It was a busy year

There is a turbulent year behind us in which a lot has happened.
The last months we were very busy with 9 puppies and their transport early December to their new families in Germany.
As a result, there was unfortunately no time for new messages on our website and the newsletter will also have to wait until January.

Nevertheless, we wish all members, volunteers, supporters, fans and ACT dog owners a Merry Christmas and a good and healthy 2018!

Eight little wonders

The end of August Nikos, our vet, called to say that a man had found puppies next to a bin just outside Potos. The man couldn't bring them himself because he was in a wheel chair.
Tanja hurried to Potos to get them. On her way she was called by Jannis, the other vet in Limenaria, that tourists had brought him puppies that they found in Potos.
When she arrived at Jannis, she saw that it were 8 little puppies with their eyes and ears still closed, so they were very very young. One puppy was already very weak and fighting for its life. It was clear that it was gonna be a tough job to raise them.

Tanja took the puppies home and immediately made some puppymilk. In the time the milk was cooling down, she cleaned the poor babies as good as she could, because they were not only dirty but also smelled terrible like fish and were full of fish scales.
First Tanja tried to feed the little one that was very weak, but unfortunately there was not much life in her anymore. After she fed the others, the little girl had died. Rest in peace sweetie.

The puppies needed names, so Tanja asked on Facebook suggestions for names with a V. Many good names were given, easy to pick 7: Victoria, Viktor, Valentino, Vera, Vamp, Valerie, Virgil.
All babies were doing well and also little Vera got stronger.

The first days of September were filled with feeding and cleaning and it was time to give them their first proper bath. Not an easy job because they had no idea what was happening to them. But after they were rubbed dry, they enjoyed getting warm in the sun.

To our great sorrow a few days later totally unexpected Vera died. In spite of the fact that she drank regularly, she always stayed the weakest. Rest in peace little Vera.
At September 11 we had to let little Victoria go. Nikos did what he could, but she got weaker and had problems breathing. Another little soul passed away.
We were also worried about Virgil who was fighting for his life. All the others were doing well.

Later also Valerie got weaker, and she and Virgil were going up and down. There were days that we thought they wouldn't make it. But after they started to eat soaked puppy food they got stronger every day. They really liked it, and it was so much easier than bottle feeding.
Until today they are all doing fine, three male and 2 female puppies, born around August 17.

Half September Sabine from Austria came to Thassos and brought a car full of donations. She also helped feeding and cleaning the puppies, which was a great help and relief for Tanja.
Thank you for that dear Sabine.

From Germany Karem and Kirsten brought an adjustable fence for the puppies. Tanja had seen this at Claudia. Klaus and Claudia had bought it for Jack so he couldn't move around too much because of his injury.
What a relief, because before Tanja had barricaded an area for the puppies in her shed but that made it difficult to get in and out of the shed. Now the puppies have their own place, where they can play and sleep during the night. Karem and Kirsten donated this fencing, and we thank them very much for that.

And what else is there to say? All puppies are growing very fast, play around in the garden, meet the cats and discover new things every day.
But have a look yourself, pictures say more than words…

19-09-2017

29-09-2017

Wonders do happen

On August 14th we got a phone call from a Maria from Thessaloniki. She told us about a Greek girl being on holiday on Thassos, who saw a little dog on a chain with only a rusty barrel. The dog was in very bad condition and full of ticks. She went to the nearest house to ask about the dog and it happened to be the owner. She complained about the situation of the dog, but his only reaction was: it's my dog and I can do with it what I want.
Once back in Thessaloniki she kept thinking of the dog and contacted Maria of Seiriostrays, an animal charity in Thessaloniki (http://seiriostrays.gr) and asked what she could do.  Maria adviced the girl to report it to the police in Limenaria and so happened.
The police did go there to check on the dog, but saw that the dog had water and food and concluded that (to their opinion) everything was fine.
Having told this all, Maria asked us for help and cooperation and sent us all the details and pictures.

On August 15th Maria called us again. The dog had disappeared!
Not much later Chrissa messaged us that she found a dog in bad state and covered with ticks in another village. She sent us pictures and it looked exactly like the barrel dog on the pictures we got from the Greek tourist.

