Picture this...

The majority of Animal Aid International's supporters and readers of this blog live in Western parts of the world. They are aware that there are homeless animals in their state/ province/ country. But this is more of a theoretical awareness since the homeless cats and dogs are not actually on the streets but usually involved in the shelter system. Today, I would like to describe a different reality: that of Eastern Europe.(Warning: this is a realistic but sad post)

It's a Tuesday in November, a day like any other in Eastern Europe. You wake up and get ready for work. Winter's around the corner so you bundle up as you leave your home: nights and mornings are in the upper 30s (F). You open the front door of your condo building and a homeless cat attempts to walk in since the hallway offers at least some protection from the cold. Unfortunately, you know you have neighbors who think cats are a nuisance and will likely kick or beat the kitty out of the hallway when they see her. So you make a hard choice: you block her way and leave her in the cold but at least spare her some potential abuse.

While waiting for the bus to work, you grab a pastry from the corner bakery stand because you didn't have breakfast at home. A hungry dog approaches you tentatively. He is skin and bones and his eyes are full of hope that you will give him a bite or two. But he has probably been kicked away before so he doesn't come very close and cowers, ready to run away. You can't leave him hungry and throw your pastry in the bushes for him to finish off. As you do that, you notice a few more sets of expectant eyes of pups and kitties nearby who are also starving. Who do you feed first? What do they do on the days when nobody throws them a little bread? As these questions make your heart ache, your bus arrives and you get on it.

It's a mostly uneventful day at work and you are ready to head home. You get on the bus again and, tired, stare out the window. It's getting dark earlier and earlier in the evenings and visibility on the road drops. Just as you are thinking this the bus drives by the dead body of a dog, probably within inches of where it was hit by a vehicle. It must have been recent, the puddle of blood has not yet dried up.

You are home, fed and tucked into bed. As you close your eyes you hear the wind howling. Or is that dogs? Oh, it's likely both. The dogs are cold and hungry. So are the hundreds of thousands of cats in your neighborhood. There are around 25 homeless cats that live on either side of your condo building alone. One of them recently had babies. They are adorable little things, playing in the dirt near their mama. But they are hardly care-free since every night is colder and they hardly get enough food to support the demands of their growing bodies. You cringe at the thought of how many of those kittens won't actually get to be fully grown. And hope that next time there are remains of a kitten's body, eaten by a starving dog, your little daughter is not the one to find them. Because you don't know how to explain this reality to her when all you want to do is scream with helplessness.