Having been away from our two furry girls at home for so long, I really missed them, especially when I saw all kinds of dogs taking a walk or a run in the park on my way to university every day. Then I noticed a random post on Facebook (I don’t even use Facebook much at all, but only log in to send a message when needed) about the 1500 Dog Gang in Sofia, which is a dog shelter welcoming volunteers to walk the dogs on Sun from 10 am to 2 pm. 1500 is not even an exaggeration, as there are roughly 1600 dogs. This town is on the eastern side of the Sofia province, about twice further away than the Sofia Airport, but there is still public transportation getting there (although less frequently than the ones in the town center), that’s nice.
There are rows and rows of big shelters with up to eight dogs in one spacious room. There are some dogs that do not get along with others that well, then they would be put into the small individual rooms. These “rooms” are not rooms with closed walls, though. They are made of wires and plastic curtains that could be rolled up or down when needed. There are also wooden dog houses in the room that would make the dogs more protected. There are a few free-roaming dogs on this property, as those are especially gentle without the need to put leash on them.
The entire perimeter of this shelter is enclosed with wired tall fences, with a road extending inside from the entrance. The shelters are on one side of the road, and a green field is on the other side of the road, that’s where the dogs will be walked on. At the end of the green field, there is a fenced area, where the dogs from the same big room can be unleashed and play there freely for a while. Dog groups would need to take turns to use that free-playing zone.
Dogs are creatures with their own personalities.
- I got to this shelter around 9:30 am and I could start a bit early to walk a dog that was normally chained in an open area without other dogs being around. That first dog I walked (the fourth photo in the top gallery) was a barker who liked to bark at every dog that passed him by, and he had some energy to burn.
- When more volunteers got to the site, we would pick up the dogs from the same room together, let them free-play a bit in that closed area, walk them on the green field some more, and then return them to their room at the same time. This kind of group activity also made the recording of which dogs have been walked a bit more organized. The second dog I walked (the first photo in the top gallery) was from such a group, and she loved lying down, eating grass, and letting us brush her hair. She was so gentle. She didn’t like walking that much, but just lying there enjoying the peace.
- The third dog I walked (the second photo in the top gallery) was so affectionate. She would always put her front paws up on us, stood on her hind legs, and wanted us to rub her. It was so lovely to interact with her, well, all our clothes would catch the dirt on her paws, and yet no one cared.
- The fourth dog I walked (the third photo in the top gallery) was very playful. He loved catching balls, running around with other dogs, and sniffing at everything. And, he didn’t make any sound. He didn’t seem to want to bark at all.
- After walking four dogs, it was close to 2 pm. The senior volunteers then recommended us to walk some dogs in the individual rooms. The fifth dog I walked (the last photo in the top gallery) would always need to be put on a tight leash, to be kept away from other dogs. But he was gentle with us people. He got a wound on his side, and we took him to see the vet on site. The vet lady said that she has seen him a few times, and the medicine she put on him didn’t seem to cure his wound completely. She still put on some medicine this time, but said that they would likely need to bring him to take a more thorough examination as there could be something beneath his skin that irritated that area all along. We finished walking round 2:30 pm.
From 9:30 am to 2:30 pm, I could walk five dogs in five hours. For the people who stayed from 10 am to 2 pm, that would be enough time for walking four dogs. There seemed to be dozens of volunteers on Sun. Well, one can do the math, and the volunteer organizer said that normally a dog would be walked once in four weeks, or if there are more volunteers than usual, the dogs might get walked once in three weeks. That’s still a long time between their walks. For the dogs in the big room with friends, they had company. For the dogs in the small individual rooms, they could see and hear their neighbors through the wire wall but they wouldn’t be able to play together. Well, if the dogs in the individual rooms are put into the big rooms, fighting between dogs is hard to manage, too. The volunteers and the management team have really done their best. They would so lovingly play with the dogs, brush them, hug them, bring food and treats, and check their wellbeing. With that being said, not all dogs wanted to take a walk, either. The senior volunteers were the ones that would enter the dogs’ room, and they would use treats to invite the dogs out of their dog houses and see if they would want to take the walk. If the dogs wanted to stay behind, they would stay behind. No one would force them out. For the dogs that wanted to go out, they often didn’t want to return their room at the end of the walk, and some of them would just sit on the grass and ignore our pulling like kids. It was not that easy to carry them, either, and we’d often just wait until they changed their minds, very much like giving kids some allowance. Many of the senior volunteers seemed to recognize the dogs when they saw them by giving me some comments on how these dogs were, like seeing some old friends. Their website’s FAQ talked about how the issue of dog overpopulation persisted, and it wouldn’t be solved by building bigger and bigger shelters, but only by discouraging overbreeding and abandonment. There is no easy solution.
Outside the shelter, there is a very expansive field and it’s relaxing to walk on the field a bit.
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