We love to tell a good story, a successful story, a story that fills up with hope.

But today we won’t.

Today I’m going to tell you one of my most painful stories in animal rescue. I’m doing this so that you get a glimpse of how it is to do what we do, every day and so that you understand why our adoption rules are what they are and why we cannot make exceptions.

Missy was rescued by one of the SHKD volonteers two years ago. She was a a wonderful sweet gentle and kind female dog. She arrived to the shelter with signs of sexual violence. She had been raped.
The rapist chose its victim well.  She was too kind and gentle to fight back.
For months SHKD worked on her, made her recover from her ordeal, brought her confidence up to speed.
Let’s Adopt! had just been created.. we had just a few members, lots of ideas.
I put up Missy’s pictures on my profile and sent an email to the 400 people or so that made up the group in those days.
A few hours later I received an email from a member. His name was Hakan Bozkurt. Nice guy. told me how he had a dog but had died of old age and how he missed him so much.. wanted to adopt another animal for his child. Any breed would do.
I liked him.
We met at the shelter, he came with his kid and a friend.. they were lovely people, animal lovers, kind and sweet. They liked Missy and Missy liked them.
We got his details, explained all about the dog, he had experience, we trusted him.
So Missy jumped on the car, wagging her short tail, one of the happiest days in her life.
We called that night.. Missy was sleeping with the kid. He sent us some pictures… wonderful!
One week later we called to check how things were going… the guy answer the phone. He was drunk.
He told us that Missy had been missing for three days. She was lost.
Apparently her six year old kid was walking her on the street without a leash, a truck passed, she got scared and run away.
He had done NOTHING to look for her. Nothing. Life continued as normal.
We spent three days looking for Missy all over the area. We checked every shelter, every street, we put posters everywhere…
Nothing.
I would love to think Missy is still alive and in a nice home with a wonderful family, but thinking so would be delusional.
Chances are Missy is dead. And if she is not dead she is trying to survive eating garbage in some construction dump, or dumped at the forest by one of the municipalities in this vast sprawling city.
So Missy was dead… nothing I could do about it.
But what I could do was to learn the lesson and to create a system that minimizes adoption risk. To create a set of rules that secured successful adoptions whilst at the same time helping us enlarge the community. And that is precisely what I did.

This is how we came up with our three basic adoption rules:

1. Family MUST have an existing animal.
2. Animal MUST live inside the home, not on the garden.
3. Animal MUST be fed raw.

Each and every adoption in Let’s Adopt! must be approved by me, and every time we screen a family I have Missy on my mind.

Missy was a failure and a painful lesson… but we learned from it, and created a system that saved thousands.

We must be ready to accept failures if we want to move forward…. and this applies to all of us, in all we do.

Never forget that.

-Viktor Larkhill

We would like to thank everyone for your generosity and support in saving Genny’s life.

We could have truly not done it with out you.

Hooray For Genny & You!

Every single Dollar, Euro and Lira made a difference – there was no contribution too small and certainly not too large.

Genny has beaten the odds and is now in a new foster home, awaiting to meet her soul mate. Her final home, where she can have a sofa to call her own or at least share ♥
….where she can relax, knowing that she’ll be safe and treated like the princess she is.

Here are some current photos of Genny and her foster siblings…

They are guaranteed to bring some happy tears to those who have been following her story over the past month or so. They left me with a big smile all day…… Enjoy!

...just five more minutes...

*Doggie Bliss*

Thank YOU!

Please continue to support our work.

We currently have several special needs animals in vet care.

Apologies for the graphic image – but you need to see what we deal with here.

Meet LATTE…

Latte is fighting for his life

Latte was found nearly dead..

He has been lucky. We happened to have the most effective remedy available for this disease.

We are confident we will be able to save him.

Stay tuned and connected.

BE The Change! ♥

~Misha Dee

We are in urgent need of flight volunteers to the US, Canada (Montreal, Toronto), Germany and Holland.
Please get in touch with

Viktor: v.larkhill@googlemail.com

or contact me via

misha@myletsadopt.com

Thank You!

BE The Change

~Misha

Here’s an article by Viktor about how it works and why we are relocating animals to other countries.

