On Monday, January 22nd, voting for the nominees of the fifth season started on our website, where each of you can give preference to one or another candidate.

Dear friends, at midnight on January 15th, 2024, the acceptance of applications from candidates and their associates for the International Award "My affectionate and necessary  animal" was completed.

The story happened on the eve of May 9, - says Moskovsky Komsomolets. The exhausted animal was hiding in the basement of an apartment building. By a happy coincidence, the public organization for animal welfare “Cat and Dog” was located in the same house. At first, everyone thought that a raccoon had got into the basement.

- We immediately called a catcher, and when the animal was caught, we took it to the vet clinic. It turned out that it was not a raccoon, but a raccoon dog. There were more than 50 ixode ticks on the animal, a lot of fleas. The ticks were removed, the animal was treated for parasites and sent to the enclosure for isolation. He did not show signs of rabies, but we were overly cautious," says Vitalya Rumyantseva, the head of the public organization “The Cat and the Dog”  . 

The volunteers immediately gave the raccoon dog a nickname - Stepan. They say they found him in the basement of a house on Stepan Razin Street, so there was no question of choosing a name. 

- Stepan spent 14 days in quarantine, gradually socialized, continues Vitaliya, - we realized that he was at home, because of all the food he drew attention to pancakes when a veterinarian approached the aviary with him.  The animal had no special problems, except for ticks and a general state of stress. It was more difficult to win Stepan over so that he could be combed out, the wool was in terrible condition, dirty, and there were a lot of tangles.

The raccoon dog spent about a month on overexposure. After treatments, vaccinations, and putting the wool in order, he moved to a permanent place of residence. By the way, Stepan's neighbor is Ilyusha the raccoon. He lives in a nearby aviary, also a victim of human irresponsibility. The raccoon was taken to play with him as a wild animal and they failed. 

- Ilyusha was beaten because he began to bully and smell strongly during puberty, - says Vitaliya Rumyantseva. - This is not the first wild animal that was not dealt with and thrown away in our Orel. In 2018, we rescued a fox cub from the basement, and we had raccoons and ferrets.

In total, in 2023, the volunteers of the Orel public organization “The Cat and the Dog” saved more than 160 animals. These are not only cats and dogs, including those from the special military operation zone, but also wild animals and birds.

Photo from the personal archive of Vitaliya Rumyantseva 

Ten-year-old fox terrier Lot Hunter, colloquially Fedor, during his eight-year service in the police helped to solve dozens of serious crimes and put criminals behind bars.