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Polina's Independence Day

Today we’re celebrating Independence Day and a very special dog who got her freedom! Polina has been tied up to a chain with nothing but a small broken down dog house to give her shelter. 

Once we learned about Polina we made multiple attempts to get owners to give her up to the shelter. We even offered to buy her out but all of our offers had been refused. In Russia where dogs are considered personal property, there was nothing we could do to help Polina but we continued trying. Last week, her owners finally broke down and gave her up because they said she was too old. We couldn’t be happier to welcome this sweet girl to the shelter as one of our permanent residents. 

Polina is the friendliest most loving dog and now she will finally have the freedom to run around, roll in the grass, play and eat as much as she wants. 

Please consider sponsoring Polina’s stay at the shelter. As little as $1 a day helps us provide Polina with food, veterinary care, treats to make her new found freedom just little sweeter!  

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Anna Umansky

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A Warm Welcome to Penny and Rikki

This weekend we welcomed Penny and Rikki to the shelter and we still can't believe how this mother daughter duo survived on the train tracks.

Penny and Rikki had been living near a small freight train service station. Earlier this week word got out that if they were not out on Sunday they'd be kicked out or worse, extermination service world be sent for them. 

We couldn't watch that happen to these two sweet girls so we jumped into action and they arrived at the shelter on Sunday to start their new lives with Sochi Dogs. 

Buck welcomed them into his pen, they got a big meal, and soon you'll find them on our adoptable dogs page. 

Welcoming Penny and Rikki has put the shelter at capacity. We simply can't take in any more dogs and there are so many that need our help. Please consider adopting or fostering to help us make room. Summer is the perfect time to add a new dog to your family and by doing so you'll be saving a life of the dog that's still on the streets. 

Fill out an adoption application today! 

 

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Chia, Veronica, and Rina

Chia, Veronica, and Rina are three moms we recently rescued who have three very similar stories. We found them dumped out on the street trying to survive with their puppies. Of course, this was not their choice, its the result of irresponsible owners and sometimes just a lack of knowledge about the importance of spaying. Scroll down to see their photos and read more about Chia, Veronica, and Rina. 

While these girls are safe with puppies, there are so many more that need our help. So this year we are launching our biggest spay/neuter campaign to help to reduce population and suffering of street dogs. 

Please help us take care of these girls and their 18 puppies. If you are able, we would be so grateful if you could make a donation to help us to care for Chia, Veronica, and Rina and their puppies. 

Quite and loving Veronica and her 9 puppies.
Veronica wins the most dedicated mom award. The only time she leaves her puppies is to get up to go to the bathroom. She is also very loving and it's easy to tell how much she appreciates us giving her a safe, warm place for her and her puppies.

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Beautiful little Chia and her 4 puppies.
Chia, who has been with us the longest, is super friendly and loves to walk around wagging her tail. She gets along with cats, dogs, but her favorite is Platon.

Energetic Rina and her 5 puppies.
Rina is the youngest of the three, she is a gorgeous black lab, the photos do not do her justice. Her favorite thing to do is hang out in the yard and play with the other dogs though she does take great care of all her puppies. 

These 3 wonderful moms and their puppies are currently with our foster family Sochi. In a month or so after being vaccinated they will move to our shelter.

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Sochi Expedition 2017: The Rescue

Tanya Umansky, one of Sochi Dogs’ co-founders travelled to the shelter this spring. Over the next few weeks, she’ll be sharing her experience on the blog.

The Rescue

As I’m writing this, Sochi Dogs has adopted 218 dogs. Some of them stayed at the shelter just for just a couple of months and other lived there for 1- 3 years before they found forever homes. I remember all of these dogs by name and how they got to the shelter.  I created web pages with their photos and stories, often gave them names, and met many of them at JFK airport, but I never had a chance to rescue a dog myself. So I was very excited to have this opportunity during my visit to Sochi. 

Just a day before I came to Sochi Masha got a tip that the city beach will be cleaned from dogs before the season starts on June 1st and she knew of two dogs living on that beach, a mother and daughter pair. They survived on food scarps from a nearby store and cafe. 

Time was running out and next evening Masha and I drove to the beach.  We parked quite far and started looking for dogs.

 
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We walked around search but there were no dogs and almost no people. We started to worry that we will not see them today.  And suddenly success - they appeared out of nowhere. They came to us but they did not want to go with us. It took some convincing but we were able to catch them and carry them to the car. 

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They looked a bit stressed when we arrived to the shelter.  We put them separately in a closed kennel and gave them lots of food and water.

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Now Sandy and Julie are safe, fed and loved at the shelter. But the last big step is ahead - we need to find them a family.  These girls are friendly, social and very attached to each other. Ideally, we would want them to be adopted together.