Europe4strays

A Romanian dog rescue, run by one woman

Europe4strays

Building a better future for the stray dogs of Vrancea County: one rescue, one sterilization, one adoption at a time.

Movilița · Vrancea · Romania · since 2015

Mirela in an orange fleece, a dog leaning its head against her cheek, the whole pack crowding the corridor behind them.
Mirela laughing while a black and white puppy licks her face.

Chapter one

The dogs come to meet you

Every morning at the yard begins the same way: a pack of survivors walking toward whoever opens the gate. They are in no hurry.

The yard at feeding time. Not one of them was born in safety.

*AI-animated from a real photo

Chapter two

Their faces

Three hundred and fifty is a number. These are not.

Close portrait of a white dog with one blue eye and a mud-flecked muzzle.
One blue eye, one brown. Found on the streets of Vrancea.
A black and white dog sitting beside a scruffy grey companion.
Most arrive in pairs or packs. Company is how they survived.
Two large dogs looking into the camera in front of the shelter building.
The big ones wait longest. They are the gentlest of all.
Two puppies sitting on river pebbles.
Puppies arrive all year. Sterilization is the only thing that slows this.

Some of these dogs are ready to travel to a family in the EU. How adoption works

Chapter three

The woman who stayed

Mirela Mistodinis spent half her life in Italy. In 2015 she came home to Movilița, her village in Vrancea County, and found the streets full of dogs nobody wanted.

Her first rescue was 24 puppies at once. Fifteen of them had parvovirus, a disease that kills most puppies who catch it. She found veterinary care for every one, and every one survived. Some were adopted abroad. Some never left her side.

Today she runs Europe4strays as a registered Romanian NGO, one hundred percent volunteer, together with her sister Neli, her husband Dragoș and a handful of activists at home and abroad. The dogs live in her house, in Neli's house, and in the lodge they are building.

Since 2018 the team has also run spay and neuter campaigns, covering the costs for families who cannot afford them. Sterilization is the only way this ever ends.

0 dogs in her care right now, fed and treated every single day
Mirela and a helper loading a wire crate with three rescued dogs into a car.
A rescue day: three more leave the streets.
Mirela walking two dogs wearing post-surgery cones through a garden path.
After surgery: two patients of the sterilization campaign.
Mirela smiling in her car while a black dog licks its nose over her shoulder.
The passenger seat is never empty.

A heart for every dog.

Mirela kissing three sleeping puppies she holds against her chest.

Straight from the streets. Many of her dogs once came from the public shelter at Golești. Today Mirela takes them straight from the streets instead, before they ever end up behind a fence.

Vrancea, România

There is a film about all this

Hunderunde, the German channel whose donations fenced the plot and raised the main building, travelled to Romania and filmed the journey: "Hunde in Rumänien, eine Reise die wir niemals vergessen." It picks up right where Mirela's part begins.

Chapter four

The Cheerful Kindergarten

Grădinița veselă: a lodge on the family's own land, started in early 2020 with Mirela and Dragoș's life savings. A forever home for the dogs no one chooses, and a school for family life for the ones who will travel.

The plot in the early days: one building far off across a green field.
The new fence around the plot, the first building in the distance.
A fresh concrete base in front of the first building under a stormy sky.
The freshly poured concrete base of the second building, timber stacked behind it.
May 2020 · a concrete base
The walls of the second building standing, a ladder against the side.
A helper on the roof of the new building.
Two helpers roofing the building, timber piled in front.
The finished shell of the second building standing under a blue sky.
months later · a building
The finished blue and white building under a clear sky.
The steel frame of another building rising next to the long white one.
The steel frame and blue wall panels up close.
Dogs on the gravel in front of the steel frame.
Dogs in the tall grass in the evening light, the building behind them.
The building with its red roof edge under white clouds, dogs in the grass.
Dogs gathered in front of the building with the red roof edge.
A helper with dogs beside the yellow container.
The yard with firewood stacked by the building and dogs everywhere.
A fenced gravel yard full of dogs.
A big pack of dogs in the yard in front of the blue building.
Dozens of dogs crowding towards the camera in the yard.
Young dogs playing in a muddy pit.
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Built so far

  • Fencing around the whole plot
  • Water and electricity connected
  • Main building in progress, made as comfortable as possible for the dogs, and now the cats too
  • Second building: care room for puppies, quarantine area, food and supplies storage
  • Planned: an education and training space
  • Planned: a playground

Every donation goes into finishing this place, and into the food, medicine and surgeries that keep its residents alive.

Chapter five

What one person can do

Give

Money goes furthest: food, vaccines, deworming, surgeries, and the building work. Any amount, once or monthly.

RO91 BTRL EURC RT04 0991 0001

Send a parcel

Food, anti-flea and deworming treatments, blankets, beds, treats, toys, puppy supplies. Write to us for the delivery address.

Come and work

Volunteers clean, feed, groom, walk, paint and play. It is hard work with animals that have known hard lives. Mirela will welcome you and help you plan the trip.

Map: Movilița, Vrancea, Romania© OpenStreetMap Open in Google Maps
The address: Movilița, Vrancea
Map: the Cheerful Kindergarten shelter near Movilița© OpenStreetMap Open in Google Maps
Our shelter, the Cheerful Kindergarten

One paw print for every dog she keeps alive.

Write to Mirela: mirelamistodinis@gmail.com