Let’s Adopt! is Looking For Flight Volunteers for Angels Without Wings

Since its conception almost 2 years ago Let’s Adopt! has always been a pioneer in animal welfare related issues. We have introduced, singlehandedly, the concept of foster homes in Turkey. We have, for the first time in homing animals, put down rules other than the stupid documentations they ask for in shelters, gas bill, electricity bill, residence papers… We have, more than any bureaucratic nonsense of filling forms and providing that you live where you say you live, made sure that our dogs and cats actually LIVED INSIDE HOMES, not gardens and factory properties. We have insisted that the family should have another companion animal to adopt one from us. This is to make sure that they are aware of the responsibilities and requirements of an animal. Also, a great way to see how they care about their existing animals. We never agree to adoption of pure breeds simply on the basis of their blood. We make sure that the family adopts a stray first to be able to own a Golden Retriever or a Rottweiler.

And most of the time we have succeeded. The failures always happened when, out of the goodness of our hearts and naivete that we still
carry inside us for the goodness of people, we made exceptions.

No more exceptions, ever! Our rules are chiseled in stone and won’t be broken.

But, then there is something that really breaks our backs: The crisis and the way it effects thousand of families in this country and around the world. This is one of the reasons why there are so many abandoned animals, not only here but all around the world. Yet, people in Europe and North America still have the necessary funds to take care of their animals where the animals are seen as a part of the family and not accessories that look good near the fire place.

Why do I ramble on? Because that is what I do to ask for your help again, as you need to know why we do the things we do and need the
things we need?

We have declared that due to the non-existence of adoptions in the current climate we have a massive backlog of animals who need homes.

Not only that, we are experiencing an influx of animals which we had homed and now are being returned to us after months of being home dogs. Imagine the total destruction of the animals, imagine the damage the family makes their kids go through, imagine the state we are in…

Give Our Dogs Wiiiiings

Friends, though not every day of the week, we receive emails from our members in Europe and North America where people tell us that they are moved by the stories and struggles of our animals, asking us whether it would be possible to adopt them outside the country. After careful consideration, Skype conferences and many emails, we come to a decision.

It is all okay until when we need to fly our babies out, after their legal requirements are fully met;  chips, bloodwork when necessary,
vaccinations, fulfillment of a certain age etc.

This is when we need you. Many of you are professionals, many of you take trips outside the  country for business and for leisure, many of you study in foreign countries or visit friends and family who live abroad. Be our flight volunteers!!! Fly with one of our animals,
provided that there is the perfect family waiting for them on the other end and take part in the joy of knowing you have placed a life
in need in the safest of hands.

Get in touch with me a couple of weeks before you are due to fly and hopefully we will have  a dog or a cat for you as your flight
companion.

Go on, give us wings…

Viktor Larkhill
v.larkhill@googlemail.com

Dear Friends,
UPDATE: Hope & Pipas Have Been ADOPTED To GERMANY!!

These pups were dumped outside the most notorious kill ‘shelter’ in Istanbul, while Let’s Adopt! staged a protest about the horrific conditions and unjustified killings at the death camp.The injuries they sustained indicated that both of them were thrown out of a car.

Pipas had a broken jaw and the skin on her lower jaw had been ripped apart.

Pipas

Hope was found with a broken leg and hip

Hope

It took us two months of operation, treatment and intensive care to get them out of danger.

Today the two puppies are saved, but they are looking for homes.

(: Hope & Pipas today

Animal lovers picked them up and handed them over to Viktor, asking Let’s Adopt! for help. Once again – we cared for these pups, paid for their vetting and gave them a safe place to heal.

Here we are months later, and these cuties still don’t have a home.

Not one offer.
At this point we are accepting applications from other countries.

Preferably EU countries w/out lengthy quarantine laws, the US & Canada.
Let’s Adopt! application standards apply.
Please contact viktor@myletsadopt.com for more information.

Let’s Adopt! is an animal rescue organization, the largest in Turkey.We educate leading by example.
This is your change to do something unique, and to change the life of an animal (and yours), forever.
Hope and Pipas are looking for foster or final homes. We cannot keep them at the vet forever.
Hope and Pipas, you helped us save their lives. Help them now providing or finding a forever home for them.

Take action today. Adopt or foster one of this two babies.

Please keep in mind that we are also looking for flight volunteers from Turkey to Germany, France the US or Canada. There is no cost or paperwork involved for you. Everything is handled by Let’s Adopt! Representatives.

Please share/RT this note with your network, friends,

We need homes for our animals currently in our care, so we can rescue others.

Be The Change….

~misha

How can we balance our dedication to animals with our need to take care of ourselves?

After all, if we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t take care of them.

We have to find some balance.

Those involved in the front lines at animal shelters and rescues face heartbreaking situations every single day. We give of our time, our energy, our hearts, and even our pockets.

