The Unsung Heroes Behind Every Successful Dog Rescue

We’re sure you’ve heard the saying, “Not all heroes wear capes.” But do you know how many people around you may have actually saved a life? More than you think.

How do we know this? Because for over 20 years, we have seen how many people it takes to save a single dog. And we are in awe of all of them every single day. This says a lot since we have over 700 dogs in our care and thousands to track in their forever homes. That’s a lot of people!

Here, let us show you what we mean.

Rescue Scenario

A woman on a walk or on her way to work notices an abandoned female dog with her three little From under her matted fur, tiny beady eyes look up at the woman in hope. Will she be the one to step up?

The woman can see the dogs are struggling. They are dirty, and they look famished. The pups have swollen bellies and need deworming, and the mother is skinny and riddled with ticks sucking her dry.

So, instead of dropping a bag of salty crackers on the ground and calling it a day, the woman calls ROLDA, tells us about the mother and her pups, and waits until our team arrives.

Once there, our team takes the dogs to our shelter, where they receive an initial check-up and, later, undergo more in-depth medical exams provided by our medical partners.

We provide appropriate care based on each dog's condition and veterinary advice. Severe cases remain at the clinic, while milder ones are returned to the shelter, where our staff can look after them.

Once the dogs are doing better, we assess their behavior, and, if the evaluation goes well, we put them up for adoption. Even during this phase, we have a long list of people involved in the process who work hard to find loving people for our dogs.

Case closed!

Now, let’s see how many people were involved in this rescue.

The First Caller

The person who calls us to report an animal in distress is the one who initiates the rescue process. We might be the ones with the entire rescue infrastructure, and we may also be very proactive about going around the county to find animals in need, but we cannot be everywhere at the same time.

We need the help of individuals who notice animals in need. Although the first caller’s role may seem brief, it’s actually very crucial. Without the woman, we wouldn’t know about the mother dog and her three pups. Or we might find out later, when their condition is worse, or when it would be too late for them.

The Rescue Team

They are probably the most obvious heroes in our story. But they are also the ones bearing the brunt of the rescue effort.

Our rescuers must be willing and able to jump in the rescue van whenever that phone call arrives.
There are no vacation days or postponements when an animal in need is found. Availability is important in this role, and it is something many people seem to overlook when thinking about our rescue team heroes.

Their communication skills must be great because not all first callers are great at describing situations, giving the correct location, or following instructions such as: ‘If the dog looks frightened, please do not approach. Let us handle it!’

Knowing the lay of the land is another requirement, as animals might sometimes be spotted in hard-to-reach places. But experienced rescuers might know a few things about how they got there and how to save them. Once again, this is something better left to the professionals.

Last, but by far the least in this stage of the rescue, is the level of risk involved. Animals will act out of instinct, especially when injured or sick. They could bite, put up a fight, or run away. They could injure themselves and the rescuers in the attempt to pick them up. This is why a rescuer’s job is sometimes dangerous.

Once safely in our care, our rescuers make an initial assessment of the animals and decide whether they can head to our shelter for first aid or need to go directly to one of our partner vet clinics.

The Medical Professionals

There is little glamour in helping animal rescue organizations such as ours. And yet, we have a number of dedicated veterinarians who have stepped up, taken on severe injuries, and treated advanced medical conditions more than once. And all without waving their bills in our faces.

It is an act of dedication of time and knowledge, and we appreciate our collaborators for always stepping up and seeing our residents through their recovery with exactly the care they need.

Most of the animals we rescue would perish if our medical partners were not available.

Foster Care Volunteers

Sometimes animals need time and a special place to recover from medical procedures. They may also need a quiet place where medication can be administered while they keep calm and gather their strength. This is where we need foster care and volunteers—people who are willing to open their homes to vulnerable animals.

They must be empathetic, alert, caring, be able to report back on their foster animal’s condition, and be willing to administer medicine and change wound dressings. It is almost a full-time job caring for animals who are not their own.

And yet, we have so many wonderful people willing to step in and give our rescues the care they have never known.

Staff Members and Volunteers

Another category of hidden heroes consists of the people making the day-to-day operations of the shelters possible. Our residents might not need around-the-clock care, but they do need to eat; their kennels need to be cleaned; and they need to be walked and socialized. We could not do this without our staff, volunteers, and anyone willing to help.

This is why our permanent shelter staff is very much appreciated. They are the administrative wizards who make limited resources stretch to cover every necessity, and who know just how to spend and when to save, so that our residents receive the best care.

Volunteers will come in for fixed periods of time and double these efforts. And at ROLDA, we have had the best kind of volunteers – people who have traveled from afar to give a helping hand, people from the community who wish to make a difference, and people across Romania who believe that what we do is worthy of support.

These are also the people who make adoptions possible by developing the best campaigns, presenting our dogs to highlight their best features, and vetting potential adopters so our dogs are given their best chance at a real, safe life.

Donors and Sponsor

Donors and sponsors might not be physically present at our shelter, feeding and actively caring for our dogs. But their donations make our entire operation possible. Every brick, every bag of food, every vaccine, and every complex surgery is funded through the generosity of our donors and sponsors. None of what we have mentioned above would be possible without these funds.

As you can see, the list of unsung heroes behind every rescue is long. It’s never just one person carrying one dog in their arms. It’s about many people pitching in. We could not imagine our work without any of these heroes, and it is all done in a perfect balance. Removing even one of these heroes from the process would significantly alter our rescues.