Our friend Claudiu Iosim is the Founder and Executive Director of Animed Arad, a nonprofit animal welfare organization in Arad, Romania. Animed Arad was established in September 2001 and it is a charity supported entirely by donations. Their purpose is to reduce the number of unwanted puppies and kittens by running a spay/neuter program.

Currently an Environmental Engineer, Claudiu has decided to attend Veterinary College in October. Claudiu will be spending time in California later this month to get a jump start on his education by attending meetings and observing procedures with a veterinarian.

Hello and Happy March!

Everyone at team Schnuffie hopes you had a Happy St. Patrick's Day with plenty of green beer and corned beef!

We would like to give you a quick update on our documentary. . . .

Eva and Molly have been furiously reviewing all of the footage (we're talkin' about 90+ hours of material to review folks) to create a comprehensive outline for our Director, Paul Carlin. The ladies have been meeting 2-3 times per week and they are making substantial headway. The goal is to have a rough draft within the next few months.

Stay tuned for more details!



Pictured above, Molly edits like a seasoned Avid user.

Our very own Paul Carlin is currently on location in Barcelona!

Paul joined Drimtim Entertainment to direct their upcoming action film set in Spain.

When asked about his first day of production, Paul infomed us he was scouting rooftops on the streets of Barcelona in preparation for a helicopter shoot. "The idea is to emulate a high-tech satellite view of a foot chase. I
will be compositing the aerial footage onto actual satellite imagery and adding additional high-tech images."

Have a great time in Spain Paul!

Happy Valentine's Day to all our special friends, who have been steady supporters of our film: Out of Control: Changing the World one Dog at a Time, a dogumentray about the stray dogs in Romania and the Californian volunteers who are trying to help them.

Your involvement makes us feel loved and supported in our endeavour and most of all, it fuels us to continue our work, so that one day our film will shed light on a dark problem and out of control.......will become under control....!

Nobody can do it alone, but I feel confident that as a group, we can make a difference!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,

Eva, Lina and the Schnuffie Team

For those of you attending the fashion show and movie screening for A.P.E. Action on February 11, be sure to say hi to Tamra and Jill (pictured here with Schnuffie Producer Eva Sippel on the right). These ladies work for A.P.E. Action and are responsible for the evenings entertainment.

Risking life and limb, our fearless Director Paul Carlin traverses up the daunting mountain shown below to capture the best shot. Battling 50 m.p.h. winds, frigid temperatures and flying debris (including the occasional pesky tumbleweed), Paul conquers the elements and finds success!

Hostess, fearless volunteer and occasional boom operator, the Schnuffie crew would like to give a special thank you to Marilyn Gale for all of her hard work on our documentary. We also wish Marilyn and Rua (our Romanian dog formerly know as Barney) the best of luck at their new home in Hawaii.

On behalf of everyone at Schnuffie Productions, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

To our friends Karl and Marlies Sippel who flew all the way from Germany to celebrate Thanksgiving with our Producer and Director: Welcome to the other side of the International Pork Line! Unfortunately, the only pork you will find today is a pigskin thrown in many football games.

Go Lions!

Our Producer Eva Sippel and Director Paul Carlin wish to share the following. . . . .

To all of you who have known our wonderful friend Kasper, it is with a heavy heart that I tell you that Kasper has passed away. Paul and I were both with him and he was in my arms as he was crossing over.

Kasper and I found each other when he was only three months old and I was 29. He changed my life and tought me about love, responsibility and taking care of someone. Lessons that made me a better person, and lessons that I am grateful for. I owe a lot to him and Kasper will always live in my heart.

The picture is from the day of our last Garage Sale, which happened to be Kasper's last day as well.

A big Schnuffie thank you to all of those who donated or participated in our recent garage sale!

We raised just over $800 thanks to the support of our friends like Melissa Kai, Cynthia Cavanaugh, Angela Ross and Tania Cooper. Our garage sale included fabulous items such as jewelry, clothing, fax machines and a comfy-cozy IKEA futon that Eva, Silisha and Molly decided to rest on.

If you couldn't make this garage sale, don't worry......we promise to have more in the near future!

Our second camera operator Steve Duval has been working non-stop since returning from Romania. This summer, Steve completed season 7 of Big Brother All Stars, and also worked as a camera operator for Amazing Race. An avid motorcycle rider, Steve managed to travel to Lake Tahoe twice this summer in between busy shoot schedules.

