... are these and many more. Some are hopeful they will be taken out. Some are fearful they will be ignored. All are sad as we leave them behind. You can visit Raluca's Shelter's Facebook page for info on more dogs and please consider supporting homeless Romanian dogs via the K9 Aid International website.

The dogs love Raluca. She walks into the kennel, crouches down and they jostle each other to clamber onto her, dirty paw prints all over her clothes and she doesn't flinch. She picks them up. She cradles them, comforts them with soft words and a constant smile. Of course they love her. She's saved their lives. Their comprehension of the situation may not be so exactly expressed but it's obvious enough they understand they're safe here and somehow this woman is responsible for that.

They are safer here than they've ever been even though the structures here are roughly built. The kennels are made from wooden slats, pieces of metal and sheets of plastic. The ground is dirt. In each kennel, there is a cubby hole of some construction from which the shy ones barely poke their heads out. The eager ones dash forward and push their noses through the metal gates seeking some human connection.

The dogs may love Raluca but the neighbours not so much. She tells me they used to complain about her shelter. However, her paperwork was all in order so there was nothing they could do. Now they've stopped complaining.

There are forty dogs here. At Raluca's other shelter, there are three hundred more. A few days before my visit, she had just taken in thirty from a public pound in Breasta. The cutters there had hacked up many of the dogs with botched spay neuters and several had developed ugly infections. Hopefully, the dogs are resilient enough and the antibiotics Raluca is feeding them will be strong enough to overcome the infections.

A few people help Raluca run the day-to-day. Ovidiu works at the one we are visiting. He is quiet, attentive. He seems as comfortable around the dogs as Raluca. Every so often when we hear a potential dog fight start to sound, he runs off to quell the situation.


No one pretends this is a good life for the dogs. The cold has arrived and will only get colder. The kennels are cleaned but there are too many dogs and not enough people to keep them clean all the time. The dogs do not have much freedom to run or roam. And of course they are deprived of that which they most want: their own person and home. This is existing, not living but this will do for now. This will have to do until adopters come and take them out because the alternative is so much worse.

Raluca adopts out about two hundred fifty dogs a year. Many of the dogs we meet today are already spoken for and will soon be on their way to the U.K., Germany, Austria. And then there are the seven Randy and I will be taking to Canada. The original plan was to take six, three to accompany each of us but at the last minute Randy decided he could take another into the cabin with him so Raluca shows him two dogs small enough to fit under a seat on a plane. They are both shy but the brown one seems terrified and perhaps the flight would be too traumatic for him so the white Bichon Frise mix is chosen.


The organizers of this transport have asked Randy and me to make a list of potential dogs for the next transport. There is not one dog here I would leave behind. Every dog I've met here would make a wonderful companion. One or two might require a bit of work to bring them out of their shells - nothing a couple weeks of warm beds, full bellies and decent kindness wouldn't address. So to choose one means to abandon another. Still, you make a choice when you have to make a choice and you don't think too much on it because to do so would risk breaking something inside. It's no surprise many well-intentioned dog rescuers become dog hoarders. They've all stared too deep into the eyes of the ones they've left behind.

I like the quiet one with the stumpy legs because his personality reminds me of my own dog's personality. I like the big orange one because the big ones always have a harder time finding homes. I like the one alone in his own kennel because when he was young he had distemper and now his back leg twitches and his tongue hangs out the side of his mouth and he will be on meds forever because his kidneys are weak but this wonky little dog is still so full of joy it is infectious.

Maybe they will be chosen next time.  This time, the seven already chosen will be transported on two separate trips, the first four by Randy and the remaining three by me.  The half shells of the crates will be assembled at the airport because they are too large to fit pre-assembled into Madalina's car.   Madalina has her own rescue and frequently partners with Raluca.   She and her husband, Sorin, have been driving Randy and me all around Bucharest and will be transporting the dogs from Raluca's shelter to the airport for their flights to Canada. Everyone here is busy.


After a couple of hours spent with the dogs, the sun makes it's early retreat and Raluca invites us all inside for some coffee and dessert. We sit around a kitchen table. Raluca's mother-in-law has made apple turnovers and a pot of strong, sweet coffee. We talk about our other lives. Raluca is a full time veterinary student. Randy is a fireman. Madalina is a psychologist working in a hospital. Randy pulls out some photos on his smartphone showing himself as a fireman with his shirt off posing for a calendar. Madalina also shows us some of her photos as well. It's nice to get a glimpse of them in their other lives even though we only know each other in this one.

