The summer in the shelter for abandoned animals was very busy. Since we are in the process of registering our shelter according to the conditions of the Ministry of Agriculture, we had to do many things to meet those demands.

Although the local authorities should run and organize shelters according to the law that came into effect on 1 January 2009, in County of Međimurje there is still no official shelter.

The conditions by the Ministry were very strict, but we did not panic. With our volunteers, friends, donors and sponsors we got to work, and the results visible on the horizon are more than great.

We raised a fence around the area where dogs could run. We also put a fence around the whole shelter. Yards were renovated, new gravel was put in them, most old stalls and the fence were painted green. We renovated the kitchen for the animals and put in a sink and a huge cauldron for cooking the food. New windows were put in newly built rooms. We set up cages for the quarantine and medicine cages. New yards were built, and new halls between them to make a passage to each stall and yard. We made storage space for towels, blankets and other things and also a room for the storage of food. We also made an office and a room for the reception and examination of the animals.

Our dear volunteers helped us a lot. Special thanks to the MCX group from Čakovec, and especially to Marko, who inspired them and during the summer organized working Mondays at the shelter. We are also grateful to the members of the society Umjetnost davanja and the society Meke šapice from Čakovec, who on many occasions came to volunteer and help with everything that needed to be done, and they also worked on tasks related to finding animals new homes.

Members of the society Tierwald Ungarn from Trier and their operation manager Ms. Kathi Krebs helped us with a donation of food, things for our information tables, medical supplies, donation for the fence, donation of a large lawn-mower, panels for the roofs on the stalls, yards and halls between them. And we are most grateful for the coverage of the part of the veterinary expenses and selfless effort to find homes in Germany, Austria and Luxembourg for our dogs and cats.

Mr. Volker Fritzmeier, along with his members, funded the construction of the fence, and also donated part of the funding to pay for the driving school for our regular volunteer, dear Ivana, who was helping us in our shelter all summer, from sunrise to sunset. With the driver's license she will be able to help us with the transportation of dogs and cats to the vet's office.

We are also deeply appreciative of our veterinarians from the company Bioinstitut d.o.o., dr. Miljenko Cmrečak and dr. Tomislav Dolar. Their office is often crammed with our animals. They give all they can, and sometimes even more to give the necessary care to the abandoned animals that our shelter cares for. Even though we always owe them some money, they do their work professionally and patiently, with a big discount on their services.

But at the moment our debt for veterinarian care is 55000,00 kn (aprox 7600 EUR) and we are in big problems for that.

For our NGO project called For streets without stray dogs and cats we were awarded 30,000 kn by the NGO office of Međimurje county. However, funds were not available, but we should get at least half of the awarded amount maybe in December.

Cauldron for the cooking of food was also provided by the society Tierwald Ungard. Mr. Mladen Novak from Nedelišće donated a large sink.

Our volunteers and friends from Switzerland Yvonne and Walter Huerbin donated 2,000 Euros for the wooden materials for the roof above the kitchen and the quarantines. We still need around 2,000 Euros to buy more materials and construct the roof.

Mr. Michael Sprenger, his wife Susy and their friends collected donations for a new vehicle and a Citroen Jumpy that was brought from Graz to Čakovec two weeks ago.

Drvni centar Filo company donated wooden materials for the making of a large bookcase to store all documentation and dog passports.

Professional program that serves as a register of all dogs and cats was a donation by Mr. Josip Šimičić from Zagreb. It is fully functional and now all animals in the shelter are registered and all necessary information is stored in our computer.

Elektroinstaleri d.o.o company from Čakovec and Mr. Kozar did all electrical installations and donated 2 tons of cement. Vodoinstaleri Balog renovated the toilette and mounted the kitchen sink.

Dvostruka duga d.o.o from Čakovec still administers the web pages in three different languages, as well as the shelter's Facebook profile. They also correspond with other members, societies, media, local officials...

Čakovec city districts donated food. Society Tierwald Ungarn regularly donates food by buying it in Zagreb and delivering it straight to the shelter. Čakovečki mlinovi d.d. and Junior bakery regularly delivers old bread for our needs.

Promming d.o.o. jumped in when we were short of iron for the making of the fence.

Emplex company from Lopatinec donated name plates for all our doors and rooms, and also a medicine cabinet.

Our dear volunteers lent us two cement mixers and now we can renovate the stalls and install the fence much faster.

Međimurska banka d.d. and Projekt company donated few old windows, and Međimurska banka also donated 2,000 kn.

We also secured funds for the salaries of two workers, although we have no workers right now because working at the shelter is very hard and demanding. Therefore, we are currently looking for new workers to do the job of feeding the animals and cleaning the stalls and the yards.

We are proud to have reduced our total debt of almost 125,000 kn from the beginning of the year to 55,000 kn by the end of September.

At this moment we still need 55,000 kn to cover veterinary costs, 15,000 kn to buy wooden materials for the roof over the kitchen and the quarantine and to pay for the construction. We also need 300 m (2 m height) of the fence for north side of the shelter (costs for that are aprox 5000 EUR).

If you can, please make a donation to:

Association for the Protection of Animals "Friends"

A. Schulteissa 19, 40000 Čakovec, Croatia

IBAN: HR66 2392 0071 1000 6274 9,

Međimurska banka d.d. Čakovec,

SWIFT: MBCKHR 2X

And, finally, from the beginning of the year to this day we have taken in 252 abandoned dogs and cats, and found new homes for 242 of them. Currently we look after 214 dogs and 18 cats (we have 3 pure breed dog and 12 puppies).

We castrated 190 animals during this year – 113 female dogs and 59 male dogs and 10 female cats and 8 male cats. 25 dogs are waiting for castration (puppies and new dogs).

Again, we are grateful to all who help us. We will continue to our final goal, which is the building of social awareness where there will no longer be abandoned, abused nor rejected animals and where all animals will be free and have basic rights – right to life and freedom.