MAY 2021

Another month in which we have experienced a lot: beautiful situations, sad moments, indignation, anger, hopelessness, strength and passion.

 NIMA
The little soul arrived at the end of the Rainbow Bridge and was asked "What was the most beautiful thing in your life?" - "I was loved," she replied.

Nima was brought to Finca Noah in the middle of October 2020. You could see immediately that she was sick and weak. Her fur was sticky and dirty. Farah did not falter long, packed the cat in the car and drove with her to the veterinary hospital. There they found out that Nima had a relatively big tumor in her lung, a fungus in her mouth and throat and was in a very bad condition. Farah decided to take Nima to Finca Noah to give her - as long as it was ethically justifiable - the best possible treatment and care. Nima became our farm cat and everyone knew she was special.
Before we now had to let Nima go over the Rainbow Bridge, she disappeared twice for several days. At that time we all thought that she had retired to die. But both times she came back to her home, to her family. In the end, though, she clearly showed us that she wanted her journey with us to end. We miss her, but we are happy that she had a nice home at Finca Noah for another seven months, where she was loved by everyone.

SIMBA
Simba has found his happiness. The stocky German Shepherd with the sweet look was only about two weeks at Finca Noah. Simba was given away, because the owner family had no time for him ...and so he can live his life... alone in the garden of a finca had to spend. As soon as the first video of Simba was published, he was already reserved! A few days later his new mommy landed on Mallorca to pick him up. A few days before his departure to Switzerland, Simba was examined, castrated and tested for Leishmaniasis (the topic of Leishmaniasis, respectively the correct education about this disease, which can lead to death without the correct treatment, is a matter of the heart for Farah). All findings were positive, Simba's great journey was no longer in the way.

We are happy for Simba that he can now experience things with his new family that he did not know before. That he is no longer alone, but always around a person who loves him and cares for him. That for the first time he has a real roof over his head, where it is nice and warm in winter and shady and cool in summer. But we are also happy for the family that they have finally found their heart's dog.

SHUGGER
With Shugger, Farah rescued a female Pointer mix from starvation who - along with old mattresses, furniture and rubbish - had simply been left on a property. Her family, who went back to Germany, had the little doggy just left to their own devices, thrown away, discarded. One finds no words!

Shugger is about 10 months old, 45 cm tall and weighs about 10 kg, cheerful, cheerful, funny bitch who immediately ingratiates herself into all hearts. She is not only open to all humans, but also to dogs and cats. She loves to play with other dogs, to go into the water, to learn things (also without Läckerlis) and to sleep on chairs.  

MACHO
Macho is a Spitz, 5 years old, 33 cm tall and weighing about 5 kg, who was brought to Finca Noah by a Spanish animal welfare worker. The poor guy was called Breeding male abused and has his all her life so far in a cramped dog box spent. Every hour, every minute, every second of his existence so far, the little macho was locked up in that box, just because a human wanted to make profit out of him. A poor little dog soul who was abused as a breeding machine and not loved as a family member. When we put him on the ground for the first time and he had real ground under his feet for the first time in his life, wasn't locked up and had the whole world in front of him, the little guy didn't know what was happening to him. Quite still and stiffly he stood before us. And then we let the dogs of Farah to him - and from the small, insecure dog became within minutes a small, happy macho with shining eyes and a smile in the face. 

Macho is a real sunshine. From the first second he has integrated super well into the dog pack. He does not react to cats or other animals. Macho can withdraw well if it becomes too hectic for him. He loves to be petted, but he is still very reserved and stiff when you touch him. Macho is really a wiffy, interested little guy who can now discover the world for the first time in his life.  

King and Quenni
Farah took our problem children out of there after a call for help from an attentive employee of a killing station. Two broken souls, chain dogs, who were only allowed off the chain to eat. They were beaten to the food bowl and had to quickly gobble up everything. Who was too slow, was beaten, abused, humiliated and degraded.

When King and Quenni came to us, both had already refused food for 7 days. Maybe because it caused their traumatic experiences to flare up, maybe because they had simply given up. We don't know. But not only were they refusing food, they were apathetic, scared, insecure and broken. 

We put them next to each other in the kennel after the veterinary first aid (luckily Farah has a big VW bus) and started to treat their injuries and remove hundreds of ticks from their fur. King and Queeni let everything happen to them. At some point that same day, they both got up and squeezed into the wooden box inside the kennel together. There they stayed for the time being. Since we knew that the animal abuser was a man, it was clear that only a woman could take over the care of King and Quenni. Well and who is always on the farm with us? Of course Farah! She immediately started to "bribe" the two with fresh minced meat - which of course worked. King and Quenni started to eat and that on the first day. At that moment we all had a good feeling of joy, hope and confidence that we would be able to give the two souls a new, beautiful life without violence, abuse and fear.

But then came the first night! The two dogs raged for hours in their kennel. They barked, howled and destroyed everything they could. Farah and Mike had to go out to the kennel several times to calm down the two big dogs. (The following nights it went on in the same way: the dogs destroyed, the humans tried to calm them down).

The next morning we could not believe our eyes. Pure devastation! We had already some dogs with us, which were now and then in "party mood" and the energy then reduced at the kennel. But we have never seen such a devastation. At this point, we didn't know why they were going on such a rampage. Was it desperation, fear, too much energy, boredom?