And sometimes our commitment and our compassion cause us to drain ourselves completely.

The work of saving homeless and abused animals is never-ending, and it takes a toll on those of us who take part in it. When you work with trauma victims, you absorb their stress and trauma. So when we work with terrified animals who have been dumped, abused, or worse, we find ourselves with compassion fatigue. The symptoms include recurrent nightmares, recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the trauma, flashback episodes, intense psychological distress at exposure to cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event, restricted range of feelings (i.e. blocking feelings), difficulty falling or staying asleep, irritability or outbursts of anger, difficulty concentrating, hyper vigilance, and exaggerated startle response.

Any of that sound familiar?

Teresa Wagner, an expert in this field, offers some ways we can balance service and self-care.

I have an uncle who once told me a story about volunteering at an animal shelter in South Carolina many years ago. He told me that he went back the next day to find that his favorite dog was gone. When he learned that the dog had been put down, he said that he could never go back. He was too heartbroken.

And when my mother went to pick up Arthur from the shelter, she was horrified by the sheer amount of animals waiting for a home. She asked one of the shelter workers how she copes and how she keeps coming to work every day. This worker told my mom that she chooses one animal every single day and focuses on saving him or her. In this way, the worker knows that she is saving lives and doing what she can. The work of people like her with the sheer determination to find rescue and forever homes for as many animals as they can is what saves the lives of many.

This reminds me of a wonderful rescue in Rhode Island that has saved many, many cats and dogs from gassing shelters in North Carolina. The name of the rescue is Help Save One. (And they also happen to have chosen a great song for their homepage!)

That’s what it’s all about.

Help save one.

Do what you can. Raise awareness. Educate your neighbors. Raise animal-loving children. Fight for legislation. TNR and feed feral cats. Foster an animal. Donate money to a rescue or a spay/neuter clinic. Volunteer your time at a shelter. Troll Freecycle and Craig’s List for items that you can collect and donate to your local shelter or rescue. Sew blankets for a shelter. Drive a leg for a rescue transport.

Whatever you do, do not allow yourself to feel so overwhelmed that you do nothing. Identify what you can do, set your boundaries, and get to work while remembering to take care of yourself so that you can take care of the animals!

P.S. Anyone got a thing for blue eyes and floppy ears?

Check out Dotty! Can she be any cuter? This poor girl is having trouble even finding a foster home in Istanbul, and what she really needs is a permanent home. Geography is not a barrier, so please let us know if you’d be interested in learning more about Dotty. We’re always happy to answer your questions, and transport can always be arranged.

And since you asked…

I happen to think that Dotty and Genny would make quite a striking pair for anyone who would like to adopt two Turkish beauties!

Genny is still in a wonderful foster home fighting distemper, but our fingers are all crossed that she will be healed up and ready for her forever home sooner rather than later. Would you be interested in adopting her? Or perhaps helping fund her medical costs? Most of us can’t afford to give huge amounts right now, but even if we all contributed the cost of our morning coffee or the cost of our lunch today, we could make a huge collective difference for Genny and the other Let’s Adopt! animals.

Hello Friends!
I kindly ask you to please support the rescue and medical treatment of Genny, who is currently battling Canine Distemper. A potentially fatal disease.

Thanks to the animal welfare volunteer network Let’s Adopt! Turkey, she’s physically safe and with a volunteer foster home right now.

Please us help Genny! We’re all she has.

We’ve just learned, that WordPress is not supporting the updates for the ChipIn widget. Which means, you can still click through the chip in above to contribute to “Simba’s Fund”.
However to see updates and current status of the contributions, you have to click through to the “bethechange” page on ChipIn, which you can reach here:
ChipIn Simba’s Fund
We will track all contributions, as well as funds going towards Genny’s care.
Any funds left will be used for future rescues and their medical needs, as Let’s Adopt! specializes in the rescue and treatment of abused, injured or special needs animals.

Genny’s condition has improved a bit and she has been upgraded from “critical” to “stable”.

We even received a new video of Genny ‘playing’.

To learn more about this extraordinary group of international volunteers: Let’s Adopt!

For more info about the Simba Fund and how it came about.
Click Here

Thank You!

The next few days are still critical for Genny’s survival. Please keep her in your thoughts, and continue to support our important work.
We’ll keep you updated.
A big “Thank You” to all of you out there who have already contributed to Genny’s vet care before the Chip In was set up.
We are very grateful for your support.

