Nola, a happy rescue tale

Published in About Animals

Nola, a type of Siberian husky, had an unpromising start to her young life.

Nola in Jelsa, January 23rd 2017. Nola in Jelsa, January 23rd 2017. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

She spent her first eleven months confined to a balcony in Virovitica, a northern Croatian town near the Hungarian border. As the months wore on, her condition deteriorated. She was in such a bad state that a local animal welfare group, backed by the police, intervened to remove her from her owner, who had not given her even the most basic care.

Communication. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

That was Nola's first stroke of luck. The second followed a short time later, when Željko from Vrisnik on Hvar visited his son in Virovitica, who had taken an active part in Nola's rescue. Željko quickly took the decision to give Nola a permanent home. She was still very thin, but was receiving all the necessary veterinary care. As soon as she was strong enough, she was microhipped, vaccinated and then sterilized.

Nola with Frankie, Željko and 'Smoki'. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

She took to her new home on Hvar immediately, enjoying the freedom to play with other dogs, and also cats when possible. She particularly loved being able to finish off the food when Željko's cats left her any. And as for her daily long runs and swims along the deserted coastline, she definitely knew she had come to the right place, something beautifully close to an earthly paradise. Well, a lot of people feel that way about Hvar.

Nola in Jelsa, January 23rd 2017. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

Meeting her in Jelsa just a month after her arrival on Hvar, some two months after her rescue, it was obvious that Nola bears no grudges, despite the sufferings of her earlier months. She has a gentle, loving temperament, and makes friends with everyone she meets. 'Professor' Frank John Duboković was so bowled over by this wondrously lovely creature that he forgot he was late for lunch and settled in to enjoying her company.

Nola on the alert. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

Nola is far from passive and cowed, yet at the same time very obedient and docile. She would love to climb on to any willing lap, but does not take umbrage when it's not allowed. Although still a little thin, she is rather big for that kind of display of affection. She takes a keen interest in her environment, watching out for any possible sources of fun, such as passing canine friends and potential friends of all kinds. Yet she pays due attention to her new owner when called to order.

Nola in training by reward. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

It is not difficult to understand why she is so obedient. Željko is taking great trouble to train her to understand and enact commands, so that she does not make trouble for other people or animals, and indeed does not bring trouble on herself. Whereas before she was undoubtedly controlled with a degree of violence - a rolled up newspaper causes instant submission - now she is being trained through the humane and effective method of rewards. If ever a dog repaid her rescuers in spades, it is Nola. All credit to the kind people in Virovitica who rescued her, and to Željko for providing her with an excellent home where she wants for nothing. It's good to know that Hvar's earthly paradise can also be shared by canine friends.

© Vivian Grisogono MA(Oxon) 2017

You are here: Home about animals Nola, a happy rescue tale

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Revealed: Edelman worked for Brazilian trade group accused of pushing for environmental rollbacks in Amazon

    Edelman, the world’s largest public relations agency, is in talks to work with the Cop30 team organising the UN climate summit in the Amazon later this year despite its prior connections to a major trade group accused of lobbying to roll back measures to protect the area from deforestation, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.

    The summit is set to take place in November in the city of Belém on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, which has been ravaged by deforestation linked to Brazil’s powerful agriculture industry. For the first time, the talks will be “at the epicenter of the climate crisis”, the summit’s president wrote last week. “As the Cop comes to the Amazon, forests will naturally be a central topic,” he added.

    Continue reading...

  • Energy security and net zero secretary travels to Beijing for countries’ first formal climate meetings since 2017

    Ed Miliband has accused the previous Conservative government of negligence for failing to engage with China on climate issues, as he travelled to Beijing for the countries’ first formal climate meetings since 2017.

    The secretary of state for energy security and net zero was in Beijing to announce a new annual UK-China climate dialogue. The first summit will take place in London later this year. China’s minister of ecology and environment, Huang Runqiu, is expected to attend.

    Continue reading...

  • After years of helping Scottish criminal investigations and despite fearing for his life in India, Vishal Sharma’s asylum claim has been rejected

    When Vishal Sharma, an experienced merchant seaman, arrived in London from India in November 2017, he was looking forward to a good job on a Belgian tanker, the MT Waasmunster, assisting engineers. He had a 15-month contract and a transit visa, enabling him to travel to Milford Haven in Wales, where the 174-metre vessel was anchored.

    But in a last-minute change of plan, his Mumbai agent told him to head to Southwick in West Sussex, England, to board a scallop trawler, the Noordzee.

    Continue reading...

  • Village joins continental network alongside nearby Knepp estate, as birds previously extinct in Britain flourish

    The Saxons knew the West Sussex village of Storrington as Estorchestone, the “abode of the storks”.

