Christmas Wishlist: Can you give the gift of good health to one of our Rifugio Fata patients?

The team at Rifugio Fata do everything they can to treat their shelter dogs the same way a loving family would. This requires tremendous commitment and resources, and they need our help. These Rifugio Fata dogs are in desperate need of veterinary care and medical treatments. Can you help us give these sweethearts the gift of good health for Christmas?

Some of the dogs are very young and need to be blood-checked and healthy in order to find a home. The older dogs need to be cared for in order to minimize their suffering. Winter is coming and the temperatures are dropping in Southern Italy. Please take a look at our list of patients below, and perhaps you will feel moved to choose one of these lovely faces to help this Christmas... They will love you forever! And so will we!

          
TYLER: Fungus infection of the skin. (Mycosis). Can be treated! Medicine needed: Interceptor and Itraconazolo. 30 Euros.

         

BERTA: Black skin patches on chest, nose areas and belly. Needs to be checked and treated.

 

           

MINNIE: Needs Advocate medicine every 21 days for 3 month. Dermatitis caused by mange. Mange was successfully treated but Zincogen medicine needed for relapse prevention. 70 Euros.

 

           

DUMBO: This little puppy has dermatitis. Nexguard medication/wash and vaccinations needed.

         

REA: Advocate medicine for the treatment of mange. 35 Euros.

 

           

PINUCCIO: Pino to his friends. Needs an x-ray and an eco for his heart, and a blood test. 150 Euros.

 

         

MAJA: X-ray of chest and leg/paw needed. 60 Euros.

 

           

CIUFFO. Blood test and x-ray of chest needed.

 

           

BETTA: Urgently needs to see the vet for her ongoing ear problem/pain. 30 Euros needed for medication.

 

           

GIORGIO: Blood test needed.

 

                     

BIANCO: X-ray for the right paw needed. Pain when walking.

 

                    

ZEUDA: She successfully had her leg amputated and is doing really well. Before she can travel to the North in search of a foster home/adoption she needs to have several blood tests, including Leishmania, Erlika and Giardia.

           

DODO: Could easily find a home but she urgently needs to be treated for her skin problem. (Fungus). Very itchy and smelly. Also in the ears. Shampoo and medication needed!

 

           

SILVANO: MONEY RAISED for this sweet boy! Hurrah!

 

            

OSCAR: Needs an x- ray for his leg and chest as he is in pain. At the moment, he is on pain killers. 120 Euros needed for a complete blood analysis and 40 Euros needed for the x-ray.

 

Bank: Ass. FATA, BNL Lamezia Terme

IBAN:
IT 03P0100542840000000000271
Bic/Swift: BNL II TRR
Ref. Emergenze

 

Or you can donate via Paypal: rifugiofata@libero.it  

Rifugio Fata shelter Lamezia Terme. www.rifugiofata.com

 

Thank you for your support!   

 

RIP Vito. In your honour, we go on...

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. 

          

        

          


        
 

SOS for Vito

                            

One of the many things that makes Rifugio Fata such a sanctuary for strays in Southern Italy is their dedication to their dogs. When their residents become sick or elderly, they do everything they can to treat them the same way a family would, in spite of the great burden it puts on their finances.

           

Sadly, beautiful Vito is the latest resident to suffer from health problems. He was taken into the emergency clinic for difficulty urinating and some blood in the urine. The vet said he has a prostate tumor. The result of the full blood analysis will come back in a few days, and he will most likely need a blood transfusion.
 
            

Vito is a much loved boy, and he desperately needs our help. The daily cost of having him stay at the clinic is already a big burden for the team, but they refuse to give up on him. They are trying to raise money for his vet bills, and they are also trying to raise the funds to complete the construction of a special room at the shelter, so that Vito and other sick residents can live more comfortably.

We urgently need to raise 500 Euros for Vito's vets bills. Please consider making a donation, however small, to help us save this sweet soul.