Next up for Steve is a trip to Africa where he will participate in a documentary about an AIDS hospital in Malawi. Bon voyage Steve and good luck!

Greetings!

If you missed Clive Pearse on Animal Radio, you can listen to his interview again!

The interview will run on stations that take a live feed and will air next Saturday, October 7th. The inerview will also air on KOST 103.5 in Los Angeles on Sunday morning, October 8th at 6:30am.



In addition, the write up can be seen at AnimalRadio.com. Just click at the end of the middle column where it states: View MORE DETAILS on THIS WEEK’S SHOW.

Finally, you may visit our web page to listen to the interview. Just click on Current Projects and select Out of Control.

A big thank you and woof to Clive Pearse for your ongoing support! We appreciate all that you do!

After traveling Veterinarian Peter Cruickshank left Romania, he continued to travel throughout Eastern Europe and visited Bosnia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Serbia.



In July, Peter finally made his way to America for the first time! Some of Peter's favorite U.S. discoveries include: the L.A. Dodgers, Las Vegas, frozen margaritas, mexican food, sunny Los Angeles weather and Yellowstone National Park.

In October, Peter will return home to London for two weeks before jetsetting off to the land down under.

Greetings and Happy October!

Here at Schnuffie Productions, we have received several emails asking the whereabouts of our volunteers and crew members that went to Romania. "What are they doing?", "What other projects are they involved with?" or "How can I learn more about the volunteers" are just a few questions we have received.

Each week our new series, "Where are they now?" will feature a volunteer or crew member that assisted on our documentary. Check back frequently for updates!


Holly Jenkins




Our fearless volunteer Holly Jenkins recently landed a new job at the Glendale Humane Society. Holly will care for the pups and kitties until they find new, permanent homes. When not working at the GHS, Holly is a Volunteer of the Burbank Animal Shelter. As if that wasn't enough, this summer Holly completed voice-over work for a podcast of Shadow Falls. Keep up the good work, Holly!

A big thank you and woof to Paul Carlin for updating the Schnuffie website!

Read more about our documentary and a little bit of Romanian history under "Current Projects". Here you can also meet our wonderful volunteers Paul Carlin, Steve Duval, Marilyn Gale, Holly Jenkins, Ed Mari, Silisha Sidell, Eva Sippel and Molly Stretten.

Upon reading about the stray dog problem in Romania, you may also make a donation under, "Get Involved" so we may finish the documentary and share our story with the world!

Here at Team Schnuffie, Paul is furiously editing away on the documentary. We recently submitted some clips to the IDA/A&E Indie Films Finishing Grant. Click on comments below and share your thoughts with us.

Small movies for most people
Teaser (1 Min., 2 MB)
Sample Story (3 Min., 9 MB)

High Definition 720p movies for high-end computers
Teaser (1 Min., 10 MB)
Sample Story (3 Min., 58 MB)

Movies require QuickTime 7.0 to play properly.

Longtime friend and Schnuffie supporter Clive Pearse will be featured on an episode of Animal Radio. HGTV fans know Clive as the fabulous host of "Designed to Sell" and "Design Star". Tune in September 26th at 10:00 AM as Clive discusses our recent visit to Romania and why he supports our efforts!

Animal Radio is now America's first full-time animal radio channel. Citizens of Los Angeles can listen to Animal Radio on stations KOST 103.5 and KBIG 104.3, or visit AnimalRadio.com for live streaming or to find a channel in your area.

Hello! Once again, a Pupdate!

Nancy Janes of Romania Animal Rescue recently checked in with us to let us know about two pups we brought back from Romania.

Blondie, now known as Emma, was a cute white pup that we found living in an abandoned warehouse. Thin and covered with ticks, Nancy selected Emma to make the journey to the U.S. We are pleased to announce that Emma now lives in Northern California with her new family. Pictured here wearing a sporty blue harness, Emma enjoys daily walks and chewing on star-shaped dog toys!

In addition to Blondie, Nancy also brought home Anna Marie. Like so many stray dogs in Romania, Anna Marie was struck by a car and suffered spinal cord damage. Our resiliant Anna Marie remains with Nancy and makes progress daily with a little help from a dog cart. Way to go Anna Marie!