    But the graceful white birds disappeared from its skies more than 600 years ago, when they became extinct in Britain.

    Continue reading...

  • In the 1960s, the Swiss had some of the dirtiest water in Europe. Now, their cities boast pristine rivers and lakes – and other countries are looking to follow their lead

    In the first days of spring, people flock to Lake Geneva’s broad, tree-lined promenade, their faces tilted towards the sun. Dior, Cartier and Rolex are among the high-end shopfronts overlooking the water. René Rottenberg, 75, has just finished his 400m swim through this upmarket urban jungle – a ritual he repeats up to five times a week, even in midwinter.

    For the retired gynaecologist, being able to swim in the crystal-clear water is the greatest luxury. “It’s just so fun,” he says. “The place is beautiful.”

    Continue reading...

  • Gulls are known for being ravenous – check out a selection of things they like

    • All images from the Gulls Eating Stuff project

    From profiteroles to moles: project uncovers gulls’ surprising diet

    Continue reading...

  • From the earthquake-defying joints that support a 13th-century temple to the delicacy of sashimono puzzle boxes, a new exhibition shows off the myriad possibilities of this centuries-old craft

    Do you know your ant’s head from your shell mouth? Or your cogged lap from your scarfed gooseneck? These are just some of the mind-boggling array of timber jointing techniques on display in a new exhibition spotlighting the meticulous craft of Japanese carpentry. The basement gallery of London’s Japan House has been transformed into a woody wonder world of chisels and saws, mortises and tenons, and brackets of infinite intricacy, alongside traditional clay plastering, shoji paper screen making and tatami mat weaving. It is a dazzling display of the phenomenal skills behind centuries of timber architecture and joinery, celebrating elite master carpenters with the spiritual reverence of a high priesthood.

    “In Japan we have a deep respect for our forests,” says curator Nishiyama Marcelo, who heads up the team at the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum in Kobe, a temple to the history of Japanese joinery. “If a carpenter uses a 1,000-year-old tree, they must be prepared to take on more than 1,000 years of responsibility for the building that they create.”

    It is a momentous duty, and one we should heed. As debates around the embodied carbon of the built environment dominate the construction industry, there could be no more timely exhibition to remind us of the importance of designing with longevity, care and repair in mind. Numerous specialist tools have been shipped over from the Kobe museum, along with a team of master carpenters who have built a remarkable series of structures in the gallery, replicating parts of buildings that have lasted for hundreds of years in the face of wind, rain, snow and earthquakes.

    Continue reading...

  • Three years ago, when I was stuck in a traffic jam, I decided to stop to visit a park I’d passed by many times. Now, I go there at least one morning a week

    I must have passed it 100 times. Until one day in 2022, stuck in Melbourne traffic, I glanced towards the park in Bayside and saw mist rising from the trees, as if they had just exhaled into the dawn sunlight. This sight cheered me, lifting the pall of the workday grind ahead. Right then I made a resolution to interrupt my commute at least once a week by visiting the park and I have kept to it ever since.

    The next day I left the stream of traffic, parked the car and walked into the park, skirting the cricket oval where dogs chase sassy swallows skimming the grass just out of reach. Past there is a quiet pond where you will find ducks and turtles, and beside it is one of those forgotten patches of land where nature gets to do her thing unhindered.

    Continue reading...

  • Hundreds of millions of pilgrims flocked to the Ganges for this year’s festival, housed in a sprawling temporary metropolis stretching across 4,000 hectares of the floodplains of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh

    For 45 days the floodplains of Prayagraj, a city in Uttar Pradesh known as Allahabad until 2018, were a churning sea of humanity. Millions waded into the freezing waters of the sangam – the sacred confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, plus a mythical one, the Saraswati – believing that a single dip could wash away a lifetime of sin.

    From dawn until well past midnight, the riverbanks teemed with saffron-clad sadhus, bare-chested pilgrims and families clutching brass urns, garlands and clay lamps, an unceasing tide of pilgrims.

    Pilgrims performing one of the rituals associated with the ‘holy water’ of the rivers at this year’s Kumbh Mela

    Continue reading...

  • Since Dutton became opposition leader, the billionaire mining magnate has cultivated their bond. We look back at their increasingly close relationship

    The buzz from Gina Rinehart’s 70th birthday party was reportedly “so spectacular” that it drifted across the Swan River from the mining magnate’s Perth home, catching the attention of people more than a kilometre away.

    Four hundred guests, mostly employees, had gathered to mark the milestone of the Hancock Prospecting head, who is deferentially referred to as “the Chairman” or “Mrs Rinehart”.

    Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds