Help me and my dogs to not lose our home

Dear people...

My name is Branimir also known as Gajo, I'm 44 years old and I live in Zagreb, Croatia (Europe). I'm an owner of two olders dogs (Henry and Kika), I've been taking care of another older dog (Honda) for the past few years and currently I'm fostering a young dog (Punxi) who's looking for a home. I pet sit and walk the dogs for a living and I've been working with dogs since the Fall of 2014 when I got fired from my previous job as a delivery guy where I was very much underpaid. While working with dogs is far from living a luxury and glamorous life, I always managed to have enough money for paying the rent, bills, food etc. Also this way of life gave me a sense of freedom because of my free time and flexible work time plus just dealing with dogs on a daily basis is something that just fulfills me as a person. Since the Fall of 2016 I also started to take foster dogs to my home (which is a two bedroom flat) and taking care of them until they get adopted. So far about 40 dogs who were permanently under my care were happily adopted in the last few years.

Let's get to the reason why I decided to start this campaign because I really need your help. Since the pandemic started in March 2020 I've been having financial problems and for quite a long time I wasn't able to pay my rent. I had a deal with my landlord to pay the bills for the electricity, heat, water, etc and that I pay him the rent when I get back on my feet again. Two years passed by and I still haven't been able to pay off most of my rent debt because there was much less work in the past two years, especially during the lockdowns. While my landlord was very patient and understanding during the past two years, I guess he finally had enough and basically gave me an ultimatum to pay all my debt until the end of November this year or I have to move out of the flat. The debt is almost 4,000 Euros and I just can't collect that amount of money on my own in a few months. Maybe to some it may seem irresponsible to have dogs while not being able to pay the rent but as I've said earlier, until the pandemic started, I always managed to get by and I could pay all the bills and the rent.

Besides the financial problems, these past two years weren't the best period of my life because I was also dealing with the loss of my father (who passed away in June 2021), sick mother, I lost of one of the dogs that I was taking care of and lost one of my sisters’ dogs (both passed away in 2021). To be honest the dogs are one of the reasons (besides friends, closed ones and the music) that kept me going the last year because without having the dogs in my life I would probably get really depressed and I would be much worse mentally and emotionally. So, this campaign is not just for the sake of me keeping this flat but it's also because of the dogs having a home and for more foster dogs to have a place to stay so they can be loved and prepared for their long term homes. I would love to continue taking care of foster dogs in my home but if I lose this flat, that wouldn't be possible anymore, at least for some long time and I also then have to figure out where I will live with my dogs.

If you can help or just share my story and this campaign with other people, I will be grateful for the rest of my life. Thank you in advance, sincerely from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you!

Branimir/Gajo

Dragi ljudi...

Zovem se Branimir a mnogima sam poznat i kao Gajo. Imam 44 godine i živim u Zagrebu, Hrvatska. Vlasnik sam dva starija psa (Henry i Kika), zadnjih par godina se brinem za još jednog starijeg psa (Honda) čiji vlasnik radi u Nizozemskoj i trenutno na privremenom smještaju je kod mene mlađa pasica Punxi koja traži dom. Zarađujem za život tako što čuvam i šetam pse od jeseni 2014.-e kad sam dobio otkaz na svom prijašnjem poslu gdje sam radio kao dostavljač. Iako je rad sa psima daleko od nekakvog luksuznog i glamuroznog života, imao sam dovoljno novaca Zagrebu da plaćam redovito račune, rentu itd. Također ovaj način života mi pruža dosta slobode i fleksibilno radno vrijeme gdje sam mogu kreirati svoje obveze a i to što se bavim sa psima je nešto što me ispunjava kao osobu. Od jeseni 2016.-e sam počeo privremeno smještati pse u svoj dom (radi se o dvosobnom stanu u Novom) gdje psi budu zbrinuti i socijalizirani dok ne nađu stalni dom. Do sad je u zadnjih par godina oko 40.-ak pasa prošlo kroz moj dom i koji su sretno udomljeni.

Da krenem sa razlogom zašto sam odlučio pokrenuti ovu kampanju jer zbilja trebam vašu pomoć. Od kako je krenula pandemija u Ožujku 2020.-e, počeli su moji financijski problemi i neko duže vrijeme nisam bio u mogućnosti plaćati rentu. Imao sam dogovor sa gazdom stana da plaćam režije a dug za rentu da platim kad budem mogao. Međutim, prošle su dvije godine i još uvijek nisam uspio platiti većinu duga (u međuvremenu sam ponovo počeo plaćati redovito rentu) jer je u zadnje dvije godine bilo puno manje posla nego prijašnjih godina, pogotovo kad su bili periodi karantene. Iako je gazda bio strpljiv i tolerantan posljednjih dvije godine, strpljenju je došao kraj i dao mi je ultimatum da do kraja Studenog ove godine platim sav dug ili izlazim iz stana. Dug je skoro 4,000 Eura i jednostavno nisam u mogućnosti sam skupiti toliki novac u par mjeseci. Možda netko može pomisliti da je neodgovorno imati pse ako nisam u stanju plaćati redovito rentu, ali kao što sam rekao prije, do pandemije sam uvijek redovito plaćao sve račune i rentu.

Uz financijske probleme zadnje dvije godine su bile dosta loš period u mom životu jer sam se morao nositi sa smrću oca (koji je preminuo u Lipnju 2021.-e), teškim bolestima s kojima se mama borila, smrt jednog od pasa za kojeg sam se brinuo zadnjih par godina i smrt Tise, obiteljske pasice od moj sestre. Da budem iskren, psi su jedan od glavnih razloga (uz prijatelje/ice, bliske osobe i muziku) koji su me motivirali da idem dalje u zadnje dvije godine jer da nisam bio okružen psima i bavio se sa psima, vjerojatno bi mi sve skupa puno teže palo i moguće da bi pao u tešku depresiju. Tako da ova kampanja nije pokrenuta samo zbog toga da ne budem izbačen iz stana, nego se radi i o tome da psi ne izgube dom i da privremeni psi koji traže dom i dalje mogu imati mjesto gdje će biti zbrinuti i socijalizirani dok ne nađu stalni dom. Volio bih nastaviti pružati privremeni dom psima, jer ako izgubim ovaj stan, to neće biti moguće (bar neko duže vrijeme) te u slučaju da ću morati izaći iz stana krajem Rujna, moram naći neko rješenje gdje ću živjeti sa svojim psima.

Ako možete pomoći ili barem podijeliti moju priču sa drugim ljudima, biti ću vam zahvalan do kraja svog života. Hvala svima unaprijed iz dubine moje duše.

Hvala!

Branimir/Gajo