily...

Anyway, enough about the weather. Here is a photo of Leo's sister Nocciola:

60 kilometers long walk back home

Oh, my... Do I have a story to tell and I promise it is 100% true.

Let me present Leo, the leader of the pack at the Caronte & Tourist shipyard in Messina, Sicily. Leo, which is short for Leone (Lion), is a stray dog that has built up a small pack of his and their hangout is at the shipyard and where the cars get on and of the ships. Leo fits perfectly in as Cesar Millan's description of a pack leader, calm, assertive and intelligent. He makes sure his pack gets exercise, he disciplines and give affection all in the right order ;)

His pack fits rather well in to the surrounding until there is a car that gets "side-tracked". Then the dogs think it is their job to make sure that the car gets "on-track" again and, as you can imagine, the drivers usually don't appreciated this very much...

The shipping company has promised to assist Streetdog SPA in building up the dog shelter, if we take care of Leo and his 5 friends. Recently there has been some complaints, by clients who are scared of dogs, so in the meantime until Streetdog SPA gets our shelter up and running, the shipping company got in contact with a farmer that lives on the other side of the mountains. They closed a deal with him to take care of the dogs until the shelter is up and running. The dogs were placed in a small truck (food was placed in the truck and all the dogs walked in side by themselves) and they were driven to the farm.

This was done last Friday and the dogs stayed for the weekend on the country side, but on Monday they decided that they had got enough of the fresh country air and walk all the way back over the mountains and through the city of Messina until they finally reached the shipyard yesterday. They all looked well and the funniest thing (depending on which side your on) is that Leo has picked up some new friends on the way back and now they are 10 dogs.

I promise to put up some photos of them shortly and more stories of Leo and his pack will follow.

Helena

New Italian Ambassador - Nuccio

Ciao, sono Nuccio di Catona, una frazione della città di Reggio Calabria, e lavoro a Messina presso una società che si occupa di energia rinnovabile.

Sin da piccolo ( non sono più giovane) a casa mia ho sempre avuto la compagnia degli affettuosi e fedeli amici a quattro zampe e non posso fare a meno di ricordare tra di loro Fox un bracco tedesco intelligentissimo col quale comunicavo solo con lo sguardo.

Oggi fanno parte della mia famiglia anche tre simpatici cani (Lilli, Fire e Bella) che erano stati abbandonati per la strada dai loro padroni e che io insieme a mia moglie ed a mio figlio abbiamo raccolti, curati ed adottati. Proprio la settimana scorsa il medico veterinario ne ha sterilizzato una, l’altra lo era stata qualche mese addietro. Purtroppo la sterilizzazione è un’operazione necessaria per evitare l’aumento del numero dei cani e di conseguenza un trattamento inadeguato nei loro confronti. L’anno scorso, nel periodo di Natale, Lilli ha partorito quattro cuccioli bellissimi allietandoci le feste. Per fortuna ho avuto molte richieste ed ho potuto affidarli alle persone più adatte a prendersene cura. Sappiamo però che non sempre è così: molte storie finiscono tristemente col vedere abbandonati i cuccioli per la strada.

Cercherò di fare del mio meglio per portare avanti il nobile impegno che Streetdog SPA si è prefissato e sono sicuro che con il vostro aiuto ci riusciremo.

Nuccio

Hi, I'm Nuccio from Catona, which is a part of the city Reggio Calabria in South of Italy and I work with renewable energy in Messina, Sicily.

Since I was a child (I'm not young anymore) we've always had company of affectionous and faithful 4-legged friends and one of them especially springs to mind, Fox - the German shepherd. He was so intelligent that it was enough to communicate with him only with my eyes.

Today I have 3 nice dogs (Lilli, Fire and Bella) that take part of my family. They all have a past where their previous owners have abandoned them on the street, and together with my wife and son we have taken them in, treated and adopted them.

Last week the veterinary sterilized one of the females and the other one was sterilized a few months ago. Unfortunately the sterilization is a necessary operation to decrease the number of dogs and as a consequence the inadequate behaviour towards them. Last year, during the X-mas period, Lilli gave birth to 4 beautiful puppies. Luckily I had a lot of requests and was able to find good people to take care of them. Sadly, as we know, this is not always the case and many of these stories end up with abandoned puppies on the street.

I will do my best to support the noble engagement that Streetdog SPA has prefixed and I am sure that with your help we will make it.

Nuccio

Pet Therapy

On the 18th of December the University of Veterinary Medicine in Messina is starting a new course in Pet Therapy. A maximum number of 50 students can attend. You have to have a university degree from before and they take 10 students with a degree in Veterinary Medicine, 10 with a degree in Science of the formation (direct translation in Italian - Scienza della Formazione), 5 with a degree in Philosophy, 5 with a degree in Political Science, 5 with a degree in mathematics, science and nature, 10 surgeons and 5 lawyers.

