Over the past couple of days, we have visited numerous pounds and shelters within the Nicosia area, to include: the Unified Pound of Latsia, Yeri, the Unified Pound of Dali, Nicosia Unified Pound, 2nd Chance Life, Saving Pound Dogs, Cyprus, and Nicosia Dog Shelter (which incidentally, is situated on a military base, so an ‘interesting’ prospect given the current situation, and not only did we surrender our passports for several hours, we also ate in a Syrian restaurant yesterday evening). But, I digress…

We have hundreds of photographs – all worthy of sharing, but given our time restrictions for now, here’s a little taster (and we will give more detail in due course)…

Latsia:

(Three friendly boys, who were protecting their Pekingese pal who was hiding behind them, and who also had a taste for Lena’s tubes of squeezy cheese.)

Yeri:

Dali:

2nd Chance Life (an extremely impressive private shelter, the owners of whom have clearly gone to huge levels and expense to ensure the absolute best for any dogs within their care):

Nicosia Dog Shelter:

Saving Pound Dogs, Cyprus:

The last pound that we visited, was without doubt, the most horrific part of the day for the three of us.

Serving five municipalities (councils), the pound has severe financing issues and with only one individual managing it and in excess of approximately sixty dogs within their care, times are tough. Almost all dogs (except the very recent arrivals) are in an emaciated condition, and in desperate need of medical assistance due to a lack of funds.

During this visit, we also came across this little boy, who was clearly in dire need of our help…

Upon closer inspection, we realised that he was in the advanced stages of untreated echlicia (please note the colour of the gums)…

We managed to arrange for the dog to be collected and taken to the vets, and even had a future foster home in place should he survive the night. Sadly, he didn’t…