Jelena's shelter

photo by Jelena Kostic

Jelena Kostic looks after 400 abandoned dogs in Nis, Serbia. I don't even know what to say about that. I've got no reference for that kind of monumental hard work. I sit at a desk for most of the day and type on a keyboard and move a mouse around. The extent of my personal responsibilities amounts to maintaining the lifestyles of Rocky and Stella in the way to which they have become accustomed.

400 dogs. Where do you even start with that? Where do you keep them? How do you feed them? How do you clean up after them? What about the sick? What about shelter?

photo by Jelena Kostic

What about neighbours? How do you convince people in a dog fearing town that you're not a pariah? That the dogs deserve some charity, some throw away scraps of food and blankets.

photo by Jelena Kostic

And what about your own sanity? How do you dedicate your life to this, faced with endless days of hopelessness punctuated by only brief moments of success? How do you continue to do this when you know that all you need to do is turn your back, walk away and the multitude of pleasures of our plastic world will be there to embrace you.

There are 400 dogs barking and the difference between her and me is that I would ask, "How can you deal with that?" and she would ask, "How can you not?"

video by Dejan (Deki) Vukicevic