24/05/2022
It’s clear that Margo and Pavlo are in it for the long haul, to go and rescue, take in, care for and re-home animals that would most likely die or suffer from the injuries sustained from not just conflict, but also from accidents such as collisions with cars or even disease that often goes untreated, especially when it comes to the street cats and dogs in Ukraine.
9 cats neutered, all animals given a complete health check, animals micro chipped, animals treated for sickness or disease, animals given flea treatment and advice given for future care. The cat’s ears were even given a good cleaning, to prevent any future issues! Most of these animals are now good to go, to find themselves a loving home.
We want to thank Margo and Pavlo for allowing us to stay and feeding us during our time at the shelter. By doing this it meant that we could get far more done before driving back over to Poland. We will not forget those cognac nights and that delicious vege food, plus the long conversations and laughter that you can only have over a Google translator!! 😊
Within a day or two when we first arrived in Poland, we quickly recognised the need to get into Ukraine as opposed to operating just within the Polish border fence. Accepting this, we then began to locate and access vet supplies and medicines as well as animal food, huge amounts of it, and then we found Ukrainians who were willing to drive us into Ukraine, for a price, and effectively be our driver for the days we were out there.
A few thank yous……. To Mike Mirrel, from Florida Urgent Rescue. We worked with him on our first mission to Ukraine and it was he who put us in contact with Mandy. Mandy lives in San Francisco, but she operates remotely to help animals in Ukraine. She is an organiser, fixer, and all-round wonderful person. She is also the founder of ‘Transform a Street Dog’, and the on the ground volunteer for Mandy, another wonderful person, Tanya, who speaks five languages no less, was a tremendous help. We are only very sorry that the other shelters that Mandy so desperately wanted us to reach, that we just didn’t have the time to get to. Ukraine is pretty big, and we soon found out during our first mission how it can take hours to get anywhere, particularly with the war situation as it is just now. Thank you also to the Danish animal welfare group, Dyrenes Beskyttelse, for donating to us vet meds and supplies. Also, big thank you to Henna from the Finnish animal welfare group, Animal Aid without Borders, Finland. She helped us source the meds and supplies. Thank you for more medicines and vet supplies from the Polish vet foundation, ADA, based in the border town of Przemyśl. Thank you to John Hill and his team at the animal supplies warehouse for putting us in touch with a Ukrainian driver at the last minute and also giving us the cat and dog food that Pavlo and Margo were so pleased to receive.
During both missions it has been clear that to get anything done that is worthwhile, you need not only contacts, but you need to work as a team. We were very happy to have been part of that team and we would like to think that we did make a difference.
