The month of April in Snoopy, as always, brought us a lot of events.
At the begining of the Spring, it is always necessary to work hard in the shelter. We were throwing away used straw from the winter, we were deep cleaning boxes and burning old plankes and unusable blankets and mattresses. We cleaned the complete fortress and prepared a large room for renovation. For 3 days we were burning garbage and cleaning the environment from all sorts of unusable remains.
We had full hands of work with newcomers from Utinja. They are all (except 6 of them which will be this week) castrated and sterilized. They mostly recovered well, except our dear Mio, who had a slight complication and ended up on a two-week antibiotic tour. Luckily, everything went well, so today, Mio is super healthy and cheerful. With much love, they passed the process of adjustment, we cried from happiness at their first steps in freedom, learned them to walk on the leash, and with patience removed fear from their hearts.
At the beginning of the month, we welcomed a small Lexi who was saved from the dog pound and placed in a wonderful family in Poreč for temporary accommodation until vaccination. We are very grateful them for that.
We also took a wonderful giant Zaar and his girlfriend Divna, who immediately went to sterilization and after that, to her Forever home in Trieste.
The shelter left beautiful Karin, who was rescued at the last moment from the dog pound. She was adopted to a wonderful family near Divsice in Istria. To dear Karin and her family we want all the best in a new life. We’re sure she will not miss the attention and love.
Also, our Tihi, now Simba, the son of Mamita, has gone a long way to Germany where his people were so looking forward to meet him. Little Simba will soon go to the puppy school, and they will visit us in June. We are so happy for that!
His brothers Mrgud and Placljivko are adopted to Pula, everyone in their happy family. Mrgud as “the only son,” and Placljivko in the family of two children who got the best friend.
The shelter also left little Tobi and went to a new life with young couple, and his company will be their elderly dog with whom he is very happy.
Our Mia, who was temporary accommodated by our wonderful friends Gaby and Josef, in the middle of the month, traveled to the perfect home in Germany, and her company, besides the wonderful owners, are the great Joyce and the little white bunny. Like in the fairytale, don’t you think?
Immediately after she left Vizinada, Gaby and Josef welcomed in their home the beautiful Eva and our Suncica, for a bit of learning and socialization. After a couple of days, Suncica, now Suna, left to a new home where her company are five great children and we have no fear that she will ever be bored!
Eva was introduced to driving in a car, swimming in the sea, walking in the woods, sleeping on the couch, meeting many animals (bunnies, horses, chickens..) she saw for the first time. After one month she will say goodbye to her beloved Gaby, Josef, Codi, Ava and Yuki and go in her new home. We know she will enjoy with her family, although she will never forget her days in Vizinada.
After almost two years, in just a few days apart, two sisters, Điđa and Đurđa, now Laila and Zima, went to their Forever homes. They came in the shelter as puppies, and in just couple of days they showed their new families how gentle they are. They both live in families with small children and their tenderness and calmness finally got the chance to shine with true shine. We are so incredibly happy for them.
In the last days of the month, after one year in the shelter, our beloved teenage girl Gea left Snoopy. Beside great people, she also get a wonderful young dog friend, so they will both make cheerful life for their people.
Unfortunately, there were not so nice moments. Our Ice returned to the shelter after one year because the family decided that they want more place for tourists, and there is no more place for the dog. We believe that this also happened because of the general well-known fact that he is no longer a small and sweet puppy. Aro, whose owner suddenly died, also returned to the shelter, because younger generations did not want to take care of him. Return to the shelter was not easy for both of them , but after the first few days of the shock, with a lot of cuddling and tenderness, they realized that our love is real and they quickly adopted to the new situation.
Also, we took puppies Popye and Lino from the dog pound, who were saved in last moments from the death of terrible parvoviroses. Lino has been better in the past few days, and he is in our Dijana’s house where he is getting therapy. Keep your fingers crossed he’ll be all right!
From the road in Fazana, near Pula, we saved a retriever mix baby and his (supposed) mom who also joined us in the shelter and went through quarantine, needed vaccinations, and mother Lady will soon be sterilized. After 20 days they will be ready for a new home.
We also gave 2 vaccinations against infectious diseases to puppies Gara and Tio. They were found and placed in temporary home in family who adopted one of our dog named Curica. This week they should arrive at the shelter.