For Genny…

Genny is fighting this killer disease with all she got

Thank You!!
Be The Change….Indeed! ♥

Misha Dee

Let’s Adopt! USA

Genny is fighting for her life! We need your help!

This is Genny, a gentle and kind Dobermann Pinscher who believes is a lap dog.

Tonight Genny is desperately fighting to win a battle against a most cruel disease, canine distemper.

Genny was rescued from a factory in Izmir where she was living in terrible conditions. Her rescuer found a person in Facebook willing to adopt her and sent her to Istanbul. The rescuer made two mistakes:

1. Genny was not vaccinated.
2. He sent the dog to Songul Kotuklan, an individual who had recently lost a dog and simply went onto the internet to get another one.

The moment I heard the dog had gone to that person I immediately drove to her place and rescued her. Driving to Kotuklan’s home in an industrial suburb of Istanbul probably saved her life. Genny was placed on one of our safe houses.

Yesterday we received the most terrible news. Genny is very ill and has tested positive for canine distemper.

Genny is very lucky, she has had a very early diagnosis and she is currently being treated by the best vets in Istanbul using the most advanced medication available. We are hopeful she will survive this test, but at the moment her situation is critical. Furthermore, we are bracing ourselves for an even bigger problem and we are closely monitoring those dogs Genny has come in contact during the last two weeks. We are confident we will be able to treat any case from the moment they show the first symptoms.

This will be either a nightmare or yet another of Let’s Adopt! success stories…

For now I need to kindly request your help towards Genny’s veterinary treatment and towards our emergency fund. When Let’s Adopt! was created it was our intention to be able to function without having to rely on any of our member’s support, unfortunately peoples incredible irresponsibility has taken our personal capabilities to the limit.

This is one more of those cases.

So here is Genny. Help her please.

UPDATE 02/10: We now have a ChipIn widget on our page, where you can securely contribute via PayPal.
Thank to everyone who has already contributed to help this sweet girl.
She’s a fighter and still going….

Contact viktor@myletsadopt.com

via Help Genny! « MyLetsAdopt !.

Arthur loves running in the snow in our backyard.

I am queen of the foster failures. And now it appears I am also turning into queen of the transport failures…

I was due to drive King Arthur from the pound to the airport back in November so that he could be flown to a rescue out of state, but it seems that just wasn’t meant to be because he is still lying at my feet as I type this post. He is a nearly one-year-old Tibetan Mastiff who is so big (almost 100 pounds now…) that you forget he is still a puppy until you catch him carrying blankets around like Linus!

In truth, I have always wanted a giant dog. I’m the sort of person who daydreams about how cool it would be to have three Great Danes (rescues, of course!) who greet visitors to your home. That’s how I found out about Arthur’s transport needs in the first place. A friend who manages a shelter sent me the posting about him the day after I had met with her to pick up a dog that needed transport and had spent half an hour drooling over her rescued Great Dane named Sport.

I had never even heard of a Tibetan Mastiff when I read about Arthur, but I fell in love as soon as I saw him. He is perfect in every way, and absolutely everyone who sees him wants to come up and pat him. I’ve certainly done my fair share of reading up on the special considerations of giant breeds and am learning everything I can to make sure Arthur grows up to be as healthy and strong as he can be. There always seems to be a steep learning curve with every new member of the family. Every animal has its own special needs.

Arthur’s brother went to a rescue somewhere in Cincinnati. They certainly weren’t from the same litter, but they came into the pound together. He was a golden-colored dog, and I would love to find him and his new family so that he and Arthur could run together in our backyard. I am so glad those two made it out of the pound alive, and it breaks my heart every day when I think of all the dogs who do not have such a happy ending.

There are a few lessons we can all learn from gentle souls like Arthur:

1. There is never any reason to go to a breeder for a purebred dog. Pounds are filled with purebred dogs – especially the small ones like Terriers, Chihuahuas, and Malteses. Giant dogs might not be appropriate for everyone, but large dogs such as Black Labs and German Shepherds die every day in pounds across America while people continue to go out and buy them from breeders.

2. Black dogs (and black cats) are statistically the least likely to make it out of the pound alive. People have strange superstitions about them and overlook them, so please consider black dogs and cats when you are ready to adopt a new pet.

