Some shitty news, some good news ·
Shitty news
Last Saturday Kalina, one of the older dogs that live next to the shelter gate disappeared. It was weird because she’s quite old and her legs don’t work so well so she spends most of the time in the shade and chills with her daughter–this was the first time she ran away. When we finally found her in an abandoned house lying in the dirt she was in really bad shape. She couldn’t move at all and it pretty much looked like she went there to die.
I carried her all the way back to the shelter, we gave her the meds and she was supposed to go to the vet in the morning. Unfortunately, she passed away that night. Jelena, who works at the shelter, was really upset, so I had to pretend I was totally cool and chill and dug a grave for Kalina in her favorite spot in the shade and buried her there.
It was really hard. The day after I started having horrible migraines because I guess I’m really good at processing my feelings…
I was feeling really shitty and popping painkillers and couldn’t focus on a TV show, let alone study. That meant my genius plan to cram for the test wasn’t going to happen. By Wednesday I didn’t even manage to go through all of the questions, so I decided to skip it. Traveling to another part of the country just for that 1% chance I’ll be lucky and pass the test just felt ridiculous at that point. The next slot is in 30 days, and I can’t start driving lessons until I pass that damn test.
So for the rest of this post, I decided to focus on some positive things that happened in the meantime:
🚴♀️ Good bicycle-related news
This is basically my first time using a bicycle since I moved from my hometown to Belgrade for college. Belgrade is awful for cycling: lots of hills, no bicycle lanes and angry, aggressive drivers. But Niš is a different story. I completely forgot how much I love cycling: that nice breeze while you’re riding, how fast you can get to completely different parts of town, how it makes you find excuses to spend more time outside.
I also made new friends through cycling! Since it was just a crappy old used bike I got from local Craigslist, I bought some equipment (basket, bell, bottle holder, phone holder) to try to make it comfier. One afternoon I was drinking beer outside of my apartment building with my dog and hooking up the equipment. Three boys, ages 4-7, were watching curiously, so I invited them to help me and they were all up for it.
Well, two of them at least. The youngest one, Vasilije, was just constantly fucking shit up: stealing screws and hiding them, throwing bicycle parts down the stairs and laughing, trying to kidnap my dog... That dude is like something out of that “Garbage sons” quiz. Needless to say, he was my favorite. It was so much fun and it was really sweet seeing how important it made them feel–they were absolutely sure I couldn't have done it without them.
🐶 Good shelter-related news
A few days ago I noticed that a couple of shelter dogs—4 puppies and 2 grown-up dogs—were missing. At this point, I was too afraid to even ask Jelena what happened… But it turned out they were adopted! They were already on their way to England, where some kind souls decided to give them new homes. Feels amazing knowing that some goofy Croatian Sheperd puppies born behind a dumpster are now chilling in their own backyard somewhere in England.
Another thing that makes me all warm and fuzzy is just watching how some of the dogs that were so scared and aggressive change over time. Some of them would bark like they want to devour you as soon as you look at them. Then after some time, they let you come closer, but as soon as you try to touch them they run away. It’s like they can’t even imagine what you want from them (of course the hand is only used for hitting, what else could it be?) But once they relax enough that you can safely touch them, they transform completely. They want to cuddle all the time!
Shelter gang