Not us – not here… not when it comes to saving animals. 

In order for us to help these rescues, we desperately need the help of our community! Without YOU, we are not able to do anything else then get them off the street…. And then what? We don’t have a facility. We don’t have unlimited space in our own homes and gardens. We don’t have the time, the energy and the money to take in all the animals – without your help, love and patience! 

We have made this post to let you get an insight in the work we are putting into getting our rescues into a home. Please – we want to make you understand how this works. We need you to understand, WHY we need your help – and HOW you can help.  

For a while we have been trying to let our dear community know, that we REALLY need your help. But it seems, that when somebody sees an animal that needs help – people ask for our help – but when they have been taken off the streets, then what? They tend to be forgotten, because now the cat/dog is out of the street? 

The losers!

The only losers right now are the animals, who’s physical needs are being met – they get fed and they have a roof over their heads. But their emotional needs are not being met, because we cannot do this alone!

The money that we have raised, that should pay for medical visits might – again – have to be used for boarding – and we get dogs back from the boarding houses, that start from scratch again and again. These money could be used much more wisely to vaccinate, sterilize, give them medication, when they are sick etc. 

The animals are the losers – they are not thriving animals, but only surviving animals, and for that, they could have stayed on the street. Please understand us correctly– this is not what we want – but we see animals, that are NOT thriving, because we cannot meet their emotional needs… 

Out of options

We need you to understand, that we are out of options! We are stretched thin! We are NOT crying wolf, WE NEED HELP! This is not a discussion about which organization helps which animal or who does best. We respect and acknowledge every organization, every individual, who makes a difference for the animals – but we NEED to stand together to help, we are all suffering in this rescue world! 

Right now we have 3 dogs, who HAVE not yet found their forever homes, a place to be loved and spoilt rotten. We cannot find a foster home for them – and we do not have ANYWHERE that they can stay! Please understand, that this is how it is – we do not have anywhere to put these animals. 

The situation right now 👇🏼

Lily and Daisy are sisters and around 2 years old. We have had them for over a year now. When they were found, they were in a very bad condition. They both had parvo and had to be taken to urgent care at the emergency vet. They pulled through and everybody were so understanding and wanted to help. Luckily we could pay the bills because of generous donations and we greatly appreciate this.

But then they were “forgotten” and went from foster home to foster home, went to a boarding facility where they were taught so many good manners, but we never found them a home. They were together most of the time and it has not been optimal for them. They tend to fall into old patterns and needs to have their own place to grow into the amazing dogs we know they are. 

Now, we have finally separated them and trying to find foster homes and eventually forever homes. But it takes time, patience and love. When there is not enough time for them to learn that they are loved, they fall through at their foster homes 🥺 and we are back to square one. 

Frida is around 2-3 years old. She wandered into 205 Housing, malnourished and very thin. She was looking for love and attention – and food. We took her in – what else could we do? She is a purebred German Wirehaired Pointer (Deutsch Drahthaar). We thought it would be easy to find her a home, but this has failed until now. 

She is a darling, but is left to herself a lot of the time, because we have no foster family for her. She needs love and attention, she needs to be taught, how to be in a house with a family, learn how to trust again – and she will be a huge win for a family! But without the help from our community, patience and love from a foster – she will not have a chance to learn this 🥺

PLEASE help us help these animals! PLEASE help us to make it happen…

Send us an e-mail or a Facebook PM and let us know that you can help us ❤️‍🩹

  

📢 🚨 WE HAVE A NEW DROP OFF ADDRESS FOR DONATIONS 🐕 🐕 🐈 🐈

As of THURSDAY the 15th of February 2024 there will be a new info for you to drop off donations at Marinai.

Schedule for drop off donations for SAWS:
Donations are accepted every Wednesday and Thursday at
2422C Via del Limone (Marinai).
Donations can be left underneath the carport by the shed. But be sure to leave a walk way to the door, please!

If you miss us, please send us a message on our Facebook.

We gladly take: food, treats, crates and kennels, litter boxes, blankets, treats, towels, leashes, collars, toys, feeding bowls, etc., basically anything you might have to help us help them.

But please: As a gentle reminder, we do ask to make sure the used donations are appropriately cleaned, useable and intact.

We do not accept: clothing or household items.

Thank you in advance for your enormous help and generosity for our furry friends.

Some of our much appreciated board members have now left and we are in great need of new board members.