There are photos of Raluca on the wall, Madalina says. She points to a cluster of pictures of Raluca in a wedding gown. She was married just recently.

I ask Raluca where she went on her honeymoon.

"We have not been somewhere in the honeymoon," she says. "We don't have time for us."

Here are a few of the dogs we're bringing back with us. Adoption information will be posted once they get settled into their new digs.

This is an excellent documentary about stray dogs in Romania:

Man's Best Friend - Film (English) from Eastern Europe Stories on Vimeo.

(I wrote the following before having discovered the above doc, produced in 2012, so there may be some repetition of information but this will bring you somewhat up-to-date.)

Stray dogs have been having a hard time in Romania (link has graphic content) for a while now. Many consider the dogs to be pests and sometimes dangerous pests. There are thousands of reported dog bites every year and also a few deaths and of course the dogs, being voiceless, are always at fault.

The most recent cull in 2013/2014 was started when a four year old boy was killed by allegedly stray dogs. In response, hundreds of thousands of dogs were shot, poisoned or beaten to death. Some were simply tortured in retaliation (graphic) because somehow that makes sense to some people. In the end, it turned out the dogs who had killed the child weren't stray dogs at all but were privately owned "guard" dogs. The owners were charged with manslaughter.

Regardless of the outcome of that investigation, the cull continues and the majority of stray dogs still live, and die, like vermin.

The stray dog population is an issue regardless of which side of the love/hate divide a person sits. And being human, the preferred solution is slaughter so slaughter it is but there is pressure from EU countries for dog culls to at least be done humanely through euthanasia.

The plane leaves Wednesday, arrives Thursday. KLM to Amsterdam then KLM to Bucharest. I will bring three empty crates with me. The other flight volunteer, Randy, who travels a day later, will also bring three. Bucharest has been called a city "with One of the World's Worst Stray Dog Problems". We will see how some people there try to stem the flow of suffering. Six dogs, pre-selected, health checked and vaccinated, will come back with us to Toronto the following week where three will be placed at Dog Tales and three at Etobicoke Humane Society for adoption.

The question is often asked, Why adopt from over there when there are dogs here who need homes? Or more generally, Why help far away dogs when there are nearby dogs who need help? Or perhaps you've heard this one, Why help dogs at all when there are people who need help?

These questions reduce to the same question, Why help A (your cause) when there is B (someone else's cause) and it implies one is superior to the other and thus deserves all the attention. Asking "Why help far away dogs when there are nearby dogs who need help?" or "Why help dogs when there are people who need help?" as some sort of provocative statement is not useful because helping one has got nothing to do with helping the other. Helping people has got nothing to do with helping dogs. One may as well ask Why renovate your kitchen when there are people who need help? Why go on vacation when there are people who need help? Why go out to a nice dinner when there are people who need help? To rank one charitable action over another establishes a false dichotomy and only serves to create conflict within the aid community. The real choice is to help or not to help. To argue the details is to fall prey to the narcissism of minor differences. There is little enough charity in the world and those who are truly charitable do not need to belittle another's good deeds.

That's the reasonable response.

Perhaps the better response is that the heart wants what the heart wants. You see a photo online of a dog with a leg cut off from some intentional cruelty and you donate to its surgery or you read about two puppies who survived being set on fire and you decide to sponsor the two in their shelter or you are traveling and a skeletal thing which has been hissed at and kicked by everyone else comes shuffling up to you but you have nothing to give except your hand, from which it backs away, and the heart wants what the heart wants so you go back into the cafe and buy a sandwich with a sliver of meat in it and you find the dog and toss the food over to it and you think, Well, that's stupid because now it's going to follow me around, and of course it does and somehow, as unlikely as it may have seemed just a short while ago, it follows you to a place you cannot let go and soon enough it is asleep at your feet in your home thousands of miles away.

From New York Times, November 2, 2014, Dog Meat Trade in Thailand Is Under Pressure and May Be Banned:

“Dogs are man’s best friend,” said Kawai Thanthongdee, 66, who has been eating dogs since he was young and is Mr. Praprut’s father-in-law. “But some dogs deserve to be killed.” And eaten, apparently.

