b'The border rules continued to change during Mikes sec- trip.TheyworkedcloselywithTransformaStreetDogond trip. During his first trip, anyone could bring an animal (TFASD),aSanFranciscobasednon-profitthathasbeeninto Poland. Now, only Ukrainians could bring animals across operatinginUkrainesince2018.Theyalsoworkedwiththe border, so they had to find Ukrainians to volunteer. With Laika Global and Sache Foundation in Romania.the rules continuously changing, the FUR team focused on One of the more devastating stories to come out of thedistributing the supplies theyd brought over with them and war against Ukraine was on the Borodyanka animal shelter.helping refugees with animals who were unable to evacuate on WhenRussiantroopssurroundedKyiv,townsnearby,liketheir own. They also focused on helping injured and disabled Bucha, Irpin and Borodyanka were among the hardest hit. animals and reuniting pets with their owners.We completed a combination of rescue missionshelp-ing both animals and people, said Mike. Even though weextended our second trip, we all still felt bad leaving becausethere were so many more animals and people in danger.Mikes third trip to Ukraine was in July 2022.FUR vol-unteer Dasha Cooper traveled with Mike. Suzanne CoopermettheminPolandandBryanWrightjoinedtheminUkraine. This time, their rescue efforts were focused insideUkraine instead of traveling back and forth across the borderfrom Poland. They did two trips out of the countryone tripmoving animals from Ukraine to Romania and one movinganimals from Ukraine to Poland. A countrywide curfew hadbeen instituted due to Russian attacks, meaning the team hadto be off the road by 11:00 p.m. or sleep in their vehicles until5:00thenextmorning.Thatmadetheirtransportsmorechallenging as the border crossing would take anywhere fromthree to seven hours to complete.In addition to bringing in thousands of dollars of animalmedicine, supplies and equipment to Ukraine, the FUR teamconductedfourseparaterescuemissionsduringtheirthird Ukrainians volunteered to help FUR transport dogs across the border.Cicho is a blind dog who was found hid- the border with other animals. Cicho Jude Chatta is from the United States anding in the basement of a bombed out is now safe with Fundacja Wzajemnie was living in Ukraine. He was on vaca-village by a Ukrainian man in the Army. Pomocni.tion in Spain when the war started. Hiscats were being watched by a friend.Bierta, a Boxer, had an eye injury with Katya, a volunteer, picked up the cats inshrapnel. A Veterinarian in Kyiv did sur-He connected with another Americangroup, K9 Global Rescue, who locatedher during a bombardment, got her to Kyiv and drove them to the FUR drivesafety and transported her to Kyiv. gery to remove her damaged eye. The team. The minute Jude heard that FURAnother volunteer, Alana, picked up FUR team was able to transport her to had his cats, he jumped on a plane toCicho and met the FUR driver team the safety of Fundacja SOS Bokserom, Warsaw. He was overjoyed to havewho transported her to Lviv and over where she recovered from her surgery. them back.42 THE NEW BARKER www.TheNewBarker.com'