Happy Paws' "hands"

       Since 2006 when I started the NGO, I have worked with these people and I can safely say they are hard working, devoted animal lovers. They have been of great help to me and, although we have some arguements about wheather we should run Happy Paws with our hearts or with our minds, they keep Happy Paws running.

Marilena and Shakira

            Marilena Bărbulescu (owns two small stores),  the "food lady" is the one who hunts for all the good offers for HP dogs (visits all the supermarkets to check the best price for dog food). She cooks a "hot meal"  once every two weeks (she is a very busy lady) for everyone at HP and the dogs love her for it. She feeds all the dogs that she rescued from the Public Shelter in Moreni and all the strays that are dumped in the woods nearby Moreni. Her car is never out of dog food for emergency situations. She uses her car to transport dogs to free spay/neuter campaigns and usually puts up the most "physical strenght" into it, as these campaigns can be very challenging.

         She often plays the "bad cop" part, trying to make us see we can't rescue all dogs from the street and take it to Happy Paws (I agree, although I love all of them and would save them, if possible). She is known to rescue hopeless cases, dogs abandoned or abused beyond imagination, using her own money; she often fostered these dogs into her own home, despite the fights with her family.

        Marilena drives me with 4-5 dogs to the vet (as her car is bigger) and helps me handle them once arrived at the vet clinic. Thank you for your strenght and courage!

Daniela and Sassi

            Daniela Rusen (retired) goes to Happy Paws almost daily with our help and cleans, feeds and checks up all the dogs. She is known as "the puppy lady", because she has a soft spot for abandoned puppies and often takes them into HP without telling the others. She is our "toddler", as she needs to be constantly reminded about the rules (which she often breaks :D). She is the "heart" of Happy Paws and brought most of the dogs into HP.

            She feeds the babies with cooked rice and chicken every day, until they grow bigger and stronger. She also feeds a lot of dogs on the streets of Moreni and used to go very often into the PS Moreni, when it was opened. She sponsored a lot of dogs being spayed/neuter back when we had to pay for it. Thank you for your effort!

            Auraş Răducu ( handyman) is our friend/ driver/ handyman around HP. He built Happy Paws from scratch and never asked for any money. He built the fences, the kennels, poured cement and built the doggie houses. He drives me and my dogs around to the vet clinic, to the airport, to and out of foster homes. He helps us a lot during our free spay/neuter campaigns driving dogs to and back, he helps clean up after the campaigns. He is the very essence of "working with your mind", because he is constantly reminding us that HP should be about quality, not quantity. Auraş is not a bad man, but he is a man and he always thinks about effiecency and sustainability. Thank you for your wise and expert advise!

Malina and Teddy

            Mălina Gheţe (veterinary) is our dear friend and vet who seems to have a magic garden, where medicine grows on trees. She always helps us with our sick dogs and hardly ever expects to get paid for it (she would make a great business woman :D). She vaccinated everyone in HP and checks up on them from time to time. She helped us treat the dogs against kennel cough (November 2012) and mange (all the puppies December 2012). She fosters dogs for us and she is a great foster mum (just take Kiki for example, a semi-wild dog who turned out to be a loving Norwegian princess).

           She very generously hoasts our free spay/neuter campaigns (without ever charging for the supplies, of course) and most importantly, she never ever leads us into error and always admits when she can't handle a case. Thank you for your honesty!

            Anca Ioana Dumitru (works in her family business) is our newest member and although she handles a lot of rescues on her own, she is always there to lend us a hand. She helps in any way she can without ever asking for anything in return, a rare and precious thing nowadays. Thank you for your loving heart!

Anca at a free spay/neuter campaign