30 April 17 – What’s been happening at the Shelter this week?

The Shelter is now at full capacity so we cannot accept any more animals – and officials have told us this. There is absolutely no room anywhere – all the pens are full, and all rooms at the Rowles’ family house and yard are completely full. Until we get the Shelter registration through and free up some space at the Shelter with adoptions, we cannot take any more animals in at this stage. For those that need help if you email streetdogrescue@gmail.com we will send a list of other rescues that may be able to assist.

RSDR went to Smolian on Monday this week with the forms we were told to fill out and bring back for registration of the Shelter. During talks with officials, we were told that we must now deal with a new government department due to another new law that has just passed. This department is the Ministery of Environment and Water, which has an office in Smolian. After talks with the new department, they advised we have to apply for Shelter registration as if we are just starting from scratch. We have to show them paperwork and the processes for everything. This is from measurements of the building, exercise yards, pens, our accounts and the suppliers we use for bills like electric and water, to records for all Shelter administration e.g. entry forms of all the animals in Bulgarian when they are taken into the Shelter.

One requirement is for new plans from Rudozem municipality of the Shelter property. We showed them the plans we had from when we purchased the property and the new plans we had done for the sound-proof fence which was installed in 2015. They advised us that these plans were too old. They require us to get the “old plans” re-stamped with this year’s date before they are applicable as “new” plans. We then talked to the municipality and they said they would do the new re-stamping but it could take a few weeks. Tony went back to the municipality to plead with them to get this done faster as the animals on the street will start to suffer the longer the process is drawn out. The municipality eventually agreed, and they will have the plans ready for us next Tuesday. We have gathered the rest of the information they require for the registration and we will submit it next week with the plans. Once they have reviewed all the information, then there will be an inspection date scheduled for the Shelter.

Other registration news – on the 18th April there was another meeting with the second builder. We have received a quotation to divide the upstairs into 3 rooms, so there is an office, sleeping area for staff/volunteers and a room for medical supplies. We also managed to find out who owned the property behind the Shelter where they had a lot of storage against the back of the building. We told them to remove it all and now that it is clear we also got a quote for the back of the Shelter to be plastered and painted. Total quotation for all of these areas to be done is 16,972.46 Levs. The builder will start the work on Tuesday (due to the bank holiday). We have changed the target figure on youcaring.com to reflect the new quotation.

Note: For those that have been watching the target figure, and wondering why the current figure has gone backwards, there was an error in one donation of €4000 that went through by accident from a supporter. This has been re-adjusted by PayPal and youcaring.com and taken off. We have also added donations that have been received separately through our UK, Dutch and Bulgarian bank accounts with donations, grants, auctions & Olaf’s fundraiser that are going towards Shelter donations. We have put this through as an “offline” donation on youcaring.com this month to show the whole total. Thank you to everyone that has shared our fundraiser, we ask you to please keep sharing and donating. Thank you also to all our adopters that are waiting so patiently. We are getting closer to the goal of Shelter registration so please do not lose hope, we are getting there. We are so close to the end goal.

Please donate at: www.youcaring.com/saveourshelter

We have had quite a few enquiries about Albert. Here he is and he is doing fantastic, a very happy boy. We did not take him to the vets because we knew with good food and plenty of love his problems with his back and feet would come good. He also finished his vaccinations, so as soon as we are up and running with adoption trips again Albert will be ready!

A young feral male cat turned up at the house one morning about 18 months ago, and then continued to come for food morning and night every day. We called him ‘Joey’s twin’ because he is identical to Joey. We have never been able to get near him and he never attempted to approach us… until the other day. So that day we named him Franklin.

While at the Municipality building waiting for a meeting, Yanko noticed a cat who had cried out. She looked very poorly and thin, then we saw two huge holes either side of her hips. We took her straight back with us to the house to be cleaned up. We gave her painkillers and antibiotics, cleaned the wounds, put Diane’s cream on and treated her for fleas and worms. We then found a quiet spot for her to recover.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support, it means so much – from everyone at RSDR.