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Alena lives with her children in the village of Talakovka near Mariupol. The journalists of IA Regnum told about how the family saves predatory animals and equips aviaries for them in the courtyard of their house.
Until 2022, the Protsenko family lived in Mariupol itself, but after their house was destroyed, they moved to Talakovka, a small village near the city. The house was helped to rebuild and put in order, so Alyona and the children became villagers.
"I have long dreamed of a raccoon, but in Ukraine I could not afford it - raccoons cost a lot of money. Therefore, there was only a malamute and a parrot. But after the release, my children and I miraculously received our first raccoon Masha," Alyona Protsenko told reporters.
The family literally begged a tiny raccoon from a Russian soldier when they were evacuated from Mariupol. Alyona says that the military at the checkpoint did not want to part with the animal for a very long time, apparently he also became attached to a furry combat friend. But then he gave up and handed the baby raccoon into the caring hands of Alyona and her children.
The story of the shelter began with Masha's raccoon. Soon, the news about the woman who saves the animals began to spread around the area. As in the fairy tale about Aibolit, people began to turn to her and carry sick animals. Soon Alyona became the owner of a pair of two-week-old raccoons.
"When people found out that I had nursed a little raccoon Masha, two more raccoons came to us and people asked to feed them, because their mother did not feed them. When I picked them up, I thought I wouldn't take them - skin and bones, very timid," says Alyona.
The raccoons survived, gained weight and soon moved into an outdoor enclosure. Meanwhile, Alyona established contacts with animal rights activists, including from the "big Russia", whose advice helped the woman with the upbringing of a suddenly enlarged menagerie. At about the same time, another replenishment arrived in Talakovka - Kira the fox.
"In one of the groups of animal volunteers, I saw an announcement that a little fox cub needs a master. The breeder curtailed his activities due to the fighting and the animals were abandoned to their fate. That's how Kira got to us," recalls the Donetsk woman.
The tiny fox cub, who was not even a month old, quickly became his own in Protsenko's house. After that, Alyona threw all her strength into caring for the young lynx, who was left without a hind leg.
"Mom bit off the paw. They called me, they said: there is a kitten, will you take it? Well, what is for me a kitten after a fox and raccoons ... Only there, they say, a difficult kitten is a lynx! Of course, he was the size of a palm, but still ...", - says the woman.
It was hard with the lynx: the former owner did not take care of the animal and fed everything in a row. At first, the lynx refused to eat, was sick, at times it seemed to the owner of the mini-shelter that it would not work out for Aisha, as the lynx was called. But they coped, took quails from their neighbors, and fattened the animal.
After she cured the animal, Alyona Protsenko did not stop. The shelter grew, and today it is home to a fox, raccoons, a lynx and an owl.
"I am a cultural worker by profession, but now I devote all my time to animals. I buy the materials myself, I draw the pictures of the aviaries myself. We have a craftsman in the village, thanks to him: I gave the drawings, after some time he did everything," says Alyona. "We always need food, plus we need an aviary for small raccoons catastrophically," says Alyona.
Today, pet volunteers and just caring people from all over the country help the shelter. Alyona leads the pages of the shelter in social networks, talks about the life of pets.
Photos of IA Regnum and Alena Protsenko's personal archive.