10/08/2026
4:30 AM. Outside a Town Hall in Montenegro. 💔
While most people sleep, my husband Alex is standing in line to submit paperwork for temporary residency.
The office opens at 8 AM. And arriving at 4:30 doesn’t even guarantee he’ll be seen!
Welcome to Montenegro.
Thankfully, only ONE owner of our Pet-a-tet shelter needs this permit. And THANK GOD it’s Alex! With my sensitive heart, I’d probably be crying, arguing, or both before sunrise.
But this isn’t funny anymore.
For FOUR YEARS, we’ve been trying to explain ONE simple thing:
WE ARE NOT HERE TO TAKE. WE ARE HERE TO GIVE.
We operate a licensed animal shelter, rescuing, feeding, vaccinating, and treating Montenegro’s abandoned animals.
WITH OUR OWN MONEY.
We ask for NOTHING.
All we need is a bank account to transfer money to keep these animals alive. But without temporary residency (boravak), we cannot maintain it.
FOUR YEARS of begging for the right to spend OUR money saving YOUR animals.
And we aren’t alone. Immigrants invest, create jobs, support the economy, yet so many face exhausting bureaucracy and humiliation.
Is it surprising that talented people and businesses leave?
Perhaps one day we will too.
Not because we stopped caring. But because even the strongest people have limits.
Watching Alex stand outside a government building before sunrise, practically begging for permission to HELP, breaks my heart.
We aren’t asking Montenegro to save its animals. We’re asking Montenegro to STOP making it so difficult for US to save them.
And if we finally give up, who suffers?
Not the officials. Not the bureaucracy.
THE ANIMALS.
The abandoned dogs. The starving puppies. The injured cats. The innocent lives depending on us.
Our love is endless. But our strength, resources, and patience are NOT. 💔🐾
Pet-a-tet Rescue Group 🇺🇸🇲🇪
petatet.org