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My favorite place is Smiltyne
Simona comes to the meeting by car, and four beautiful dogs come out one after another. Two of my own, the other two from the shelter. One spent seven years tied to a chain, so he has no leg. Another, Nyce, deaf.
“She is eleven years old, but she doesn’t want to know anything,” laughs Simona. “He thinks he’s about three years old.”
The woman has no doubt that despite her age and deafness, the puppy will find a home. In the past, this would have been almost impossible, but now the attitude is gradually changing for the better.
With four dogs we go along the River Dane to chat. Some dogs on the loose, others on a leash listen to a woman and seem to be barely called.
The shelter “Linksosios pėdutės” is located on the outskirts of Klaipėda, Jūrininkų Avenue. About 70 pets, half of the cats and dogs live here. This shelter has been around for about eight years, but Simona has been friends with four-legged people for many years, having previously volunteered at other shelters looking for a home for pets.
“Our dogs are not only led across the meadows, they often go to the sea. Happy dogs. Dogs run every day, so they run a lot. There is a beach every week and Smiltyne is our favorite place. Everyone loves sand, unlike the sea. They are also carried by volunteers. “We are having fun,” they all say. It’s a lot of fun living by the sea, “smiles Simona.
Our dogs are not only led through the meadows, they often go to the sea. Happy dogs.
In eight years, up to 1,700 artists have found a home. For some, these numbers are impressive, for others not so much, but the numbers do not measure kindness, but works saved by funeral lives, as well as their stories of happiness.
Goes abroad
The fun is known not only to Lithuanians, but also to foreign shelters. After experiencing the harm of their hosts and then surrounded by love in the shelter, the four-legged people also began to travel outside of Lithuania, to Finland, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Belgium and other countries, where they continue their lives surrounded by lovely hosts.
“The Finns take dogs away from us. They have shelters, but in one of them, for example, three dogs. Therefore, the shelter is empty. There they choose hosts, like us. When you have three dogs and want 153, those 150 can say No, I personally contacted the Finnish shelter and the Dutch found me.
Our shelter is followed by many other shelters. The Spanish, for example, send us dogs. They want to send the dogs to a shelter where the dogs walk by the sea. We found a home for these puppies. These are different types of dogs, funny. Of course, we receive fewer dogs than we send, because “millions” of those puppies are also here in Lithuania. Last year, I sent 35 and 11 arrived, ”says Simona, who is employed by a team of other shelter staff: caretakers, a vet, and a canine behavior specialist who returned from Cambridge, so the puppies are leaving here they will be thoroughly evaluated and their owners will find out about their behavior.
Hosts are also chosen by intuition
“I get a call and understand from ‘Hello’ if I will give you an animal,” says Klaip Klada Drama Theater actress Simona Šakinytė. The woman says that for so many years she just had a “scent” that the dog can trust. They also help you choose which questionnaires you ask your owners to fill out, and if you don’t want to, then you don’t need a puppy.
“It is more difficult for a cat to find an owner because there are fewer requirements, which can lead to more errors. I have some criteria when choosing dog owners that I do not want to betray. I pay close attention to the questionnaire, even to grammatical errors, because it shows the level of literacy of a person, but of course, it is not the deciding factor. I do not want to suggest, lose sight of what I am paying attention to. We talk, intuition also determines it, “says the woman.
On his initiative, you can see a social ad in Klaipeda, which shows a puppy looking out the window and the inscription: “If you don’t want to make him your friend, don’t accept him.”
The woman is convinced that the puppy should be taken out of the shelter not out of pity, or because the pet would appreciate it, but only because of the desire to have a friend.
“There are all kinds of puppies, the ones that come to us from the way. We have not had situations to not get along, not to find a home. I think there are mental disorders.
Bagi is an example, a puppy from the way, shepherd type. It is one of those dogs whose mental health is not traumatized. Good obedience, call back. She has absolutely no fear of where she will be, she is not afraid of anything. Although I did not see anything in life. Another puppy bites its tail, attacks itself, scares a lot. The natural psyche was already different, one more vulnerable, the other not ”, Simona thinks.