We also have cats on our care. Near the our volunteer’s house, in the garbage container, 5 newborn kittens were found and safely removed from the garbage. Luckily, mom came soon, and now they are in Dijana’s home, safe, waiting to grow. They already received reservations for homes in which they can go in about 45 days.
We went out on the alert and traveled halfway through Istria. We made about 1,500 km for reading chips, returning dogs to the owners, checking conditions, saving dogs from the road, and more..
We were again part of a wonderful story. In the town of Premantura, only 10 kilometers from our shelter, the local people have been taking care of the dog Sime for years. They did it all together. They feed him, they regularly vaccinate him and do the haircut, they give him warm place to sleep and provide veterinary care if needed. He is now older than 10 years and does not approach people very well and he is very difficult to caught. With the previous agreement, people caught him and we arrived, took him to the salon Korgi where our Lea made a bath for him and did the haircut with lot of tenderness. We also vaccinated him and vets removed the large benign tumor below his tail. Sime was brave through the all process, recovered very well and he was again accepted by the local community. We are proud of a small community of good people who proved it once again that everything is possible if there is a will.
Our Sundays are especially fun and working, because of the Open Doors and visits of our citizens. Also, a few volunteers are coming all the way from Porec to help in the shelter. While Mladen cleans the boxes, feeds and cares about dogs, Vanja and Sofia are recording our little stars to maximize their chances of getting a home. So, in April, more than 1,500 pictures and almost 200 videos were created, which means a huge job for Vanja. We processed all these images and videos, wrote the stories about the dogs, and put the final products on the website. So the new 20 Snoopy dogs got their albums in Croatian, English and German (thanks to Gaby).
In April, we were also happy to host our beloved friend Andreas Rega with his family and friends Michelle and Sebastian who brought a car full of staff for our dogs. We cannot say enough thank you! We are so happy to have you!
We were totally amazed by Steiner family who spent their Easter holidays with us in the shelter, from morning untill evening, doing outer boxes for the one part of the fortress so dogs in that boxes have outdoor backyard. They promised to come back in 6 weeks and do the same on the other part of the fortress. We could only dream of having friends like them. Thank you very much for your help, and for your friendship!
Also, thank to Rino Rojac from Kastelir and his people for fixing the electricity in quarantine. These days they should also start renovating one large room in the fortress, so we will finally get one dry and rats protected room to store food and other things. This really means a lot to us.
By the end of the month, it was extremely difficult for us because of sad news that we received immediately after Easter. We heard about the disappearance of our beloved Astor, who had been adopted to wonderful people in Germany. They came to Istria to visit and surprise us. Unfortunately Astor was feeling sick at the first night, he runned away and had been lost for 10 days. We searched for him 10 days, for 10 days we had been knocking on people’s doors, and passing kilometers to find him. Unfortunately, we found out that our dear old boy was gone. Our soul cried, but we were happy that Astor spent a last year with Ann Marie and Heinz who gave him all the love of this world. We will be grateful to them forever.
Last week in April, we saved a high pregnant dog from the dog pound. Even though we have been seeking temporary accommodation for her and her babies, so far nobody responded. This week we will probably become “grandmothers” and we just hope everything will go in the best way. The future mom Mila is placed in a soft and warm bed in quarantine. We are again very happy and grateful that we managed to make quarantine thanks to the help of good people.
As always, we work hard to find good homes for our dogs, and that includes lots of checks, spending miles, hours on the phone and the Internet. We send greetings from our dogs to their godfathers and godmothers, and the coolest part is communication with the families of adopted dogs. Watching them cheerful in soft beds is the biggest prize for us.
A big job is done by only few people, but trust us, nothing fills our hearts with warmth and happiness as the fact that they are loved, warm and safe. And when we get pictures of smiling faces from Forever Homes, there are no happier people out there and the whole story gets full meaning.
Thank you very much everyone who follows us, support and help us in any way. We are so thankful for any help. We believe we can all together make the world a better place for these wonderful dogs.
Sending you a big hug from 73 Snoopy dogs + 1 cat Drmalica + few Snoopy volunteers 🙂
Summary for the April:

– 10 dogs + one cat and 5 kittens were received
– 9 dogs + Eva (she will go in the middle of May) were adopted
– 2 puppies were placed in temporary homes