Lithuania says hi

[MildaMatilda]

Hi!

After participating in this forum's life for some time, I feel the need to finally introduce myself.
My name is Milda, friends often refer to me as Matilda, I'm 24, living in this tiny country called Lithuania and a miniature town called Siauliai, but soon moving to Vilnius the capital.
I work as an English teacher in the International Baccalaureate programme, if that rings any bells for any of you reading this post (if any). Basically, working with international education and pedagogy, which I love. Training dogs, by the way, has helped me deal with children and vice versa

I've been an animal lover since I can remember myself. Inherited this from my mom. Unfortunately, mom being allergic to cats, we've been limited to only raise everything but cats Always had dogs, always dachshunds, would rescue cats from the streets, keep them in my room and find them good homes, rescued a crow once etc etc. During the study years, because I couldn't have dogs around, I started getting more and more interested in rats, and ended up with a huge cage in my room that I built myself and four ratties inside. Believe it or not, they resemble dogs to an amazing extent.

Finally, my dream has come true and now, for the past ~6 months, I have my own dog named Uma. She's a rescue found stray, but probably abandoned from a home, which we assume based on the level of obedience she had right from the beginning. Having grown up with dachshunds, - and dachshund lovers will understand me, - I had forgotten that a dog can actually be affectionate, fully obedient, loving and, simply saying, perfect. She's probably a lab/shepherd mix (not sure - have a thread on that here), pretty as can be My mom fell in love with her and inspired by my situation, adopted another dog for her. This is how from one dog we ended up with a pack of 3 dogs. Unfortunately, the 2 rescues are not friends anymore, but I have another thread on that.

So that's that I guess. Very happy to have found this forum. It's been a great help already.

My pack of rats, around 4 years ago:


our incomplete (one missing) terribly miserable dog pack (Uma by the sofa):


and the missing link, our 14 year old senior Pula:

[Ari_RR]

Nice, welcome aboard!
Nice rats you've got there... I guess

It's terrific to have folks here from all parts of the world.
I've been to Vilnus several times, and to another place Druskininkai (I think), but a very, very long time ago, and wasn't paying much attention to dogs/humans dynamics back then.
(Later in life, visiting India frequently, I was paying attention - and it was horrifying, mostly)

So, do share - stories, pictures, opinions, comments!

Is there still museum of devils in Vilnus? There was one when I was there...

[MildaMatilda]

It's still there!
Speaking of dogs, unfortunately we're still in a dark place, considering our rehabilitation from the soviet union. Dogs are still mostly either treated as things or prisoners. As I mentioned in one of my threads here, there are no animal behaviorists and no such study programs, the vets (esp.in smaller towns) are hard to trust and, dog owners are discriminated and deprived of their rights in most public places (for example, you cannot take your dog to absolutely any means of public transportation. Very smart, thanks.) but we're getting out of there thanks to people like Victoria Stilwell and those that bother to care about them

And Druskininkai is correct, yes thanks for the welcome!
P.S. Rats is history. They're replaced by dogs now