Meduna, Alice and Roberto save 4 dogs, 3 goats and 11 birds: “Ready for the old horses”

MEDINA. It is based in via Malgher a Mure, a hamlet of Meduna di Livenza, one of the jewels for the care of animals in the Marca. It is the Villa Stefani refuge, recently renovated with an important new feature: it takes its name from one of the owners, Roberto Stefani34 years.

He and his partner, Alice Gobbo, 33, take care of various animals that, if they were men, could be defined as “runaways”. In reality, Villa Stefani is much more: animals that are victims of mistreatment, rejected, unlucky, foundlings, and even beasts that – subjected to stress – are victims of self-harm.

In recent days, thanks to the intervention of the mayor Arnaldo Pitton and the councilor Tamara Moretto, they have renovated a building, a former stable, which becomes the real seat of all the poultry or wild animals, or farm animals that Alice and Roberto recover in the most varied and sometimes bizarre ways. Destiny helps them.

Here, these beasts can finally live, snatched from the cruelty of men or from a fate that, in the long run, would have been infamous.

In everyday life Alice, originally from Conegliano, is a dental assistant, but the activity of the Stefani refuge has absorbed her to the point of thinking all day about facility management: buy food, notify veterinarians, provide for medical expenses. Her dream is to become a dog assistant.

Roberto, on the other hand, does something completely different, he runs a mechanical workshop and a hardware store in Puja, a hamlet of Prata di Pordenone. A story within history, theirs.

«They had been waiting for 2 years to renovate that building, which now from a crumbling stable has become our real Villa Stefani. I will no longer host the animals in the living room, they have a structure all to themselves, created in our immense garden. Roberto and I », Alice says,« we are happy with our 4-legged friends and not only ». Alice has always had a passion for animals and she knows how to surprise. Good blood does not lie if we think of who of her is her grandfather, one of the first conjurers in Italy. It is Mago Lorenz, the stage name of Lorenzo Zava. It was he who gave her 10 turtle doves. It happened a while ago.

“A little bit he didn’t want to hold them back, a little bit he didn’t have the time. So, instead of getting rid of them, she entrusted them to me. And this is precisely the philosophy of Villa Stefani. To welcome those animals that the owners can no longer keep ».

Alice and Roberto have now made a name for themselves, a reputation, throughout the Opitergino-Mottense area. They are the “saviors of animals”. There are those who entrusted them with a dog, “parking it” in front of the door, while others brought it by presenting themselves directly to the gate. Alice just can’t say no: she welcomes all the beasts.

«Ho 4 dogs, 3 goats, a parrot and 10 turtle doves. But my further dream is to have horses, those that no longer compete or are on the avenue of sunset, to allow them to spend a peaceful old age, perhaps in contact with children ». The dogs then all have a pa historyrticular. «The German Shepherd is a female, named Teresa. She is a breeding waste. She had to do beauty contests, but due to a physical defect they no longer held her back. There is the pincer Rudy, who is 14 years old and has been abandoned by several families as he is exuberant. He tends to howl, and he’s very lively for one of his kind of him, but he’s adorable. Then there is Biondo, a half-caste. We found him in front of the gate of the house. He was a foundling, he followed his instinct and came to us. He understood that this was his place for him. He didn’t have a microchip, so we got it for him. Finally we have a Dobermann, Varano, 11 years old. Last year its owner died », Alice concludes,« we had him in custody ».

That’s not all, there are also three goats named Friz the male, and the two females Erica and Elena. They are affectionate animals and also a little vain, because when the owner takes pictures of them, they flaunt happiness. Or so it seems.

The Cedar parrot, on the other hand, is sick of stress and carries out self-injurious acts, it needs to be followed constantly. Alice and Roberto have built a house-shelter for dispossessed and rejected animals. Theirs is a great Treviso story. If all men behaved like them, both with humans and with animals, there would be no loneliness.