The problem is I'm an engineer...! All other university degrees in the world seems to be accepted except the one in engineering... What is wrong with engineers? -Or on the other hand, please don't answer that ;)

I would sooo much like to do this course. In total it would be 100 hours during the spring and summer. Please hold your thumbs for me so that they will accept me in their course even if I'm just an engineer...

In Naples with Max

Let me present Max for you, the wonderful straydog I found 2 years ago. His owner had been murdered and he was walking on the streets of Messina with a broken foot asking for help and help he got. Now he is living at my in-laws place in Naples and he spends his days with the gardener and plays with the other dogs around. Here is a photo of Max and his best mate:



The little terrier loves Max as well and they kiss and kiss and play. They look so funny together. The photo above i taken this morning, when we were taking a walk on the road.

My only regret is that I'm not able to take him home to my place as it i too small and I know he has a better life here.

Have a great weekend!

Woff from us!

Lots of puppies...

I'm just about to leave to Naples for the weekend and I've seen all the new puppies the stray dogs have had here at the Catania airport. I had to pass quickly because they were just too adorable and there were at least 10 of them... Hope there are other good hearted people out there that will be able to take care of them... I cannot wait until we get the Streetdog SPA refuge up and running....

Additional information inserted on the 25th of November 2009:

I'm happy to tell you dear readers that the puppies have been taken care of by 2 ladies from Catania (Sicily). Let's hope they will find a good caring family for them.

Kelly - Ambassador in Norway

Hi there! My name is Kelly and I live in the southern parts of Norway. At the moment my days are mainly passed studying and working. Sorry to say, I currently don’t have a four-legged family member by my side. Through the years, however, I’ve had the honor to share my life with three highly loved (and deeply missed) companions. One of whom in fact was a street-dog rescue.

I am and have always been a genuine dog lover and I cant express enough how incredible I think it is that somebody, not only converts words into actions, but also allows for us fellow dog lovers to contribute. When offered the possibility to represent Streetdog SPA as an ambassador in Norway; how could I not jump at the opportunity? Thank you so much for caring enough to bother and for accepting responsibility! Together we really can make a difference, so lets all take part and act.

Kelly

Welcome to our new Streetdog SPA Ambassadors

A big welcome onboard to Streetdog SPA's new Ambassadors Camilla and Dalton. :-))

Photo: Who doesn't need unconditional love?

They will now become one of our focal points in Sweden and help promoting Streetdog SPA as well as finding new families for adoption.

If you too are interested to become an ambassador for Streetdog SPA please contact us on info@streetdogspa.com

We cannot thank you enough for caring!

The dog whisperer

Finally the dog whisperer show with César Milan has come to Italy. I've only seen the 1st show, but I will definitely become a follower. If you are interested in this show (and live in Italy) you will find it on the National Geographic channel every Sunday at 21.00.

For you guys out there who has already seen the show and know more about him than I do -What do you think about his methods?

Looking forward to hear your answers.

Big hug!

Good heart certificate

Dear readers,

It is very important that we get known out in the big world, so please if you have a good heart copy our logo with the link to our website www.streetdogspa.com on your blog.

If you have done this you officially have a good heart and can copy and post on your blog the good heart certificate below :-)

Big hug from us!

Looking for funds

My superhero brother ;) has been to the library back home in Sweden (where he lives) to help us look for funding possibilities and he found us some interesting options. Let's see what we can get.

Million thanks again :-))

In italiano :)

Now the website Streetdog SPA is up and running in italian.

Ora il nostro sito web Streetdog SPA funziona anche in italiano :-)

The website...

We have noticed that the Streetdog SPA website wasn't working very well (strange colours and slow to download), but we hope that we have managed to fix those little obstacles now.

The problem was due to the fact that the site was made on Helena's Mac (Sorry!) and while everything worked perfectly on the Mac so wasn't the case for the PC.

Please tell us if you find any other problems.

Big hug from us!

2 new supporters :)

I was so happy yesterday when my dear friend Nic called to say that she and her dog Gina were on their way to Taormina. I haven't seen them for 5 (!) years so I got very happy to catch up with them again. They've been travelling all the way from Switzerland to Sicily in a minibus -Not bad at all for a girl on her own!

Nic and Gina liked the idea very much of the Streetdog SPA rescue center and promised to come and help us.

Gina was brought up to be a cattledog, but it didn't work out so well... Nic found her while walking on the Swiss Alps. The owner of Gina said he had to get rid of her because she was too dominant and he already had a dominant dog. She told him that she had no plans of getting a dog and wished him good luck in finding another person to take care of Gina. The man told her that he would have to kill her and Nic apologised and continued walking. However, on the way back she passed the property where Gina was again and she couldn't bring herself to leave her to her destiny... Now Gina has become 12 years old and is the most well behaved dog I've ever met.

Here are some photos of Nic and Gina:

Welcome to the Streetdog SPA blog!

Dear All,

A BIG welcome to the Streetdog SPA blog. Here you will be able to follow our struggle to build up the Streetdog SPA rescue centre.

We hope to meet many more friends out there that will support our cause and build up this centre together with us.