Of course Sophie took us there too. What can I say ... WOW. A blistering feeling of being surrounded by hundreds of dogs. Buddy was of course also part of the party, but he slept in the van. That would really have been too much for him 🙂

We were greeted by many lovely dogs at the entrance. The first one to come running was Emma. At that time she was called Mama because she was housed with her puppies in the shelter.
Emma had previously been out on the streets of Băile Felix and was repeatedly fed by tourists and a swimming pool operator. When it was clear that Emma would soon be a mom, Emma should get out of there.

So she was caught and brought to the open shelter. Fortunately, otherwise she would have ended up in the killing station 🙁
Emma somehow didn't leave our side when we went on our tour of the shelter. We would have loved to take her with us, but thought “we can't just spontaneously take a dog from Romania home with us” and then we drove further south of Romania.

We sensed it. We kept thinking about her and told Sophie about it a few days later. She offered to bring Emma home so that Buddy and Emma would have a few days to get to know each other. Said and done. We drove back to Oradea the next morning and spent the last few days there.

We used to go for walks with the two of them and Emma slept in a van in our van. Buddy was basically very jealous as soon as other dogs were involved. But in this combination we had the feeling that it could actually work. The two got on well and Buddy didn't even puke when Emma spent the night in "his" van. A few days later we were already on the way back to Germany.
With two dogs 🙂

Emma`s first "steps" in our house consisted more of crawling than going out. She was very scared - she didn't know all of that. A TV set them in a panic. We knew what she needed now: rest and above all time. Time was the best remedy for their insecurities and fears.
In addition, Buddy puked her again and again. Great station wagon 🙂 Buddy saw Marcel and me as a resource and wanted to defend ourselves accordingly. The next few days consisted of therapy sessions with both dogs and it got better and better. Buddy was relatively calm at some point, who would have thought that. At least not after his reactions at home for the first few days.

At home, Emma gradually became more relaxed. From time to time she eyed the television a little suspiciously, but she just turned away and took a nap. She found a good strategy there.

We gradually introduced them to everyday noises in the house such as the washing machine, vacuum cleaner etc. Always in small steps, that was very important. And there were also a lot of scary things outside. Cars, tractors, mopeds ... and everything so loud for Emma. We have brought these things closer to her time and time again. With enough distance, lots of treats and a lot of affection, she became more and more secure.

We never pushed Emma to anything, just offered her to explore something new. She accepted it or not. Things that scared her too much only became more interesting much later. We have slowly gained their trust. We tried as best as we could to give her the security she needed. Emma moved in with us in September 2019 and a lot has changed since then. If things are scary to her, she seeks our closeness. It's a great feeling for us too. We ALWAYS give her the protection she needs and keep showing her the world. It has finally arrived. It wasn't that long ago that she barked for the first time. We didn't think we would be so happy to bark 🙂
Live, Emma!

We had about a ton of donations with us - puppy food, towels and medicine - everything was very welcome.
The days in the shelter passed quickly. There were plenty of opportunities to tackle it. My husband celebrated his 60th birthday with rubber boots in the mud - it had rained heavily and the dogs were standing in the water, so gravel had to be filled up.
After 10 days we had to go back home and would like to visit the shelter again next year.