You may recall the story of Arwen that we shared a few months ago: a female street dog who was found stranded on the street after being hit by a car and brought to the Tbilisi Municipal Shelter.

Unfortunately, one of Arwen’s legs was so badly injured that our team had to amputate it. She also had a significant amount of soft-tissue damage on her tummy from being dragged along under the car.

In Tbilisi, Mayhew funds a Trap, Vaccinate, Neuter, Return (TVNR) programme to help manage the large population of dogs living on the streets, neutering and vaccinating them before releasing them back to their territories under the watchful eye of Georgian volunteers. However, in Arwen’s case, with only three legs and needing a lot of aftercare, re-releasing her back to the streets would have put her life at risk.

Since it’s inception in 2015, 1,360 dogs have been neutered and vaccinated by our team in Georgia.

Georgian vet Dr Ana, who had cared for Arwen through her trauma and long recovery period, set out to find her a loving new home. Ana looked to her friends and colleagues and enlisted the help of a German shelter that had previously rehomed Georgian dogs in Germany.

Within a few weeks, a family had been found – this time in America. Following a lot of correspondence and discussion, it was decided that Arwen would start a new life stateside. Arwen was neutered, fully vaccinated, received flea and worm treatment, and spent time in a foster home making friends with other dogs.

As Ana was taking a holiday in the US, she was able to accompany Arwen on the journey to her new family in Ohio, where she is now enjoying life in her forever home, with an enormous garden to explore and even a lake to swim in! After all she has been through, we are delighted that Arwen has found her happily ever after.

Learnings from the USA

While Ana was in the US, Mayhew arranged for her to spend a day with the ASCPA Vet Hospital and mobile clinic in New York City, observing the running of their charitable clinic and mobile spay-and-neuter initiative in action and picking up vital tips and experience to take back to Georgia. “I loved my experience at ASPCA,” says Ana, “and their mobile clinics are something we could consider for the future in Georgia.”