The beautiful, happy, and content dog you see in the picture wasn’t always this way.  

Her name is Zina and she was rescued from Romania by a Charity called ‘Love Underdogs’.

Brought to the UK, Zina was scared, emotionally damaged and intimidated by human contact, as a result of her mistreatment.

Due to Zina’s anxieties she was overlooked for 2 years as nobody wanted to take her. The staff at Love Underdogs never gave up on trying to find her a forever home and worked with us and her over a course of visits.

Eventually we took her home. Due to her anxieties she was underweight, scared to be touched and didn’t want to go out for walks.

We were shocked to find a tattoo in her ear and quickly noticed her cowardice around men. We can only imagine what she had been through.

Starting slowly and working with the advice and support from the team we started to see small improvements, small strokes turned to full on cuddles, short walks turned to long walks and her love and trust for us grew as much as her belly.

We’ve watched her play with toys for the first time and chase our other little dog around the garden. Zina is finally learning what it’s like to be loved, live in a home and be a real dog.

Without the work of Love Underdogs, dogs like Zina will continue to be mistreated in a Country where stray dogs are considered pests, mistreated and eventually put down.

In Romania feral dogs if captured are kept in what some people refer to as ‘Kill Shelters’. Due to lack of funding dogs are often kept in poor conditions and caged together with little food. Disease and infections spread and the dog is committed to a life of misery and then put down. It’s reported some of the methods of doing this are
inhumane.

Love Underdogs not only work with shelters in Romania to find homes for these dogs but also supports a programme to manage the strays including vaccinations and neutering.

They rely on donations and for little as £5.00 a dog can be vaccinated, £80.00 will save a dog’s life and pay for the transport to the UK for a better life.

I want to help raise money so that more dogs like Zina can find loving homes. So, with your support I’m going to run the Brighton Marathon In April 2019 and raise money for this wonderful Charity.

Any support you can provide, even as little as £3.00 can make all the difference.

Gemma

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.