You can donate on this blog or via paypal: rifugiofata@libero.it 

It takes a village

Anybody who is involved in the world of dog rescue knows that collaboration is hugely important when it comes to saving dogs. The situations the dogs are found in are often complicated and a happy ending relies on the work of many. The recent rescue of lucky Merlino in Calabria is a heartwarming example of what happens when stray doggy superheroes rally together. The outcome is magic! 

The team at Rifugio Fata work day and night in an effort to rescue dogs in Calabria, and part of their program involves sending dogs to a shelter in the North where they have a better chance of finding a home. Last month, they were called upon to help one lucky local stray make an international move.

The shelter's fundraiser, Katharina Pils-Leimer, received a call from a German woman, Elsa, who had found an abandoned dog living in a hole in the ground while she was on holiday in Calabria. Elsa heard about Rifugio Fata and asked if they could help. Even though the walls of the shelter are bursting during the summer months when so many dogs are abandoned in Calabria, Francesca agreed to make space for this little boy so that he could be rescued.

Elsa bought food and a leash for him and named him Merlino.

 

  
 She was able to get him in her car and take him to Rifugio Fata where Francesca was waiting for him. 

 

Relieved that Merlino was safe, Elsa paid for his vet care and returned to Germany.

As so many of us know, once you have interacted with an abandoned dog and participated in their rescue, they have this way of staying in your heart and your mind and you can't stop thinking about them! Elsa had fallen for little Merlino and so she decided that she had to find a way to get him to Germany. But how to get him there, without paying a fortune?

Katharina put out a request on Facebook, asking if anybody was flying from Calabria to Germany who would be willing to bring Merlino with them. Another German woman, Sandra, who was about to make the flight, saw the post and immediately responded. And so Merlino's trip was booked!

Katharina coordinated the mission: Francesca took Merlino from Rifugio Fata to Lamezia airport to hand him over to Sandra who flew him to Munich where Elsa came to pick him up.  

And now this sweet boy, who was found living in a hole in the earth in Southern Italy, is enjoying his brand new love-filled life in Germany. 

With his doggy brothers... 

...And his new feline friend. 

 

 

 

 

  
Good work team! Thank you to everybody who helped to make Merlino's dreams come true.

Being spotted by a tourist is an amazing outcome reserved only for the lucky few in Calabria. Rifugio Fata is currently filled to the brim with dogs and puppies who are lucky to have been brought to this wonderful safe haven, but who desperately need help and homes. 

Please consider making a donation, however small, to this amazing team of people who work so hard for our four-legged friends and who always do everything they can to help, even when their resources are stretched thin. Your contribution will help pay for food and medical expenses, as well as transport costs so that they can send more dogs to the North. 

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so by clicking the 'donate' button on this blog, or via PayPal: rifugiofata@libero.it 

Or through Rifugio Fata's facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Francesca-Scerbo-Rifugio-Fata-la-pagina/223244014434430

Thank you for your support!

LUCKY Update! Happy Ending!

Remember poor little Lucky who was found living amongst piles of rubbish in an abandoned house in early 2014? We documented his story on this blog.

He was scooped up by the Rifugio Fata team and nursed back to health. 

Once Lucky had regained his hair...

And his faith in humans...

...the team at Rifugio Fata managed to raise the funds to transport Lucky to their friend Marinella who runs a shelter in the North, where he would have a greater chance of finding a home.

Well, the good news is that Lucky has been adopted! He has finally found his loving forever home with a family in Northern Italy. And he looks pretty happy about it!

Lucky has come such a long way. His story is a beautiful reminder to us all to never give up hope. 

Congratulations sweet boy. Buona vita!

And congratulations to Rifugio Fata friend and fundraiser, Katharina Pils-Leimer, who fell in love with Lucky and became his guardian angel and worked so hard to find him a loving home ❤️

Please consider making a donation to this wonderful team. When you support Rifugio Fata, you help to make stray doggies' dreams come true.

You can donate by clicking the 'donate' button on this blog, or via PayPal:

 rifugiofata@libero.it 

Or through Rifugio Fata's facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Francesca-Scerbo-Rifugio-Fata-la-pagina/223244014434430

Thank you!