Adopt puppies and "teens"
UP TO 3 YEARS
A puppy will become exactly as beautiful and “well-behaved” as you are able to raise it. Just like a baby, a puppy or a still-growing dog is a good opportunity to put your non-aggressive loving and attachment skills to work. If you show him love even when he makes mistakes, and firmly but gently and gently correct his unwanted behaviour, you’ll end up with a wonderful dog who knows what you want sometimes better than you do.
The Internet is nowadays an ideal place to enrich our “parenting” knowledge, because that’s what we are to the dogs in our lives, real parents. So we encourage all of you, regardless of the age of the puppy you have chosen, to educate yourself from trusted sources and try to become first and foremost those “good guys” in your dogs’ lives.
Adopt adult dogs
BETWEEN 3 AND 8 YEARS
An adult dog is a dog with a character and with pleasures or fears already largely formed, but often also a more balanced and self-confident dog. For those who have been on the streets for a long time, at least, their experience in such a diverse environment makes them excellent candidates for adoption.
So if you want an already mature dog in your lives, keep in mind that it will be a relationship between adults who, like any responsible adult, will negotiate their boundaries and the things they want from each other together.
Don’t hesitate to ask our staff for advice and help, as it is also very important that your new friend is compatible in personality and character with your lifestyle.
Adopt senior dogs
OVER 8 YEARS
Elderly dogs are a sensitive subject for us and one that, we tell you frankly, causes us a lot of regret and pain. We have a lot of dogs in our shelter over 8-10 years old, some even older than 15 years. A good number of them have lived their whole lives in the shelter, waiting every day in vain for someone to show them what it means to be a dog.
Time does not work in favour of these beautiful souls, because with every week or month that they get older their chances of being adopted decrease dramatically. Senior dog adoptions are extremely rare, although we guarantee that most would be a great fit in a home or at least a yard where they can live out the last part of their lives finally happy.
In early 2022, our shelter broke a record when puppy Buni was adopted for the first time at the age of 19 by a loving family from Cluj. Buni behaved from the first moment as if she had been with these people her whole life. Unfortunately, however, such situations are far from common. More reasonably, if you don’t feel like taking a senior dog home, you can also adopt him from afar. Long-distance adoption involves a monthly donation specifically for the dog in question, visits at your discretion and keeping the adopter informed (within our available time) of the animal’s condition.
Adopt dogs on scooters
We do not euthanize dogs under virtually any circumstances, and under no circumstances do we euthanize dogs that can no longer use their hind legs. On the contrary, we love and pet them even more and provide them with lifetime care and accommodation.
Paraplegics living in our shelter have a privileged status: in the evening they sleep in a special place suited to their needs, and during the day they are free and always on the move, thanks to the custom-made trolleys we equip them with. They are thoroughly washed and groomed daily, and some of them, the recoverable ones, do regular exercises in our physiotherapy clinic. If you come to visit us sometime, therefore, expect to be greeted by cheerful, playful dogs on wheels who, apart from the fact that they can’t quite execute the “sit” command, behave in all respects exactly like normal, healthy dogs.
And while you’re visiting, ask our shelter colleagues about the story of each paraplegic we care for, because they all have exciting and often painful stories behind them.
Adopt "from afar"
If time or space doesn’t allow you to physically adopt a dog, you have the option of distance adoption. While not ideal, since the dog would remain in the shelter, a monthly donation to one dog or another is a tremendous help to that dog, to others and to all of us at Speranța.
Our policy is to leave it up to you to decide both the length of the long distance adoption contract and the amount you will donate on a regular basis to support your favorite dog. We don’t want you to feel pressured, because we know that pressure and coercion are not good for love, and we would like to offer you exactly that: a love story, be it a long-distance one. Obviously, should you decide to take the big step of taking him home at some point, you will have priority in adopting that dog, and other families will not be able to adopt him without your prior consent.