Romanians go to the doctor only when something really bothers them—a blocked kidney, a painful tooth that refuses to come out, a fainting spell. So it’s no wonder that they can’t see others’ suffering. The stoicism people adopt when it comes to their own health is reflected externally in the form of indifference.
Alma, a 6-month-old homeless puppy, was treated with this same indifference. All alone, without an owner to keep her on a leash, Alma was hit by a car while trying to cross the street. The accident left her with an open fracture in her right rear paw. It could have been worse—she could have remained motionless in the middle of the street, or she could have never walked again. And so Alma went hopping under a balcony—to lick her wounds and mourn her misfortune. Faint with pain and frostbitten by cold, she whined all day and howled all night long. The exasperated residents chased her away. She found shelter from the snow, under the balcony of another building. But her cries disturbed these people, too. So, another building and another balcony followed, and several others, again and again. Finally one morning, the dog’s pain was about to end when an exasperated tenant had the brilliant idea to call AMP. ”She screamed from pain untill she lost her voice,” said Oana David, manager of the Victory shelter.
Alma was immediately transported to the Victory shelter, where she was operated on. ”The dog had a triple open fracture with the muscle and skin missing. We operated on her in emergency, and the wound was cleaned and disinfected. As there were no misplaced bones, there was no need to put in rods. We made a graft of skin and muscles, then we applied sterile bandages and local treatments,” said the vet at Victory.
For almost a month, Alma has been under treatment. The AMP staff is cleaning and bandaging her wound every day to prevent infection. Once she recovers, Alma will be available for adoption.
