It is with great sadness that I write this post. Last week, beautiful Vito passed away. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and the Rifugio Fata team did everything they could to try to save him. They took him to the vet and to a specialist, and they kept him in the special room at the shelter, designed to house the sick and the elderly. But, in the end, the cancer had spread too far and they had to make the difficult decision to release him from further suffering.
Francesca and one of her volunteers, Aurora, took Vito to the vet to send him on his way - over the rainbow bridge and onto the next leg of his journey. They kissed him goodbye, and Aurora held him in her arms as he went. In a sweet final gesture, Vito licked the tears from her face. He passed away knowing that he was loved.
My husband and I found Vito three years ago, abandoned in a cemetery in Calabria. He was thin and afraid, and he was sleeping in an unused tomb. We were staying in the nearby village, and so we started to feed him. Whenever we would visit, he would get so excited that his tail literally wagged his head! It broke our hearts to see him living alone. How could somebody dump such a sweet boy?
After we had been feeding him for a couple of weeks, we had to leave Calabria. Sadly, we couldn't take him with us. We asked around, but, as expected, we were unable to find anyone to take him in. Stray dogs are a huge problem in Southern Italy. Resources are extremely limited and any shelters that do exist are often poorly run or totally overwhelmed.
So, on our last day, we left Vito a big pile of food and wished him luck. It was so hard to walk away from that sad little face. But we couldn't give up! We spent the next two weeks emailing and chasing every possible lead we could find. Thanks to a network of animal-lovers we met online, we managed to find a retired American couple who had moved to Calabria who were willing to go and pick Vito up from the cemetery, a local animal rights activist who offered to help them, and we discovered Francesca at Rifugio Fata, who offered to take him in! It was an amazing collaboration of total strangers.
As I coordinated the mission from thousands of miles away, my biggest fear was that Vito would have disappeared from the cemetery, or been poisoned or hit by a car. But he played his part beautifully, staying safe in the cemetery after we had left, and obediently coming out to meet his rescuers when they arrived.
And that was the day that I started this blog, to support Vito's rescue and to help raise funds for Rifugio Fata, the shelter who so kindly opened their doors to him, even though their walls were full to bursting and their resources were - and always are - overstretched.
At that time, Rifugio Fata didn't have any information online in English, so I wanted to tell their story to non-Italian speakers who could find out more about this organization and know that they are a worthy cause. And that is what this blog has become - a place where English speakers can read all about the wonderful work of Francesca and her team at Rifugio Fata, and, hopefully, feel inspired to donate and spread the word.
So, sweet Vito had a special job. Through this blog, he has brought support to the people who saved him, so that they can continue their work of saving others. Through Vito, I met Francesca and her team, and I met dear Katharina in Austria who works so hard to fundraise for them. Vito was a special boy, and, thanks to Francesca and all of the lovely volunteers at Fata, he knew what it meant to be loved. He died in the arms of those who cared for him, and he is now free and no longer suffering.
I wish Vito had more time on this earth with us, but his spirit lives on. He brought us all together and we will continue our work in his honour.
The dogs at Rifugio Fata are treated like family - whenever one is lost, they are deeply mourned. As Francesca put it: "In order to do this work, you need courage, a lot of courage. But more than anything, you need love."
Vito was a much-loved boy and he will be sorely missed. RIP our beautiful Vito.
