Everybody remembers the sad story written by Lithuanian writer Jonas Biliūnas about the old dog Brisius, who has been forgotten and abandoned by all in his last years of life. We hope that such stories are a rarity nowadays and that happy four-legged friends and their owners prevail today. The project neBrisius.lt, dedicated to witnessing and telling such happy end stories, celebrated its fifth anniversary this March.

The 5-year history of NeBrisius.lt

The project neBrisius.lt was initiated in 2014 when the founders of public company Gyvūnų gerovės iniciatyvos, inspired by the American project Why We Rescue (now This Wild Idea), received the permission and support of its authors to launch a similar project in Lithuania.

NeBrisius.lt publishes the stories and photos of happy people and their pets, re-homed from shelters, streets or saved by other means. The aim of the project is to change people attitude towards homeless animals, encourage them to adopt homeless pets and help them understand that everyone, even by small efforts, can contribute to creating a better world.

In 2015, a new section of the project – Four-Legged Emigrants was launched. Here people share their stories of emigration together with their pets. This project aims to encourage people, intending to emigrate, not to leave their four-legged friends behind, and to share their experiences and impressions.

In 2018, another neBrisius.lt column was launched by the title Extraordinary Animals. It tells stories about animals with unusual life stories, looks or special needs that have not been condemned to the worst scenarios and are ardently loved by their owners. The heroes of the stories are not afraid of spending much more attention, time and finances for taking care of such pets.

Over the last five years of the project, almost 800 happy stories of saved and adopted pets were recorded, and volunteer photographers took more than 7,200 professional photos. The organizers of the project are not inclined to stop and hope to share many more stories in the future.

Shelter animals have found their way into the hearts of people

Several hundreds of stories do not lack diversity – some stories, unfortunately, start very sadly. Živilė and Aivaras from Klaipėda, who adopted little dog Teddy, said, that feeling the duty to help the weaker ones, they decided to first look for a dog in the shelters. The couple’s chosen dog was very ill: “After a conversation with the caretaker of the shelter, it turned out that he was very sick, and had very little chance to survive,” said Živilė. However, when the pet was taken home, the couple paid a lot of attention and time to him and as a result, a happy life soon began. “Finally, the veterinary prognoses were positive – the dog was recovering quickly, surviving hellish diseases.” Today Tedis is happy to live in his family.

The circumstances of pets coming to their new families are quite diverse. Rūta from Panevėžys adopted a cat Jackie into her family when her husband, working as a veterinary doctor on a farm, told her a story about a small kitten stuck in the manure, which he pulled out and washed and then took care of the small animal, even though he had previously said he was a “dog man”. Rūta said, “The husband also ordered a special mixture of kittens’ milk, and he took care of the kitten for a few days at work, and when he returned home he spoke of the kitten as something special. Somehow then I realized we would have a new family member”.

Among the heroes of the project are well-known faces. The dog Simcha, who lives happily in the family of actor Andrius Bialobžeskis and scriptwriter Laura Kurlinskaitė, was truly saved by his owners. Laura told me that their dog English Cocker Spaniel appeared in their home from a shelter accidentally. Looking at ads on the Internet, Laura’s and her daughter Lėja’s eyes caught a photo of a sad-eyed dog. All tests showed that their future family member is at least 10 years old, and has an infinite list of illnesses. “Lėja donated all her savings for a new bicycle, my friend Harold taught me how to administrate medications under skin and into muscles, and we, armed with patience and medications, began our fight for a dog’s life,” tells Laura. Now, Simcha is a healthy and happy dog. Laura said, “Today, Simcha is a dignified and stylish old town dog, who, like a proper senior, goes to the beauty salon and hairstyle from time to time.”

Ineta Puzaraitė-Žvagulienė, and her husband Ąžuolas and their two daughters were not afraid of taking into their family Leila – a female dog from the shelter. When Ineta with both girls were on holidays in Spain, her husband Ąžuolas, staying in Lithuania, saw an advertisement and sent it to his wife. The whole family quickly fell in love with the puppy just from the photos. The next day, Ąžuolas drove to the shelter and brought Leila home. Ineta herself did not hide the joy: “After one week I came back with the children and found the greatest joy at home – the embodiment of love and friendliness Leila”.

For the past five years, happy stories have been published just about every week, and all of them are special. Those who want to share their own happy stories and encourage others to adopt homeless animals are encouraged to fill in the participant’s questionnaire on the neBrisius.lt website.

The information is prepared by Simona Survilaitė from public company „Animal Wellbeing Initiative“ to encourage people to protect their pets and to take care of animal welfare