Shelter photo / Simona Šakinytė and her shelter’s four-legged shelter
Around the world, the smallest puppies find a home faster. Simona herself says that she always chooses as big as possible for the company, which is why she wonders why she took so long at the shelter and has been living for almost a year with a large dog, Churchill.
“It just came to our attention then. The prevailing attitude remains: we live in an apartment, the dog will not fit in. After all, a dog only has to sleep at home, he has nothing to do. How can he not fit in?” The woman asks rhetorically, who, for the well-being of the shelter, organized walks, walks with pets, as well as the traditional jogging before the quarantine, however, additional income is needed to maintain the shelter.
Finland is still a long way from Finland
Although the trend-loving quadruped is very good at warning, the time to empty the shelters like in Finland, Simona thinks, will not come soon.
“Maybe when I celebrate 90, maybe … I think we will reach it, but not soon. What did they achieve? They do not allow dogs to reproduce, and we allow and justify it. It is possible to have an unsterilized pet, but if we plant a Baggy on the chain and she leads the puppies for seven years … Others justify it. I am glad that when someone announces that a bitch has had puppies, there are many people who are moralizing. Others are angry after all, They are looking for a home for dogs, but this is how they are growing, says Simona.
– There is nothing wrong, neither throwing away nor looking for a house. It is better not to have them. It is important to find a home for the puppies, but also to sterilize the bitch. My puppies are from people who did not have a dog. There were three of them, his brother really lives by the way. That circle continues … And the “billions” of people who live on the road … I moved out of this area because I just can’t look. My heart is broken … After all, he’s alive and incarcerated like he’s in jail. “
Shelter photo / Simona Šakinytė and her shelter’s four-legged shelter
Simona still remembers a conversation with a woman who has a puppy tied up in a garage. The hostess employed by the teacher visits the puppy every other day, so she sees nothing else, only the garage door.
“I spoke, I told him that he needed a different life, that I could help him find a home. Says it’s okay here. I say: this is how you close the site for a lifetime and see nothing else, and you are left with nothing, even without television. The shooter, and they shut us down during quarantine, and nothing like that. There’s nothing to talk about … Cruel … It seems like I really won’t have a moment when I’m okay. I come, I write a post on the Internet and I feel the support, the situation is improving, ”said Simona.
According to her, in the cities you feel a very big change in the attitude towards pets, but when you look at the town, it is sad. There are still many pet days that allow you to simply tie a chain to a lead-free track.
It is true that women notice the tendency of recent years to give puppies after the birth of a child.
“I think the main thing is that my mother cannot thank me for the work. I understand, a child was born, but not the responsibility, was empathy operated? Really many people combine responsibilities ”, Simona is surprised.
A canine role
Simona also dedicates her time to the Klaipėda Drama Theater, where she has created several roles, and one of the most prominent in the performance “The girl who feared God”.
The woman is now rehearsing a performance by the famous contemporary Polish director Agata Duda-Gracz. The arrival of this woman is considered an important event in the port city. The premiere of the play, inspired by the life and paintings of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, will be shown to viewers in June. Simon played the role of a woman’s dog in the play.
“When the Polish director arrived, it was possible to write what roles you would like to create. I wrote one of them: a traumatized person, not entirely intelligent. How funny that I play half man, half dog. The director did not know me, he does not have social networks and here … I play Jana, who is the main guardian of the hostel manager, the most loyal person. She is a disabled girl, but everyone looks at her like a dog. In fact, it is a very difficult role physically, because the whole body is distorted, ”said Simona.
While rehearsing, a woman tries to distance herself from the realities of the shelter, but everything passes. It happens that four-legged people come to work with her.
Theater photo / Simona Šakinytė – Drama actress from Klaipėda
“My Hesse plays in the play. It used to be that I was married even though I was sick … I usually understand myself, they look at me in good faith, they want to pat me. I try not to take to the performances, because then I think about the dog, it bothers me … I try to focus on work, ”says the actress, who often receives comments about taking care of people, not pets.
Klaipėda says that she would not have the strength to devote so much energy to people, because between people, principles, anger and her mission, four-legged friends, in another life, she hopes to be reborn with a puppy.
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