Written by Giovanna Liviero
It is very common to find dogs and cats that lives on the streets. Some of them just born in there and others have been abandoned. Despite being hungry, thirsty and freezing, many are mistreated or injured in city streets. Fortunately, there are people that recognized this and decided to adopt them, giving all the love and affection that they deserve.
Barbara Perrupato, Junior in Public Relations, is one of these people. She already has had fifteen dogs (three that she bought, and twelve that she adopted). One of the adopted is a boxer dog that she found in a Pet Shop, and that had pink nails. “My mom asked to the seller why the dog had pink nails, and the lady answered that it had already runned away once, and then came back. So, they painted its nails to not lose her again. It was the High School Musical era, so I putted the name of Sharpay because of the pink nails.”
Today, she has two dogs in her house, and twelve on her father´s site. One is a husky, a lhasa, a bernese, three cani corso, four rottweilers and two mutts.
Sharpay: can you imagine the pink nails?
Isadora Almeida, Senior in Journalism, also had the opportunity of having a little dog that came from the streets. “My father usually walked on a square near our house everyday, and he always saw a dog alone. They became close, and one day, my father brought the dog home! We called it Wolf, because he actually seemed like a Wolf”. Unfortunately, Wolf died because of a liver problem. “He was rescued from the street, so he never got used to walk with a collar. He walked alone, and then he came back to our house. So he ended up eating trash, and foods that the restaurant’s people gave him.”
Today, Isadora has a beagle dog that had adopted too.
RIP Lobo :(
Yanca Lares Marques, Freshman in Journalism, didn´t need to look an animal from the streets to rescue. She adopted a little cat that appeared by chance in her house. “Me and my sister became very exciting because of the cat. We played with it, gave milk and thought that she would leave. But she stayed, so we decided to adopt her. We gave it the name of “Fiona”. The cat was pregnant, and shortly after Yanca won puppy from her godfather, which sucked on Fiona with the other cats. “This dog that sucked in my cat, named Belinha, died last year, and it was an impact for Fiona, because both in special were partners, as mother and son”.
Beside Fiona, today Yanca has a Labrador named Bruce, and a cat named Felix.
Friendship goals? Yes
Lismary Oliveira, formed in Public Relations Class of 2011 in Cásper Líbero, rescued a dog on Pet Shop and gave him the name of Nala. Unfortunately, the dog just stayed with her for two months, because it died of a pulmonary edema caused by a heart murmur. Her mother arrived on the hospital in five minutes, but the blood and secretion already had expanded throughout all its heart.
After one month, still sad, she adopted two others dogs of a protector’s house, Milk and Mellow, and the second stayed with a family’s couple of friends. “Today, Milk is nine months and has a life with much love here in our house. We stay in touch with Mellow’s family, following all it growing and development steps. The protector that gave us Milk stayed in touch with us several times after the adoption, to be sure that Milk was being well cared. She helped us with Milk´s castration too.
Nala, lovely
And this is Milk
Meet the Catland NGO
Her Campus talked with Perla Poltronieri, co-founder of Catland NGO, that attends kittens in risk situation and abandonment. On the interview, she tells us how the process of NGO’s concretization was, the biggest difficulty that she faced, how the rescue and adoption works, and how you can be a volunteer and help to save this kittens.
How the idea of building the NGO emerged? I got a cat, and I realized that I should do something about cats. I researched on the internet, and I discovered the prejudice that exists about cats, and the wickedness that some people do with them. So, I started a work in my condominium with the help of a vet. I had four available cages and made the disclosure through Orkut. In a year, I donated 42 cats – today, we donate this or more in a month. I helped Regi Varela (co-founder) that already was a protector; she had 20 cats in her house. We did a rescue on a roof, and from there we decided to something larger. I had an office with an empty space above it, and we did a cattery there.
This is the third Catland’s head office, and today we have 300 animals: 180 in head office, 140 in volunteer houses, and others interned.
There are 45 people giving temporary home to 140 cats.
How the rescue of streets cats works? We have a rescue staff, and we received a lot of requests on internet and, how we can´t save all, we pick the bigger risk situation first.
How do you selects the cats that stay on head office and that stay on temporary home? On head office, stays adults and teenagers healthy for adoption. The puppies stays on temporary home until being vaccinated and castrated to be ready for adoption. The pregnant cats and older cats are on temporary home too.
Who takes care of kitten’s health? We have partnership with a 24h hospital and a vet comes 3 times a week. When she isn’t here, another volunteer comes, usually vet students.
How the adoption through the website works? A lot of people don’t visit us, they just look the photo on website, like the cat, and click on “I want to adopt”. Then, they fill up a form, that are read and answered by a volunteer, that see if the house is proper, and if it is, we just prepare the delivery staff.
What was the biggest challenge that you faced to perform the project? The challenge is every day! And how we depends on donations, we can´t do a cash plan.
How do you administer the spending? Our bigger spending is with vet, and the money comes by donations. On website, you can make a monthly plan that debit of your account since 3 to 100 reais by month
Her Campus’ reporter and Perla Poltronieri
There are how many volunteers? We are 220, 230 people.
How the process to who wants to be volunteer works? And what are the functions? There are many areas that the volunteers can participate: social media, cleaning, medication, head office maintenance. There are volunteers that just have to comb the cats, other have to clean the ears, cut the nails. The person who is interested sends us an email, and will answer a form, that will be read by other volunteers.