The stray cats and dogs around Naval Air Station Sigonella needs YOU to volunteer for a good cause 🐾

At this point SAWS – Sigonella Animal Welfare Society is looking for
✳️ ADOPTION & FOSTER Coordinator
✳️ ADOPTION & FOSTER Coordinator Assistant
✳️ COMMUNICATIONS Officer 1
✳️ Secondary COMMUNICATIONS Officer
✳️ SECRETARY

🌀  About the Adoption & Foster Coordinator
The Foster and Adoption Coordinator anticipates the needs of SAWS fosters, works closely with the supply coordinator to ensure fosters receive all supplies needed to care for their foster pets, maintains all foster agreements and assist with vet visits.
This board member oversees communication with the potential adopters, ensures all adoption agreements are properly filled out, verifies payment of adoption fees, and conducts wellness checks.

🌀  About the Adoption & Foster Coordinator assistant
The Adoption & Foster Coordinator Assistant works closely with the Adoption & Foster Coordinator and helps with tasks mentioned the above.

🌀 About the Communications Officer
The Comms. Officer works closely with the Comms. Team Lead to manage all social media accounts belonging to SAWS. This includes, but is not limited to, answering messages.
The Comms Officer must actively promote positive community relations and take marketable photos at events. Actively market adoptable animals via all available channels is required, like posting urgent emergency posts and sharing courtesy posts.

🌀 About the Secondary Comms. Officer
The Secondary Communications Officer will assist in managing all social media accounts belonging to SAWS. This includes, but is not limited to, answering messages, and posting on behalf of SAWS on Facebook and Instagram.

🌀 About the Secretary
The Secretary schedules meetings via Zoom, maintains and distributes meeting minutes to all board members, and uploads files to our shared drive. Amongst others, this member will also conduct quarterly audits of funds, and assist the Event Coordinator as needed.

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You will of course get volunteer hours for helping.

Please send us a message telling a bit about yourself and which position you can see yourself in – and why. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

➡️  Note: All board members must have full access to NAS 1, NAS 2 and Marinai.

At SAWS we stand shoulder to shoulder, giving our very best to help aid the stray animals around base, rescuing the pets we can – with the fosters we have in hand, sharing pet-related knowledge, and acting as a liaison network for those who rescue, foster, and adopt stray animals. If you’d like to help the Sigonella community, meet likeminded people and be part of a dedicated team that help the strays, this is your chance to do so!!

READY? SET – GO… write us a PM or send us a mail on info@pawsofsaws.org 📬

November 2023 – Iva Deshazer

OCTOBER 2023 – Sandra Ahrens

SEPTEMBER 2023 – Doriana Marletta-Hines

 

AUGUST 2023 – Cheyanne & Joshua Fisk

JUNE 2023  – Rebekah McPherson

 

We love our fosters ❤️ They are the cornerstones for our rescues to prepare them for a new life in their future furever homes.

Do you know, that when we find an abandoned or stray animal in the triangle, our hands are tied until we have found a foster, who can take in the cat or dog? As long as we have no volunteers, there can be no rescues 🥺 And that makes us sad, because we so badly want to help the strays.

We have updated our foster agreement which means ALL new fosters will have the opportunity to receive a small stipend. If you’re interested in helping us take care of our rescues, please contact us for full details.

What does a foster do❓
A foster provide the SAWS rescues with LOVE, FOOD (that we provide, of course) and WALKS (mainly our dogs 😆). The rescues need to learn normal house rules, potty training, maybe crate training and – very importantly – they need to learn to trust and socialize ❤️

Our fosters are indispensable and impossible to do without and are truly highly valued, and they are often passionate about giving the rescues the best start of their new lives❗️

We need you❗️
We do NOT have enough volunteers to help us with this task. It is an amazing experience for most fosters – and a very important job for the rescues. It is actually one of the most important tasks, since it is in the foster’s care, that the animals learn to be part of a family – to be a trusted friend.

Please step forward – we know you are out there and we know you can do this. We are right behind you in every step you take in becoming a great foster. We will provide training and everything you need to be the best foster, you can possibly be.

We are looking forward to hear from you. Please fill out the foster application, if you are interested in helping our rescues.
If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact us on email: info@pawsofsaws.org or via Facebook PM.

