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Left Behind: Pusha’s Long Road Back
They stopped the car, opened the door, and drove away. Pusha stood on the road watching them go, quizzical. He had been a household pet. He had known warmth, familiar smells, the sound of people he trusted. In a single moment, all of that was taken away.
He was most likely left behind because caring for a dog with weak front legs had become inconvenient. Because Pusha, who needed medical attention, had become a burden they no longer wanted to carry. So they put him out on the road and drove away.
Ukraine is home to hundreds of thousands of stray animals. Many were born into that life. Pusha was not. He arrived on the streets already struggling, with no idea how to survive out there. A kind local woman named Katya noticed him. She began bringing food each day, doing what little she could to help him survive. It wasn’t much, but it kept him going. Then she heard it happen.
The sound of a car. The impact. Pusha had been hit. Katya ran to him. He was heavily injured and stressed, unable to move properly. She refused to leave him there suffering, and she reached out to her local rescue shelter for help.
The shelter rushed Pusha to the clinic. The damage to his spine was severe. He will probably never walk without some form of assistance. It is a devastating thing to consider for a dog not yet old, not yet given a real chance at life.
But during the examination, the vets discovered something else.
Pusha had heartworms.
Spread by mosquitoes, heartworms attack the heart and lungs and can stay hidden for months before any symptoms appear.
For Pusha, the infection makes anaesthesia far too dangerous right now. Surgery on his spine and weakened legs will have to wait. First, he must complete a long course of heartworm treatment. Until his heart is strong enough, Pusha will rely on a wheelchair just to move.
This is the reality for abandoned animals. Even when help finally arrives, recovery is rarely simple. It takes time, specialist care, and the kind of quiet, ongoing commitment that doesn’t make headlines but makes all the difference.
Look at the photos of Pusha, and you will see something that surprises most people. Despite everything, despite the abandonment, the accident, the spinal damage, the hidden infection, he is still a dog with his tongue out and warmth in his eyes. He still wants to connect. He still looks, tentatively, like he might be willing to trust again.
Dog-loving ROLDA supporters ensure that dogs like Pusha receive the treatment they need without delay or compromise and get a chance at a fair life again.
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While ROLDA continue to lobby for government and law enforcement in Romania & Worldwide, we are committed to do more to eliminate puppy mills structures where animals are abused and exploited.
#FriendsForever was created by ROLDA to help seniors keep their pets healthy and prevent them from being forced to abandon the only friend they may have.
Our first built (small) shelter is now twenty years old and despite being nominated multiple times for the best shelter in Romania, its age is beginning to show and is in need of some TLC. ROLDA holds to the highest standards of comfort and care and control disease management is a top priority for us, in both our shelteras but we need help maintaining those standards and providing the best possible facilities for our dogs.
Whilst Romanian law currently prohibits the sterilisation of stray dogs (and their returning to the wild), ROLDA are operating sterilisation campaigns in poor communities, targeting the pets of low- income families who could not afford private veterinary care. These campaigns tackle abandonment– one of the primary contributing factors to the national homeless dog crisis – in two key ways.
