Evelyn Cinti

Let's talk about 25 years ago, I accidentally read on the bulletin board of the City of Comacchio that they were looking for a kennel worker. I was already volunteering at the Migliaro kennel, the manager knew me, so I called right away and they took me.

They were looking for a guy actually, who had the physical strength for maintenance work. They tried me, who had always been a bit of a handyman, and they found that I could do my tasks on my own! The first year was quite hard, because the emotional load is quite important in this job, and I was only 20 years old. I even thought about quitting, then instead I made it, and today I've been doing this job for twenty-five years: now I'm in charge of the kennel.

I've always worked pretty much alone in here. Over the years I have taken various courses and become a dog educator, I have studied animal welfare activities, in short, all the ones I could find to follow my passion for the animal world, and especially dogs!
The great passion I have for animals was passed on to me by my father; my mom, on the other hand, is terrified of dogs, so she could not come to her! That's why I actually never had dogs as a child, and the real discovery was really through the kennel experience.
The greatest satisfaction of my job is to be able to help these animals, to be able to find or re-find a family for them. They make you feel like the most important person in the world, when you arrive everyone greets you: for me it's the nicest place in the world to work.

I remember one of the first dogs I took care of, a shepherd, so a purebred dog, her name was Elga. She had been abandoned and had fallen into a concrete culvert, she was drowning. When we found her she was in a pitiful condition, she also had broken fingertips, and the vet told us that she had most likely traveled a lot of miles. Perhaps she had escaped and was trying to get home. She was particularly aggressive because she was so scared; she would not let us get close. In the playpen she was constantly going back and forth, making her little feet worse, so we were forced to put her in the garden from time to time to let her recover a little. Even free, she would growl at us and keep not eating. It took three months before she gave us a chance to touch her slowly, but the most amazing thing was that, by being petted, she got excited first. She cried and lay on her stomach to let us know that she now trusted us. We were moved. From there she became the mascot of the kennel and we couldn't even put her up for adoption because of how attached she was to the place, and to my dad, especially, who is also a volunteer here at the kennel.
There are some dogs that it takes even a year to retrieve them and make them adoptable.

One time, however, we found a little dog wandering inside the kennel. He was about 10 years old then. He was particularly suffering from the pound: he was very good but a bit on his own, independent, a bit depressed even. After about three years of being with us, a lady came in one day to bring us bread and saw him. She immediately said he reminded her so much of the dog she had so many years before, who had run away from home. We told her we had found him around and invited her in to see if indeed it could be him.
She started calling his name and he didn't answer, but when she came closer and let him sniff her hand the dog kind of lit up. It was really his and that's how they found each other! He couldn't recognize the voice, but the smell woke him up. Then she started telling him 'Let's go home Fufi!" and he all happy jumped into the car. We were impressed. She didn't know our kennel was there and had never looked for him here. We put her up for adoption and he came home.

Kennels used to be regarded differently from today, and they were also more numerous, people parked dogs there easily, without remorse. There used to be about 120 dogs here with us; today we are down to 22. In 25 years things have changed. After many years, thanks to many awareness campaigns, and sterilization above all, we have managed to reduce the number of abandoned dogs and kennels. Today you need special requirements to adopt, and the kennel is seen as a place where you can visit dogs, where you can adopt a dog, but also where you can do activities with your dog: from the dog area, where they also find me who is an educator and can do education, to Mobility with obstacles, to dog boarding and daily and half-day kindergarten.

For a few years now we have also been doing a service for campers: we pick up dogs from the camp and take them to the kindergarten, then in the evening we return them. The daycare also works a lot for tourists who sometimes request the service when, for example, they want to have a day with the whole family at Mirabilandia. Although normally, for those who come on vacation, in apartments or campgrounds dogs can stay safely, there are places that are not equipped or where they can't enter, which is why our daycare was born. According to the owner's description of his dog, when they are here with us we often put them in small groups so that they can play without realizing that they are 'without family' for a while.
We also have an agreement with a grooming salon, so it happens that they leave their dog with us at the boarding house and ask to have it washed as well. They can then pick him up all clean at the grooming facility!

We recently invented the 6-legged Trekking and are now promoting it locally. I follow the trek as an educator and give some advice on how to keep the dog on a leash or calm him down if he is having problems, but we also have an environmental guide with us who tells us where we are, why we are taking a walk there and what was once there.
This summer we also plan to do sunrise walks with an hour of yoga at the end and some relaxation techniques for the dogs as well.

We have an agreement with a local start-up that makes hiking services, those who participate in their experiences can leave their dogs in the daycare for free. We also have the cart to take the dog on the bike but, if the dog can't stand it, we keep it.

We have a facility that is convenient to get to, right on the Romea State Highway, but completely surrounded by greenery with 22 pine trees inside the park, which make nice shade. The kennel is new, 15 years old and has many large and versatile spaces. The stalls are large and covered, the nets welded to withstand every dog. It all fits perfectly into the territory. Also thanks to the daycare service we have become popular with tourists, but the residents also love us very much. I am now, after 25 years, 'Evelyn of the Kennel' to everyone here! Thanks to our experience, a relationship of trust has been created with people: the dog is one of the family, and they know that leaving him with us is a guarantee that he will be fine. We receive boarding reservations even from one year to the next. This trust always rewards us and makes us proud of our work.