3. Big dogs have big hearts. They are gentle giants. And yet far too many of them are put down in pounds because far too many of us are unwilling to adopt big dogs. I have always found big dogs to be a lot easier than small dogs and certainly a lot friendlier with strangers and even small children. Most people with small children want to rush out and get a small puppy, and I think that’s probably one of the biggest mistakes they could make. With small children in the house, who has time to train a puppy? And with children who are not already dog-proofed, a larger dog like Arthur with a more laid-back attitude is going to react a lot less than a smaller, feistier dog when his ears get pulled or a child falls on top of him.

Arthur with Claus in the background

Let’s Adopt! in Turkey also has a very special giant named Leon who is looking for his forever home. You can see his photos here. As usual, get in touch with Viktor if you would like to open your heart and your home to this special boy.

Several beautiful Turkish dogs have found homes right here in the United States. In fact, Let’s Adopt! recently placed a King Arthur of its own in an American home. The adoption process is very simple as long as you meet the criteria and your application is approved. Ge in touch if you would like more information.

And ask your local rescue about large and giant dogs. Rescues oftentimes have difficulty finding foster and forever homes for larger dogs, so they are not always able to pull them from the pound. Why not step up and offer to foster or adopt one?

What have you learned from the animals you have adopted? Share your stories in the comments section.

Today’s blog is an important message from Viktor, the founder of Let’s Adopt!

“Let me be clear.

This is likely the most important post I have made in the last two years of running Let’s Adopt! and posting daily.

Read it please, and share it. You will be saving lives if you do.

Yesterday night we saved the life of a dog. We literally snatched him away from a family that would have either lost him or dumped him at a shelter in a matter of days.

The family called themselves animal lovers, but they were clearly incapable of taking care of that animal, they would have NEVER been able to cater to his needs, to provide him with the right veterinary care, to fulfill the basic needs of the animal.

That adoption should have NEVER taken place and the dog is lucky I intervened.

It is VERY VERY easy to find a home for a dog on the internet, but it is VERY VERY difficult to find a good home.

In the last few months we have had to intervene to rescue animals that had been given away on adoption to the very wrong people by animal lovers who didn’t follow the correct procedures. The story is always the same. Someone finds a dog, puts his picture on Facebook and asks people to apply for it. Someone applies for it, and he gets the dog, no questions asked. The nightmare starts there… Two days later the dog is again on the streets or taken to a shelter.

Rescuing and rehoming dogs is a great mission, but is also a SACRED responsibility. Let’s Adopt! is not in the business of passing dogs from one hand to the other, what we do here is to finding homes for the next 15 years of the live of that animal, and we will NEVER compromise for the sake of comfort or expediency. This also means that we cannot work under pressure, and that we will take the necessary time to find the perfect home for that animal.

I encourage all of you to rescue animals and to take action where needed, but I must also beg you to follow a system and apply strict rehoming procedures, otherwise the result could end up in death for the animal you have just rescued.

I am going to explain again what are our Adoption Rules in an attempt to make you understand why we are so strict and why we will never again make exceptions.

1. FAMILY MUST HAVE A DOG RIGHT NOW… If the dog has died recently it doesn’t count.. if they have a bird? doesn’t count, if they had a dog when they were young? No… The reason for this is simple risk management. The only way I have to be absolutely certain that you can take care of our animal is when I see you are already taking good care
of yours. There is no other way.. the alternative is for me to believe in your story and your intentions, and think about it.. why should I?

You may like dogs or cats all you want but how can I be sure you will not change your mind after a few hours. People change their minds incredibly fast after a couple of pees on their favorite carpet.

2. Dog MUST live inside the home, not in the garden. No factories, no office animals, no farms. Many reasons for this, but mainly the fact that we are looking for long term adoptions, not short term arrangements. What are the chances a dog living on a factory will receive the necessary veterinary care and attention when he is sick?
Same as a dog living on a farm…

3. Dog MUST be fed raw. This is a particularity of this group. Raw feeding is the ONLY biologically appropriate diet for a carnivore. To me, agreeing to follow this rule means that you will be putting the interest of the animal above your own, and that is precisely the kind of person I am trying to find.

These are MY rules, and after two years of rehoming on Facebook our success speaks for itself. These rules are applied in all our networks, not only in Turkey. Canada, USA and France will follow exactly the same procedures. These rules are not here to satisfy my ego as some may think. I personally don’t care what you think of me but if you are reading this message right now it means you somehow value my opinion.

Our rules are there to ensure the life of the animals and I strongly encourage you to follow them in your own particular rescues.

In Turkey, statistically only 1 out of 10 applicants is capable of taking care of an animal. 1 out of 10.“

Please share this on your profiles.