Rain-soaked jeans, Romanian Mexican food, Diet Coke sans ice, puppies in hotel rooms and ticks-o-plenty!

Just a few of the images that Assistant Editor Extraordinaire, Melissa DiMeglio has uncovered during the logging process.

Some of our favorite clips include the team spaying/neutering street dogs, interviewing the local Mayor, scrubbing kennels at United Worldwide Cargo and capturing hidden footage at a city pound.

With only a few tapes remaining to be logged, it will not be long until Paul begins cutting.

Stay tuned to see what makes the final cut!

Here at Schnuffie Productions, the filmmakers and volunteers have been compiling a list of some of our favorite books about Romania.

Used as reference material to familiarize us with Romanian culture and lifestyle, we thought we would pass along these gems to you. Happy reading!

Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescus Crimes, Lifestyles, and Corruption by Ion Mihai

The Rough Guide to Romania, Fourth Edition by Tim Burford and Norm Longley

Balkan Ghosts: A Journey through History by Robert Kaplan

Taste of Romania: Its Cookery and Glimpses of Its History, Folklore, Art, Literature, and Poetry by Nicolae Klepper

Greetings and Happy August!

Team Schnuffie is pleased to report that all of our Romania pups have been adopted into safe, loving homes in Southern California. After some T.L.C. at Helen Woodward Animal Center, our pups became avalable for adoption on June 7th.

Paul, Silisha, Holly, Marilyn and Molly traveled to H.W.A.C. for one last goodbye and to film the adoption process. We answered questions and explained each pup's story to potential adopters.

Adriana, or Zoe as she prefers to be called, lives in Burbank with Angela, Harry and James Ross. Zoe has made a full recovery after being struck by a car in Romania. A special thank you to Holly Jenkins and Los Feliz Animal Hospital for treating Zoe's broken leg and assisting in her speedy recovery.

As you can see in our group shot before we left Romania, it takes many to make what we had planned happen. Paul, Molly and I are still in disbelief that we were not only able to bring back 13 pups but also managed to shoot quality material for our documentary.

I wish you all a happy 4th of July weekend and we'll see you at the next Blog entry!

-Eva and the Schnuffie Team

Paul, our tireless director and cameraman, continues his crazy schedule as he films, edits and works in Los Angeles. Most of the footage has been logged, but more work remains and we try hard to stay on our schedule to finish a rough cut by the end of the year. Molly, our line producer, is taking some well deserved time off and is celebrating the Fourth of July weekend at her home in Michigan.

Nancy Janes of Romania Animal Rescue Inc., was one of the people involved with our project. She facilitated an interview with the major, we received funds for our bus transportation from North Shore Animal League through Nancy and she also introduced us to ROLDA.

Now, RAR is concentrating its efforts solely on spay/neuter for the dogs of Galati. They are hoping to move to other cities, such as Iasi and Brazov soon, where their help has been requested as well.

Dr. Ileana Gheorghita ( the Romanian vet who allowed us to use one of her rooms as the spay and neuter base) has agreed to work with the Romania Animal Rescue, Inc. in the future to help the estimated 12,000 homeless dogs that still roam the streets of Galati. They will spay/neuter dogs and cats as requested by the public. These services will be free as long as funds are available. RAR has recieved a grant from SPANA (Society to Protect Animals Abroad).

Nancy brought home Ana Marie, a paralized puppy who now gets around in a cart. If you'd like to adopt Ana Marie, please email Nancy: romaniadogs@sbcglobal.net

Hello All,

We are back in Burbank and have started our editing process. Paul is digitizing the footage, and I am training our new puppy, Lina, who faired well in her long journey. A few people have asked how long it'll take until the film is ready and I can tell you it'll take at least 3-6 months before we will have a rough version done. But please stay tuned, I will update the Blog with new pix and new stories that will keep you entertained until Opening Day!

Helen Woodward Animal Center in San Diego is taking care of the nine Romanian pups until they become available for adoption. We will be there to film the event and meet the families who will adopt these little orphans. Here are a few pix of some of them, including Fred, staring out the bus window during our long journey. Billy Bob and Suzie Q snuggle up together and Fred and Kasper JR. (who turned out to be a girl) share a seat.

