Oriented on making people closer

"If you pick up a hungry dog on the street and feed it, it will never bite you. This is the fundamental difference between a dog and a man," words of Mark Twain are relevant today.

Sometimes a passerby, seeing a stray mongrel, does not give even a fraction of favorable attention, hurrying to get away from a stray animal, so long as it does not follow him. But there is also an absolutely different category of people, distinguished by that pure, unbiased compassion, sincere compassion and generous mercy, before whom everyone is equal – both a well-groomed dog who suddenly fell ill, and a skinny puppy that nobody needs.

For them, a dog is a true and devoted friend who does not require anything in return except attention and affection. These are people whose lives are constantly connected with attempts to improve the lives of our smaller four-legged brothers left without care.

Someone will prefer not to notice the suffering of such animals, and someone, even without sufficient resources, but with an unshakable faith in goodness, tries his best to help the unfortunate creature to find a better life, his home and loving owners.

Everything becomes much more complicated when there are several dozen such animals under "one roof" - we are talking about shelters for dogs. In Turkmenistan, almost every major city has them. In this case, we will talk about one of them, called "Faithful Friend", which operates on the outskirts of Mary. Its main purpose is to provide various assistance to the "tails" left on the street for unknown reasons.

The shelter "Faithful Friend" was founded in 2022. The initiator and creator of this center was Irina Bayramdurdyeva.

A dog can be on the street for various reasons – it can simply get lost, for example, in a thunderstorm, it happens - someone left, moved, tragic cases are connected with the death of the owners of the animals. In any case, a dog who finds himself on the street for a long time without care falls into a high-risk group.

― These are also lives! It is impossible to simply ignore them, otherwise it is difficult to understand what the value of a person's life is, - Irina shares. - We are trying to save pets and help them. Gradually, I had more than 70 dogs in the shelter, for whom we rented a large dacha on the outskirts of the city.

The cottage itself is a territory framed by a mesh fence. Pets are kept in aviaries - spacious houses with a warm room.

Animals are arranged by temperament: overly active are placed in one enclosure, and quiet and soft-natured - in another. Newborns are in specially equipped rooms with increased comfort conditions.

Now the shelter needs additional building materials. They are necessary for the reconstruction of existing enclosures and the construction of new fences.

Dogs that were caught as strays, as well as those whose owners went abroad and could not take a pet with them, leaving a living soul, but taking the furniture, get into the shelter.

― Each of them has its own story: the owners refused someone, someone was hit by a car, someone got lost, and some were born on the street at all, - Irina continues. - We try to pay due attention to everyone. And most importantly, we help to find owners.

Dogs in the shelter are fed twice a day - in the morning and in the evening. They mainly eat dry food, cereals, however, a special menu is provided for newborn puppies, which is based on special porridges.

― We rejoice when there are people who try to help the shelter. We appreciate any support, - Irina shares.

...While the staff is cleaning the enclosures, the dogs are frolicking in a specially designated area.

Dogs are attached to their owners through publications on social networks, but there are still a lot of pets remaining in the shelter. Each of them has a designated passport, and is also vaccinated with the necessary vaccines.

― We sincerely believe that faithful pets will find a response in the hearts of people, - Irina summed up.

"A dog is so loyal that you don't even believe that a person deserves such love," the writer Ilya Ilf once said, but that's a completely different story...

+99362855677 is the number of the shelter "Faithful friend".

Artur PETROSYANTS

Photo: Artur PETROSYANTS