Field report about the impressions at the Shelter Nafplio TIERSCHUTZVEREIN HERZVERSTAND
Paws with Love– and that’s what we were convinced of on-site!
Hi, we are Raphaela and Theresa and we were allowed to go to Greece for 4 days to help on site for the animal welfare association Herzverstand.
We arrived full of excitement at the airport in Athens, and were immediately
given a warm welcome and taken to the small and very beautiful city of
Nafplio. Everything had been organized for us and we immediately checked into our apartment.
The next day, Stelios, the owner of the animal sanctuary, picked us up
and took us to the sanctuary. On the topic of Stelios– we’ll keep him in good memory
since he is such an inspiring role model. He has been working
for animal welfare for over 20 years and has developed an incredibly kind way of
communicating with animals. Besides his sanctuary, which currently serves as a home for over 100 dogs,
he recently rescued a horse and feeds stray cats
he comes across in his day to day life.
But back to our story. As soon as we arrived at the shelter,
we were greeted with loud barking and every single dog wanted to
say hello and get some attention for themselves. At the beginning
we were both stunned, but helped to clean
the enclosures right away. Of course, in between we cuddled with the dogs
and one of our highlights were the daily walks with some of the dogs.
We took many pictures and gathered information about the dogs
to describe them accurately to potential adoptive and foster homes.
The time flew by and at 4 p.m. Stelios
picked us up again. We ended the day together while having pizza
and processing the impressions we got that day.
On the second day, we got picked up again and were driven to the sanctuary. Like every day before arriving at the shelter,
we stopped to get some coffee for us
and to pick up some food for the dogs. Stelios buys 50 kilos of food every day
and we both took a bag of treats with us. Every day we learned more
and more about the different routines and everday tasks such as cleaning,
fillling up water, brushing and generally taking care of the dogs. The dogs gradually got accustomed to us being there,
which does not mean that they barked less 😉
On the fourth day, we drove to Nadja’s–the founder’s– place
to get to know the puppies which we would accompany on our flight back.
Some dogs live in the garden surrounding the house. Three very big and
neat enclosures were put up for the puppies.
The pett carriers and pet passports were prepared for the six furbabies,
and we were excited about the last greek salad we got to eat
before the main course. At night we and the puppies
were driven to the airport. Again, everything had been taken care of and we were
provided with help at the airport. Then we were separated– the dogs were taken to the luggage room
and we then saw them again when we arrived in Munich. There
Manuela welcomed us and took us home.
The puppies we took with us were taken
to their respective adoptive or foster homes on the way.
In summary, it was an incredible experience! We got to experience
all the love, money and care each dog gets. On this note,
a big thank you to everyone who made it possible for us to go on this trip and an even bigger thank you
for your dedication when it comes to animal welfare!
We are so happy that we got to help– even if it was for four days–
and we’ll definitely come back sometime!
