Alya – Ten Years, no Loyalty

The small terrier sat where her family had left her, waiting for them to come back. She didn’t understand why they’d walked away. She couldn’t comprehend that at ten years old, with tumors growing on her belly, she was now considered disposable.

How long did Alya wait before she realized they weren’t returning?

In Ukraine, where the ongoing war has displaced millions and shattered countless lives, abandoned pets have become an all-too-common tragedy. Some families flee and cannot take their animals. Others, facing impossible choices between survival and sentiment, leave their pets behind. But Alya’s story is different, and perhaps more heartbreaking; her owners didn’t flee danger. They simply decided an aging dog with health problems was no longer worth keeping.

When Inessa, who runs a ROLDA-sponsored shelter in Ukraine, found Alya, the physical evidence of neglect was unmistakable. The tumors on her mammary glands had grown large and painful. Her body showed the telltale signs of a dog who had spent years breeding, producing litter after litter, only to be discarded when she was no longer useful. At ten years old, Alya should have been enjoying her senior years in the comfort of the home she’d known. She deserved some gratitude and loyalty in her old age. Instead, she was alone, sick, and abandoned.

For older dogs with serious health conditions, time is not a luxury. Mammary tumors in dogs can be malignant, and without intervention, they grow, spread, and cause immeasurable suffering. Alya needed help immediately.

Thanks to supporters who make ROLDA’s work in Ukraine possible, Inessa was able to rush Alya into surgery. The procedure was extensive: removing the tumors from one side of her mammary chain and spaying her to prevent future health complications. The surgery went well, and Alya is now recovering safely at the shelter.

But her journey isn’t over yet. In one month, when her body has healed sufficiently, she’ll need to return to the clinic for a second surgery to remove the tumors from her other side. It’s a lot to ask of a ten-year-old dog who has already been through so much.

Yet despite everything she’s endured (the abandonment, the pain, the confusion of finding herself in unfamiliar surroundings), Alya’s eyes still hold a gentle sweetness. She still wags her tail when someone approaches. She still believes that people can be kind.

Dogs like Alya represent a crisis that extends far beyond individual heartbreak. Senior dogs are the most likely to be abandoned when families face hardship or simply decide that caring for an aging pet is too inconvenient. In war-torn Ukraine, where resources are stretched impossibly thin and survival itself is uncertain, these vulnerable animals face even bleaker prospects.

Without shelters like the one Inessa runs, and without the international support that ROLDA supporters offer, dogs like Alya would have nowhere to turn. The surgery she received, the careful post-operative care she’s receiving now, and the second surgery she’ll need next month all require funding that local resources simply cannot provide.

This is where you, as part of the ROLDA community, make the difference between life and death.

Alya will spend her recovery time surrounded by people who see her value, who understand that ten years of loyalty and love deserves better than abandonment. She’ll receive the medical attention she needs, the gentle care that eases her pain, and the dignity that every living being deserves.

When she’s fully healed, Alya will have the chance at something her previous owners denied her: a peaceful, comfortable senior life where she is wanted, valued, and loved.

Your support makes stories like Alya’s possible. In a country where war has created so much suffering, where abandoned animals face impossible odds, and where every act of rescue requires courage and resources, your donations become lifelines. They transform abandonment into hope, neglect into healing, and despair into second chances.

Alya waited where her family had left her, not understanding why they had gone. But she’s not waiting anymore. She’s recovering, healing, and discovering that while some people abandon, others choose to save.