Thank you 🙏
on behalf of the SAWS rescue animals

The stray cats and dogs around Naval Air Station Sigonella need YOU to volunteer for a good cause 🐾 🐶 SAWS – Sigonella Animal Welfare Society is looking for a special volunteer at this point 🐱

✅ SoMe “INTERNSHIP” (not a board member) ✅

Here you have an excellent opportunity to beef up your college application! SAWS is willing to help you do that through an internship. Here you can work on your SoMe skills, earn volunteer hours and help us do a good cause.

This – an internship at SAWS – will be a win-win situation for you and for SAWS, who needs help with our Social Media.

Short info about the job

As our SoMe “intern” you will help our Communication Team Lead with posts on our Social Media (for example courtesy posts, urgent posts, events and pets up for adoption). Facebook is where we have our main network, and we want to grow Instagram as well.

You are comfortable in working/navigating on Facebook (Meta Business Suite) and Instagram, and you are good at working with pictures and video. Help us create amazing posts, reels, stories from pictures, videos and your magic words 😊

• So – you are good at juggling Facebook (Meta Business Suite) and Instagram
• you are good with creating content from pictures and videos
• you are good with words
• AND – you want to help us help the cats and dogs in the triangle of Naval Air Station Sigonella

READY? SET – GO… write us a PM on Facebook or send us a mail on info@pawsofsaws.org. Tell us who you are and why you would like to work with us and how. Tell us, why you are the right intern for SAWS.

We are looking forward to telling you more about this internship 😁

Unfortunately we have had an incident of Canine Parvovirus in one of our rescues.

For that reason we want to inform you about what the source of infection is and what the symptoms are.

The short info:

This virus is highly contagious and spreads through direct contact with an infected dog or by indirect contact with a contaminated object.
Your puppy is exposed to the parvovirus every time he sniffs, licks, or consumes infected feces. Indirect transmission occurs when a person who has recently been exposed to an infected dog touches your puppy, or when a puppy encounters a contaminated object, like a food or water bowl, collars and leashes, and the hands and clothing of people who handle infected dogs.

Parvovirus causes severe life threatening diarrhea, often bloody. If left untreated, the mortality rate can exceed 90%, with death occurring within 48 – 72 hours after the onset of symptoms.

The more in-depth info:

How Parvo Spreads to Dogs:
Veterinary experts agree that virtually all of the world’s dogs have been exposed to canine parvovirus. The virus begins to “shed,” or be excreted by a dog, three to four days following his exposure to the virus, often before clinical signs of the infection have appeared. The virus is also shed in huge amounts from infected dogs in their feces for 7-10 days; a single ounce of fecal matter from a parvo-infected dog contains 35,000,000 units of the virus, and only 1,000 are needed to cause infection.

In addition, the virus can be carried on shoes, tires, people, animals (including insects and rodents), and many mobile surfaces, including wind and water. Because it is difficult to remove from the environment and because infected dogs shed the virus in such profusion, Parvovirus can spread not only to veterinary clinic, grooming salon, and obedience school, but every street, park, house, school, shopping mall, airplane, bus, and office in the world.

While a dog that is diagnosed with Parvovirus will be quickly isolated by his veterinarian and his recent environment will be cleaned and disinfected, some infected dogs have such minor symptoms that no one realizes they are ill. Infected dogs, with or without symptoms, shed the virus for about two weeks. If conditions are right, the virus can survive for up to six months. Although Parvovirus is destroyed by sunlight, steam, diluted chlorine bleach, and other disinfectants, sterile environments can be quickly reinfected.

Parvovirus symptoms to watch for:
Here are the signs of Parvovirus, you should not ignore if you suspect your dog has been exposed. It is important to remember that most parvovirus deaths occur within 48 and 72 hours following a dog showing clinical signs.

• sudden inappetance (dog won’t eat)
• vomiting
• extreme lethargy or depression
• diarrhea (severe and/or containing blood)
• dehydration
• a bloated, tender, or seemingly painful abdomen
• rapid heartbeat
• red gums and eyeballs
• low body temperature (hypothermia)

Canine Parvovirus Medical Treatment

Most veterinarians treat Parvovirus with intravenous fluids and antibiotics. In addition, treatment may include balancing the blood sugar, intravenous electrolytes, intravenous nourishment, and an antiemetic injection to reduce nausea and vomiting. None of these treatments “cure” the disease or kill the virus; they are supportive therapies that help stabilize the dog long enough for his immune system to begin counteracting the virus.

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PLEASE be aware of your dog – and please take care of your 4-legged furry best friend ❤️