This is the reality into which Khao was born and in which she lived for the first few years of her life. She was saved from the hammer and knife when she was rescued by Soi Dog Foundation in Thailand and brought over by her sponsor. She's been in Toronto for three weeks now and despite her mid-length coat, shivers in the damp November chill as she's still adjusting to the weather and the first winter of her life.

I walk with her a bit but in the short time I have, I can hardly get her to even look at me, especially with the camera lens staring at her face. She's a very shy girl. It's no surprise, given her past, that she's a little wary of strangers.

Especially men, her foster, tells me. I look at her peaking out from between her foster's feet. Khao's obviously bonded with Farah.

How long did that take? I ask.

Overnight, Farah replies.

Such is the trust inherent in Khao towards humans, waiting to express itself, despite all experience telling her to do otherwise.

If you're interested in meeting or adopting Khao, she will be at Kennel Cafe (295 Roncesvalles Av, Toronto, ON M6R 2M3 (416) 531-3177) today, Sunday November 22, in the afternoon between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. You can also call her adoption coordinator, Lynda, at 416 538 8559, email: garden538@yahoo.ca.

Prancer hops around when excited but settles nicely once the adventure is over. It took him a whole five minutes to bond with Tofu, the Chihuahua from a few days ago, then he started crying when Tofu kept walking and we stayed behind for photos. This guy would likely do well in a house with a compatible dog.

Whoever takes Prancer, you already know you're going to put Christmas reindeer antlers on him, don't you?

The best way to check on the adoption status of this dog (and other dogs and cats and other small domestic animals) is to visit Toronto Animal Services adoption website or call 416 338 6668 for the Toronto Animal Services South shelter. If the dog is no longer on the TAS adoption website, it's probably because it's been adopted already.

Tofu has fur soft as a bunny and makes squeaky noises but only if he likes you. He also rolls on dried liver treats before eating them. Not suitable for guard dog work.

The best way to check on the adoption status of this dog (and other dogs and cats and other small domestic animals) is to visit the Toronto Animal Services adoption website or call 416 338 6668 for the Toronto Animal Services South shelter. If the dog is no longer on the TAS adoption website, it's probably because it's been adopted already.

Hope is lying in the window of Kennel Cafe beside her friend Khao who seems to be getting all the attention. They're both up for adoption but Khao is a snowy white dog with the demeanor of a shy fawn. Hope, on the other hand, is all about greeting people and licking hands and exploring the store. Different personalities garner different responses and today, Khao gets most of the attention. By the end of the afternoon, there are two applications handed in for Khao and none for Hope.

Both dogs are far away from where they were born. Khao is from Thailand via Soi Dog and a private sponsor who brought her here to Toronto. Hope is from Serbia via Free Fly, a Serbian rescue organization which tries to place dogs outside of Serbia, and here in Toronto she is being fostered by Connect-a-Pet.

None of this matters to the dogs, of course. There is sunlight beaming through the window. There are snacks. There are friendly hands. They've both adjusted well to a new place where people are no longer the enemy.

I ask Liisa, who is with Connect-a-Pet, if I can take some photos of Hope. We go outside, around a corner, to get away a bit from the bustle of Roncevalles. Hope is curious outside but also a little wary. Maybe the noise and crowds remind her of where she came from. I bring out the snacks and the squeaky toy and she starts to focus on those things and then she is fine. By the end of the photo shoot, which lasts maybe fifteen minutes, Hope is shivering from the cold and seems glad to be scooped up back into Liisa's arms.

"She needs a turtleneck," Liisa says.

If you're interested in adopting Hope and buying her a turtleneck, here is her info from Connect-a-Pet:

10 months old, 17 lbs, jack / heeler cross.

She is spayed, vaccinated and has had bloodwork done and is in good health.

She walks fine on leash but can pull at times. She is initially timid of larger dogs but will be fine if introduced properly and slowly. She's great with smaller dogs.

She likes older children who won't chase her and enjoys cuddling with everyone she meets.

She has lived with dogs in her foster home and enjoys playing with them. She would be fine living with another dog or being the only one. She ignores cats.

She can be skittish and should be monitored with open doors. Recall is not perfected yet so should be kept on leash.

She isn't a '"barker" and is fine left alone and is crate trained.

Loves attention and cuddling. She's a very affectionate little gal and treat/food motivated so will do well with positive reinforcement training.

You can email Connect-a-Pet at contactconnectapet@gmail.com for any additional inquiries on Hope.