Chrissa brought the dog to us and we visited the vet. He was treated for parasites and a Leishmania and Ehrlichia speedtest was made, which to our joy was negative. Because of the many many ticks the dog had also anemia.

Did the man who had the dog on a chain got scared by the visit of the police and dumped the dog in another village??? We will probably never know and it can't be proved unless someone saw him doing it. But Tommy, the name we gave him, was just lucky that he found his way to us.

But the story goes on when on August 17th Maria calls us again. A lady from Panagia had contacted her, because our Tommy looked exactly like her dog Joker which is missing for 3 years!!! Her dog had been picked on the nose by a chicken when he was still a puppy, which always stayed a scar. We received an old photo of Joker and found out that Tommy indeed had a scar at exactly the same place!

As soon as she could she hurried to Kalivia to see the dog. It was her dog! The reunification was very touching and many tears of happiness were shed. The next picture doesn't need any words, it clearly shows the happiness of human and dog.

It is a small, no a BIG miracle, that only can happen when people and organisations work together. And it also shows that it does make a difference when tourists or locals report abuse or neglect of an animal to the police.
We are very happy and proud of this happy ending.

Again we got help from Wereldasielen in The Netherlands!

Giving the animals the best possible care is sometimes very expensive.

This year we had to face huge extra costs: the surgery on Jack's front leg and on Monty's hind leg, the traveling up and down to the orthopedic vet in Kavala several times, the Milteforan for Noah's leishmaniasis and the castration of several dogs and 52 cats. Only this already cost over 3,000 euro.

Although we received some donations towards these costs, we still had some outstanding bills to be paid and no money…

We didn't know what to do, and again we asked the Dutch organisation Wereldasielen for help.

To our big surprise they were willing to help us with a really generous donation that doesn't only covers the bills to be paid, but also leaves some money for future expenses.

Words cannot express how happy we are with this and we are very very thankful that Wereldasielen is once again helping us.

Wereldasielen is doing great work all over the world by supporting projects of private individuals and charities like us, depending on donations and with only volunteers. Therefore we also want to thank all the people that donate money to Wereldasielen!

THANK YOU!!

ACT was "born" 5 years ago...

Today it is 5 years ago that I took care of the first stray dog with 4 puppies.

I contacted Klaus in Germany of whom I knew that he had homed dogs from Thassos before, and asked him if he could help finding good families for the dogs.
And look at them now: Mother dog Granny/Donna is an old lady, but lives happily in Holland, 3 of her puppies live in Germany and one on Thassos.

Of course ACT didn't exist yet, but that was in fact the time that the idea for a charity was born.

Not much later I met Jackie and her husband Alex, and together with them, Lynne, Nikos and my husband Joop, I started to set up an official animal charity called ACT Animal Care Thassos (or in Greek: Drasi gia ta zoa Thasou).

When I look back I am proud of what we have achieved in 5 years. It wasn't easy to start a charity. A lot of paperwork had to be done until we finally on June 17 2014 were registered as an official Greek charity.

From a small group of 6 people, ACT has grown to a mature organisation and is now also known on the island. More and more people contact us for help or advice. Sometimes the work is very stressful or frustrating and I must admit that I didn't realise at the beginning how time consuming it can be. But it is all worth it and I would do it again if I had to. Surely when I think of the 134 dogs we homed in the past 5 years, and the 309 cats and 39 dogs that were sterilised.

I think this is the perfect time to honor and thank the people behind the scenes.
On Thassos we have a great team of active volunteers doing all the major jobs (feeding, caring, fostering, bazaars, handicrafts, collection boxes, transports, administration etc): Jackie, Joop, Grant, Val, Peter, Gerry, Jürgen, Gisela, Gitty, Arno, Petra, Sibylle, Sophia and not to forget vet Nikos.
In Germany Klaus and Claudia are still helping us with fostering and homing dogs.
And then of course there are lots of others (on Thassos or abroad) that help ACT with donations (in money or materials), translations, flight partners, occasional fostering, and much more. I am not going to name them, they are too many and I don’t want to forget anyone. But be sure that you all are very much appreciated, without all of you it wouldn't be possible!

I can only hope that ACT will keep growing in the next 5 years with even more volunteers and supporters so we can help even more animals.

THANK YOU!!

Tanja

Here you can find our donation boxes on Thassos!

KALIVIA

Supermarket Charbi

Shell petrol station

LIMENARIA

Molly's Art Shop

Potos Carrental

Nikos Efthimiopoulos Vet

Supermarket Saltaris

Hotel Agali

Hotel Garden

Agro Traditional Products

Bakery Oganezov

Taverna Stelios

Bar Navagio

Photocreations Nikos Kaïdis

Hotel Anasa

Speedy Rentacar

POTOS

Hairdresser Stin Tricha

Taverna Hakuna Matata

Supermarket Gagos

Hair Spa Mary

Shop Aldebaran

THEOLOGOS

Shoeshop

KASTRO

Kostas' Taverna (next to church)

PEFKARI

Hotel Moonbeam

SKALA PRINOS

Real Holidays

LIMENAS

Smile supermarket

Monty has a problem…

After a while Jackie, who fosters Monty, noticed that he walked strange with his back leg. The vet checked him, but couldn't find anything. So we assumed that he had been playing a little rough and waited to see if it would pass.

But it didn't and since Monty was supposed to fly to Germany on the 27th of May we decided that we couldn't send him to his new family like this and had him X-rayed in Kavala first, to be sure nothing serious was wrong.

And we are glad we did! Monty has an old fracture at his back leg that needs to be operated. The appointment is made with Stathis in Kavala for next Wednesday and after the operation he will stay in the clinic for a few days.

The costs will be € 500, apart from travelling up and down with the ferry to Kavala. Another financial downfall for ACT, but it has to be done otherwise Monty will have big problems later when he grows.

So once again we appeal to you for help. If you can spare some money please donate on our bank account (http://act-thassos.blogspot.gr/p/about-us.html) or through PayPal (act.thassos@gmail.com).

Monty says: Thanks!

Rotary Club of Thassos

May 20th we were invited by the Rotary Club of Thassos to receive an award for ACT's work.
Being a small and young charity we are very proud of the fact that we have drawn their attention and that our work is appreciated!

We would like to thank the Rotary Club once again for this recognition.

Annual meeting members

On April 9th the members of ACT had the annual general meeting in Stelios' tavern in Limenaria. We would like to thank Stelios very much for his kind hospitality, the free use of his tavern and his donation.

The finances of 2016 were approved by the audit committee.
We would like to share the totals with you:

IN:
€ 1.023,93  Balance 2015                                                  
€ 6.758,83  Donations                                                  
€ 1.008,52  Collecting boxes                                          
€ 8.120,00  Adoption money                                            
€ 2.945,50  Car boot sales/bazaars/selling goods/events  

OUT:
€ 3.630,74  Tickets + transport dogs / boxes          
€ 4.778,00  Castrations/sterilisations                          
€ 4.960,40  Vaccinations/medical treatments/chip/pass  
€ 2.020,18  Dog/cat food etc.                                          
€    253,36  Costs sales/making products                  
€ 1.947,89  Other costs                                          
€    880,00  Rent/caretaker                                          
€    148,00  Bank costs                                          

In 2016 we managed to castrate a lot of cats again, even a few more than last year: 103!
Also 8 dogs were neutered and 36 dogs found a new home in Germany, England, Holland and on Thassos.

As always at this time of the year our finances are very low and we hope we can count on your support again this year so we can go on with our work.

Annual General Meeting

On Sunday, April 9th, 2017 at 11:00 the annual general meeting will be held in Taverna Stelios in Limenaria.

All members have been invited by email.

Animal Care Thassos and Ebay

As you all know, we are very dependent on your donations. Without your help, ACT Animal Care Thassos would not be possible. But we also do everything to raise money for the animals on Thassos.
Meanwhile, we have a wonderful team at Thassos, which produces products. We sell these beautiful things on the flea markets, on our summer bazaars and Christmas parties.

Now we recently set up an Ebay account so that we can sell our handmade products abroad. We started with cushion covers that Jackie manufactures to offer them on Ebay.
Look at these beautiful cushions printed with animal motifs, you will be delighted. We are very proud and happy to have such creative people as Jackie with us.

We invite you to visit our Ebay site and we would appreciate if you could share this site with other people.

http://www.ebay.com/usr/actanimalcarethassos?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

A lot of work in January and February

Jack with his broken leg
Jack, the stray dog that was hit by a car in Limenas and who's broken leg was operated by vet Stathis in Kavala, is doing a lot better but he doesn't use his leg yet. The fracture was complicated. Stathis had to straighten the bone ends and probably a nerve was damaged. But with physiotherapy, time and a lot of love it will heal.

Five dogs were sterilised
In January 5 dogs were still waiting to be sterilised. Because the winter on Thassos was very cold this year, we needed warm places where the dogs could recover for a couple of days. We were lucky that Henk & Petra, Ludwig and Angie offered to foster them and they could finally be sterilised, and after they could go to the HalfWayHouse.
To our big surprise and joy Henk and Petra, who fostered Daisy after the surgery, totally fell in love with her and decided to keep her. So Daisy found her forever home on Thassos.

Cry for help on Facebook
The sterilisations and the surgery of Jack were very expensive (almost 1,000 euros) and we put on Facebook a call for help, as we no longer had financial room. Our account of ACT had dropped to 0. It still takes a little time until April, when we can again collect money for ACT with the flea market and our handmade products. Dear people have been able to help us over this hurdle, so we have a little more air. We thank you very much for your donations, you are great!

Unlucky Lara
Lara is the stray dog from Limenaria that was supposed to be adopted by a tourist. Unfortunately the lovestory ended sadly: the man got health problems and died in Kavala hospital.
That's how Lara came in our care in October 2016 and was tested positive on Ehrlichia. Because of this and low blood plates we couldn't sterilise her. We gave her antibiotics and had to wait till she was healthy again. On February 6th her sterilisation was planned and the vet discovered a malignant tumor in her uterus. Poor Lara, so much bad luck… We didn't want to put her through more tests, chemo etc. What quality of life would she have? So that left us with 2 options: put her to sleep or wait and see how she would get on. That is the worst of choices we have to make, decide about life and death. Lara was always a happy playful dog and we decided not to put her to sleep. This means that she has to be monitored all the time so that we can quickly see if Lara has pain and her quality of life is no longer there. She couldn't go back to the HalfWayHouse and Joop and Tanja decided that she could stay with them for the time she has left. We sincerely hope that this time will be in the distant future.
Lara is doing well and we are very happy about that.

Jack

On Christmas day 2016 we got a phone call about a dog hit by a car in Limenas. None of our contacts in Limenas could be reached, so Tanja drove to Limenas herself. The family that found the dog was so kind to wait with him until she arrived.
Vet Konstantina Pistela was called and she was there in 5 minutes. Her conclusion was a broken paw, but high up the leg so it needed surgery.

Tanja took the dog home and in the days after Christmas she and vet Nikos tried to find an orthopedic vet who could do the job. It was then that we found out that around Kavala there was no vet who could do it, except for Stathis Simeonidis, who was not there, and the university clinic in Thessaloniki was closed for the holidays. There was nothing we could do but wait.

Finally we got an appointment with the clinic in Thessaloniki at January 9th where the dog had to stay overnight. So everything was arranged, a room was booked and then on Sunday… it started snowing like it haven't been snowing for years!
It was impossible to travel and the trip was cancelled. Poor Jack, as we called the dog, had to wait longer.

After a few days of snow we started to make new plans and to our great relieve we found out that Stathis was back! A new appointment was made for the 16th in Kavala. At least Petra and Tanja didn't have to travel so far.

As if everything had to go wrong with Jack the ferry from Prinos to Kavala didn't go because of strong wind, but fortunately it was possible to leave from Limenas.
After the X-ray it was clear that the broken ends of the bone ended up next to each other, but Stathis was confident that it could be fixed and he probably would be able to use his leg normal again. After a couple of hours we could pick the dog up again, he had a nice orange bandage on his paw. He will be on painkillers and antibiotics for the next days and on Thursday he can have the bandage removed and then we can start physiotherapy.

All and all it cost us over € 400 to help the little guy, but it is all worth it. Especially when you see what a lovely kind and gentle dog it is. Later, when he is recovered, he will be vaccinated and castrated and then he is ready to move to a loving family.

If you think Jack is the perfect dog for you please contact us! It would make Jack very happy, and us of course.

In the car on his way to Kavala

Preparing for the X-ray

Just before the operation

After the operation

Back "home" to recover