Veronique Desante's Story of Saving Elise, Cannelle, Coco and Brody

Everyone on My Pets View from Home recognize Veronique Desante from Belgium by four lovely dogs named Elise, Cannelle, Coco and Brody that all have one thing in common - they were rescued from Djerba, Tunisia. But not many know the story behind these four legged friends. 

I adopted my first dog, Elise, in August 2021, she was 6 months old at the time. She was found when she was about 2-3 months in a rubbish pile looking for food. She was full of fleas and ticks, and she has a scar on her paw (probably from being tied up). After two months of grooming, including daily massage with 5 oils, she had already become a beautiful little dog.

Elise

I decided to adopt her when I saw the pictures from the beginning on Facebook. My previous dog (from a Belgian shelter) had just died. I travelled to Djerba myself to collect her.

I decided to adopt my second dog, Cannelle, in October, also based on the photos of the early days. She was found in August, she was about 4 weeks old, with wounds, hiding under palm trees. She was very lucky because the outside temperature at the time was 40 degrees Celsius, they think she wasn't going to make it to the next day if they hadn't found her.

Cannelle

​It was planned to collect her in November, but then there was Corona and everything was postponed a bit. The time had come at the end of March, and in the meantime we had agreed that I would stay with Fabienne Pauls for 3 months and help with the dogs.

Fabienne Pauls (Association "Un Toit pour Toi")

Mrs Fabienne Pauls runs the Association un Toit pour Toi on Djerba, Tunis. I got all of my dogs there. She rescues as many dogs (and cats) as possible from the streets. Her association is a private organisation, the animals live in her house and garden and are therefore already well prepared for their adoption. They get all their vaccinations, are spayed-neutered and microchipped. The intention is to have them adopted in Europe, so the protocol to transfer them takes about 3 months. Adopting a dog is free, including transferring it to the country of adoption.

And so the third dog arrived, while I was there, Coco became very attached to me and I  decided to take one more. Coco had been found (she was about 3 months) by a tourist, (she had been hit by a car), who brought her in to the vet, at the time Fabienne was there with cats to be spayed.

​Since the tourist could not keep the little dog, she decided to take it with her. It was a very shy, distant dog, but I bonded with her very quickly.

Coco, Cannelle and Elise

So at the end of June I left for Belgium with my three dogs. After the summer I went back to visit 'the dogs' home (as we call it) and had trouble leaving Brody behind, so number four was a fact.

We collected Brody, the first period I was there, from a lady, where he had crawled under the fence as a puppy. Brody was the funniest and most active dog present as a puppy. He is a funny, independent but at the same time very affectionate and sweet. In Djerba, he was the only one of about 35 dogs, who knew, when it was very hot, you better seek some cooling in the water, so he was regularly seen in the big tubs of drinking water. ​

Brody

So now I have four dogs saved from calamity, which I wouldn't miss for the world.

I regularly get the comment that there are enough dogs for adoption here in Belgium, that I don't have to go abroad for that. I agree, there are poor animals everywhere, but I didn't go looking for a dog in Djerba on purpose, there was the connection, even if it was through a photo. I'm glad I did it and can recommend it to everyone!

Next month I'm going back, visiting all my four-legged friends. 

Find Veronique Desante here - ​https://www.facebook.com/veronique.desante.3