For Farah, it quickly became clear that we needed to seek external advice. She posted the story of King and Quenni on social media and received a lot of advice, opinions and hints. At the same time, she tried to find out which dog breed the two could belong to.

Already on the third day the two dogs became more lively, more present, louder, more conspicuous and more aggressive. But always only when nobody was in or in front of the kennel. As soon as someone approached the kennel, they disappeared into their box. And suddenly Farah had a feeling she'd never had before. A feeling of fear. She couldn't describe it, it was a gut feeling and it had to have something to do with Quennis' gaze. From then on, Farah didn't dare go into the kennel in the evenings on her last run without a female companion. Her anxiety increased and King and Quenni became more and more conspicuous. The two dogs began to regard their kennel as their territory and their behaviour was accordingly. Now we knew that getting advice from people on social media was not enough. We had to have professional help.

Farah contacted the well-known wolf expert Anna Hein (www.camchatca.de) with whom she has often worked together in animal welfare. After Anna knew all the facts about King and Quenni, she advised us to separate the two as soon as possible. Anna also says that the two dogs are most likely guard dogs and therefore nocturnal. Such dogs are hardly trainable, because the protection of the herd lies deep in their genes. (such dogs know deep inside what their task is: to protect the sheep in their territory with all means).

And she went on to say that one should not underestimate such dogs. Because if it would be about protecting the territory or sheep, it can happen that guard dogs even attack their own master, if he would enter the territory at night. After these statements Farah's fear did not really decrease... The fact that one of the two dogs could go berserk and we had to separate the two as soon as possible did not only occupy Farah, but the whole team.

And then came Jutta. A down-to-earth power woman with over 40 years of experience in animal welfare. A trained animal shelter expert. She didn't wait long, went into the kennel and without hesitation she leashed Quenni. Of course Quenni started to fight back, but Jutta remained calm, professional and safe. She is very experienced with dogs and you could see that in every movement. Quenni was still trying to lock up, to fight back, when Jutta pulled her out of the box. But when the bitch realized that Jutta's will and determination were stronger, she gave up. She let herself go and immediately became apathetic, will-less, fearful, insecure and broken again. Farah finally had to carry Quenni to her new kennel and this even without a muzzle.

The two dogs were separated - and we were relieved but also sad that we had to take away what they always had in their lives: the "other". Quenni buried herself in her new box, where she stayed for days. King, too, just lay around. You could see the sadness, fear and being "broken" in his eyes. What had we done to these poor creatures? We animal rights activists. It was our fault that they were now broken for the second time. Our guilty conscience, accompanied us every minute from then on. The two dogs just lay in their boxes. They didn't even get up to do "their business" anymore. Farah could feed them by hand, but they only ate properly at night. But not only that: at night the two became active again. They howled and barked and of course they destroyed everything that was not nailed down (box, floor, rubber carpets, walls etc.), King even tried to destroy the massive bars of the kennel one night. With his tremendous strength, determination and a goal to somehow get to Quenni, he actually managed to push the bars apart with his nose.

A few days after the separation, one morning it became very fast, very hectic at the otherwise peaceful Finca Noah. We only heard how Mike shouted: "Quenni has broken out!". In shock, the whole team reacted as if stung by a tarantula. The six dogs running loose in the yard were brought into the house, someone grabbed a leash and muzzle, and everyone rushed out of the house. But where was Quenni? There was nothing to be seen with the horses, the rabbits, the dogs in the kennels, or the cats. Nor could we make her out anywhere else. Finally we found her, by chance, in a dark corner between the property fence and the garden house. In the same condition as we had seen her twice before: apathetic, will-less, scared, insecure and broken. And again Farah had to carry her. But this time back to her old kennel, to her brother, to their shared wooden box.

This was for us the most beautiful moment in the month of May. The first contact of the two dogs after they had been separated for days. Quenni snuggled up to her brother and he gently licked her muzzle. In that moment there was a silence, a contentment, a release and pure happiness..

In retrospect, it was wrong to separate the two. For the team it was easier to work with the dogs and better for building a relationship. But for King and Quenni the days of separation were just hell. The second one was. 

Farah was able to not only deepen her relationship with King in the days they were apart, but also build a rapport with Quenni and now has respect but no fear.

We don't really know how to proceed at this point either. Farah will continue to try to get the right contacts. Fact is: King and Quenni can't just be placed. They have to go to a professional who knows about guard dogs, trains them and/or needs them to work. But that won't be so easy with these two, because these dogs have experienced massive violence. Violence that was inflicted on them by a man.

Spring Cat Babies
Again it's spring and again the island sinks in a sea of unneutered cats and their babies. Currently we have three cat mamas with many, many babies with us.

Mike
No, we're not looking for a new place for our yardmaster - we're not giving him away! But Mike had bad luck. He fell so badly with his skateboard in his free time that he broke his left arm and is now walking around for two weeks with a plaster Mike is now missing with his energy in all corners of Finca Noah and we wish him a quick, good recovery.

And finally some nice spring impressions from Finca Noah.

Written by Nadia & Roger