DISASTER!!!

DISASTER HIT US!!! - It was one of the craziest days of my life. Piatigorsk became our new base of operations because Kyupansk get bombed and it's a deoccupied village but all the villages surrounding it are occupied by Russians. We set up in and old community center. No heat, working bathroom or water, but we did have some electricity, as long as you didn't turn on too many things at once. We woke up in Kharkiv to snow. The drive down took us about two hours including stopping for coffee. We got to the clinic and started to help set up, assembling cages, and tables. Then Кристина Драгомарецкая and I took off to catch dogs. Pasha was also going to catch dogs. Kristina and I had covered several villages the day before, so we were sent to a small village 15 miles away that we heard had a cadre of street dogs.

Then we got hit. Not by the Russians, but by bad luck and Mother Nature. And she was cruel. We rolled into this small village. The dogs hung around their town hall probably because they fed them and friended them. Kristina went to work and started to bring dogs in. She met some local people and they showed her where the puppies were hiding and a particularily tough momma dog. Whle the dogs were starting to pile up in our van, one of the military guys pointed out our flat tire. So, that's when crisis started to cross my mind. This village didn't have any stores, let alone a Big O Tires. Kristina was less worried about it then I was and she was right. She explained that you don't get stuck in Ukraine. In no time, the military was out there helping us and the village folks had a town meeting on how to assist. One of them went back to his place and brought out a pump. After loading all the dogs, except the hard to catch momma dog, we drove to the next village to find a tire shop.

We saw two guys in a bulldozer. One guys was standing in the front and throwing sand on the road. I think all the sand and salt machines are probably dedicated to the war effort. One the way back, the snow compiled with the freezing rain made it hard to manage this Opel van. The front tires were nearly worn down and it lacked four wheel drive. You don't want to get stuck, because there isn't cell service and you are in the middle of nowhere. And then you have no way to get away in case the Russians show up. Of course, we missed our turn and tried to turn around, but the van spun around on the ice. I had stopped at a big auto store in Lviv, but they didn't carry chains, so I brushed it off, which was MY MISTAKE. Fortunately, we didn't go off the road into the ditch and we managed to get back to the village to catch momma dog.

When I found Kirstina, she had bagged momma dog and it was time to head back to the clinic. They were waiting for us and our dogs, so we had to get a move on. We pulled out in Opel van and started to head back to the clinic. Just up and over that hill...

The temp had dropped so much and the roads were now skating rinks. I had on my fantastic winter hiking boots and I couldn't walk across the ice. It was incredibly slippery and we had a hill to climb about three football fields long. No dice. The van spun out. We drove half on the road and half off it to get back down safely. It was dark and getting darker. It was really cold out and the freezing rain kept coming down.

When we got back down the villagers were waiting for us. A town meeting happened to discuss the situation. It was decided that I would back further down the road and get a running start. Still no dice.

Now we were panicking. We had all these dogs in the back of the van. The team kept texting us and asking when we were returning. They had been operating on animals since 9am and they wanted to get some sleep, but they needed these dogs before we moved on to the next village in the morning.

The villagers called a farmer and asked for him to bring his large tractor to pull us up the hill. We watched a police car wipe out on the hill, followed by an ambulance, a half a dozen other cars and then we decided to go into the town hall and enjoy some tea.

The tractor showed up, but he wiped out and turned around and went back to his farm. A military guy thought he could get us up the hill and he failed. Later that evening, Pasha, our other dog hunter showed up. He had microspikes on his boots and parked his Nissan Pathfinder at the top of the hill, so about three football fields away.

So all we had to do is drag the cages with these dogs in this horrible freezing rain up this hill. Pasha headed off. Kristina headed off. I stepped on to the street and fell down. I got up and fell down again. And then a village woman marched over like she was walking on water, helped me up and started to pull the dog cage with one hand and holding me up with the other. Kristina described her as a Tank.

I finally got the idea to take my boots off and get more traction with my socks. That worked, but it was still brutal. And then I saw a 20-something year old marching by me. His phone was blaring, smoking a cigarette and holding a bag of groceries. He didn't speak English, but dediced to help me. When I got to the top of the hill, Pasha and Kristina saw me with my boots strung around my neck and nearly fell from laughing so hard. We loaded the first three cages and then they headed back down the hill to get the big cage.

When we got back to the clinic, the vets went straight to work. And the villagers in Piatigorsk knew we couldn't drive back to Kharkiv and had nowhere to stay or anything to eat. And then Andre showed up. We took us in. His wife and child are in Germany and he is required to stay. He made us dinner, did shots of vodka followed by pickle juice and told us all about the Russian attack on his village. He had a great wifi network that reached into the shelter. He insisted I slept on his mattress and he stayed next to me in a sleeping bag. Angela and Kristina had the other room.

In the morning, Andrea walked us over to his mother's home for a wonderful and delicous breakfast. We had seen her in the clinic earlier in the day. She brought in five cats. It turnes out that she has organized volunteers to help with the stray animal problem. She was overjoyed to see our clinic. Her worry is that the stray dog/cat populations are getting out of hand and they don't want to poison the puppies and kittens. Already, some of the stray dogs are turning aggressive.

Andre took my for my first ride in a Lada, a Russian car. He's souped it up which doesn't really help on the ice, but it was some fun Tokyo drifting. We listened to AC/DC "Highway to Hell" and "War Machine" while we drove back to get our van. He showed my the corn fields that went unharvested because the Russians have left land mines in the fields. Enough ice melted so we were able to retreive it. We went back to the clinic.

So a nightmare night turned into making new friends and seeing the amazing hearts of these Ukrainians. All dogs are safe.

Current count before today is 695 dogs and cats sterilized, vaccinated and microchipped.

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