Black dogs

Someone should be your number 1, and the lovely Nova was mine. I brought her home as a puppy without asking my parents when I was 16, since she would actually have been sold to an addict. She turned 15 years old and was for a long time my great inspiration to work with dogs. She showed me the way!

Memory: When she fell asleep and stopped breathing, she was gone for a few minutes, then she woke up and went to the kitchen and stole a cinnamon bun and ate it. Then she fell asleep for good. Some things you simply just want to have ticked off your “bucket list” before you die!

Birk was worn, old, lay on concrete and had no spark left in his eyes. He turned out to be around 13 years old and was diagnosed with cushings and was almost blind. He obviously got to be a sanctuary dog ​​and boy did he enjoy his last senior year here, when his old body finally got to lie on something soft, and be loved for a year.

Memory: He always barked angrily at close-ups of the protagonist of CSI – the man with red hair, when he saw him on TV, but rarely at anyone else. However, when he saw the Melodifestivalen (a Swedish song contest) and everyone was happy and sang, he used to sing along and wave his tail a lot and seemed very happy. He didn’t care too much about other shows though.

Aila was our first Black Dog. Abandoned, and without her mother as a puppy, she became traumatized and developed severe PTSD. She was so scared that she did not dare move, and peed and pooped on the spot when she got scared. She was rehabilitated here and eventually became a happy dog ​​who handled the world well, lived with good dog friends and was loved and safe. She died from skin cancer.

Memory: Scared dogs want control and routines, which means that they are very firm in their behaviours linked to different situations. When we were about to jump into the car, she was so set on just that movement that I only had time to open the boot lid but not the dog cage, but that did not stop her – she jumped up and stood and balanced on the small edge and looked surprised. Each time, always just as surprised!

Gubben came here when his mother was murdered. Loyal, he lay by his dead mother’s side before he came out of there completely bloody. He came to the sanctuary at the age of 12, and it was as if he could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Burn marks from cigarettes and other things testified of his hard life. He only lived here for seven days before falling asleep quietly, surrounded by dogs and love.

Memory: Gubben was by no means a small boy, he was overweight and could barely stand up from laying down. The coat was dull and the skin was scarred, so I decided to cut it down a bit, to inspect the condition of the skin, and to cut off his past. When he was freshly cut, he felt so light and free that for the first time he jumped up on the sofa and fell asleep at my feet with a deep sigh.

Bubben was completely blind, deaf and weak. He staggered and had bad teeth. He lived in the sanctuary for almost a year, where he managed to become stronger in body and more painless. He lived with kind dogs and was always warm and caring. He was about to move to his own family in his last senior year, but at the age of 12 he became too old for a new life.

Memory: Despite poor hearing and sight, he always had full control of where the cats were in the house. He must have had a fantastic nose – that sense was absolutely no cat-astrophy! He followed the cats wherever they went and if they jumped up on something he sat there and philosophized for a while.

I asked: Who needs me the most? And then he appeared. 12 years old, he had lived on the same concrete square all his life when he came to the sanctuary. He became like a new dog and managed for another four years, as an alert and grateful senior. He fell asleep just before his 16th birthday, when his epilepsy began to get worse and his body could no longer cope.

Memory: When Uncle had lived here for a while, he gradually became stronger and one day he could start running for the first time again. He looked incredibly happy, but of course he was a bit stiff – he looked mostly like a rocking horse and not a trotting horse when he galloped.

Nemo came from a tourist business in the north of Sweden where he worked hard. The younger dogs found new homes, but the senior Nemo was left, with a large tumor. He came here and met a veterinarian who said that it was too late to do a successful surgery but that he didn’t suffer from it. He got one year at the sanctuary until it was time for the good-natured captain to pass on.

Memory: Nemo had an incredible kindness and dignity, something that many huskies have, and he was a fantastic “father” to many young dogs and puppies who came to the rescue. He was patient, playful and careful, and gave so much security. A real father figure to scared little dogs.

There was something about her eyes in the pictures we saw. They were sort of empty and off, yet somehow appealing. We chose her to give her a nice home for the rest of her life, even though she was a senior. When she came here she was weak and unmuscled, as they often are if they have lived on concrete for several years. But it wasn’t only that – she was almost paralyzed in her back legs and it was heartbreaking to see her try to walk but fail. There was nothing we could do, so Sandra bought a cart and took her on her first forest walks in her life – cradled in a soft bed, she finally got to smell all the scents of the forest and she got to be loved and safe until her last breath in Sandra’s arms a few weeks later.