Silisha, one of our volunteers, returns "her" Mama dog she helped spay to the abandoned warehouse and the last two pictures are John, caretaker at HWAC and John van Zante, PR chief.

After the visit with the vet, the puppies were then transported to ROLDA, a shelter run by Dana Costin. Here they will be taken care of until we are ready to leave. ROLDA is located on a sometimes impassible dirt road, depending on the weather. During the week we were there, it rained, hailed and the sun was shinging. One of our vans got stuck trying to reach Rolda and had to turn back. We resorted to carrying the dogs in on foot, as you can see in the pictures.

We spent the morning at an abandon industrial factory collecting stray puppies and dogs for spay and neutering. Some of these puppies will be traveling back home with us. The rest will be returned to stay with their caring owner, who guards the property. In general, the local Romanians care deeply for the stray animals. However, there is great skepticism as to who we are and what we are doing. Once it is explained to them, they are grateful and kind.

The team is gettin g ready for the first day. After some drama surrounding our celebrity host, who apparently was unaware of what we were doing, we took the bus to find puppies.

After checking in at the Villa Bellevedere in Galati, we headed to a seafood restaurant called Pesculin. Ironically, only Holly ordered seafood. Tomorrow is our first big day of work and we plan on collecting stray dogs and bringing them to the Vet to be spayed and neutered. Puppies chosen from this group will be the ones to go home with us. Yeah America, here we come! Dr. Peter, an Aussie Vet living in England, joined our group (somehow he found his way into our bus...long story) and has agreed to stay with us to help spay and neuter. You go, Peter!

Molly is doing some last minute business as we wait for the flight from Frankfurt to Bucharest, Thanks to T-online and their WAP. Silisha is admiring the very handsome German business men and raving about the yogurt, cheese and beer found here. What more does a girl need?

The SHEM team arrived in Bucharest and handed over the cat traps that Holly and Steve managed to get into Romania. They stayed at the Triumph where Claudiu Iosim from Animed Arad met with them and had dinner together.

These are our friends Paul and Jutta in Landenhausen, Germany. They show their support by proudly wearing the official Schnuffie T- shirts! You too can own one for $15.00, including shipping and handeling. Just send me an email or go online to purchase via paypal! All sizes are available. Thank you to all our friends and family members who have helped us along on this journey, including Frau Guenther, Gia's Dad and Dr. Costin in Silverlake!

Crossing the Atlantic to have Kaffee und Kuchen, Molly and Silisha join Paul and Eva in Germany as they prepare to travel to Romania. There is a lot of work to do before we arrive and Jetlag to recover from before we travel to Bucharest. Molly, the Line Producer, is making calls around the world using Skype, a wireless laptop and a bluetooth headset from her balcony. She is also equipped with a two-way radio, which we will use extesively in Romania to coordinate our efforts. One of my family's neighbors here in Fulda has generously allowed our team to stay with them. The generocity of my family and friends in Germany has greatly helped us in completing this important project.

Confirming the flights to Romania with my travel agent and friend Bianca Schiebelhut, who lives in Fulda, Germany. Looks like everything is in order and we should have no problems with flights.

Good Morning Everyone, or shall I say Guten Morgen?
Here you can see me, my dad and our neighbor with his new pup Zina. My father flys the American flag, seen from the kitchen window, in honor of his guests. He is very proud of me and my efforts and supports me all the way. I'm proud of him as well.

Here we are in Germany! This is Picu, who is playing with her human companion in a backyard by Frankfurt am Rhein. We will take a break with my family before we go on to Romania where dogs don't enjoy as much leisure as this little pooch here. Stay tuned for more updates. Also, check out the Burbank Leader today (a supplement to the Los Angeles Times), I believe we are in the business section, a story about Schnuffie and the documentary.

Paul and Eva onboard Flight LH 451 to Frankfurt. Sorry this is brief, but posting a blog while in-flight is still a challenge.

Hello Friends, or shall I say Buna Ziua!

Our departure day is right around the corner and the Schnuffie Team is embarking on our world journey to rescue pups from the streets in Romania and to raise awareness about the issue by making a documentary about our adventure.

This blog will be updated and you can check on our progress through the month of May.

I would like to thank our donors and supportes who made it possible for us to embark on this life changing event.

La Revedere!

-Eva