This week Aanifeira had the great pleasure of receiving Betty Heideman, President of the Animal Medical Care Foundation (AMCF) [1]  at the shelter.  The AMCF is a foundation whose goal it is to support more than 80 animal refuges and shelters in over 30 countries worldwide with medicine, medical equipment and other care products.   It holds animal welfare very high and has been one of  Aanifeira’s major contributors since 2008 in sending packages of donations of medicines and medical equipment.  With these ongoing contributions, Aanifeira has been able to provide better medical care for its own resident animals.  Betty Heideman’s visit to Aanifeira however was with two goals in mind.  One was for her to finally see the shelter and the work that had been achieved over these past few years by Victor Barros (Aanifeira President) and his team as well to adopt one of Aanifeira’s most senior dogs, a Portuguese Podengo [2]  dog called Sonia. I picked Betty up from the airport and as we drove to Aanifeira we talked of the work that had been done over the years since the shelter was first started to what it is today.   We were met with great excitement on our arrival at the shelter by Victor, Paulo (General Manager) and vets Claudia and Joana.  For Victor and Betty to finally meet after all these years of corresponding was very good and he took her on a tour of the shelter showing her the work that had been done over the past years since he took on the presidency and she was amazed to see the results.  Victor showing the shelter to Betty As she walked through the corridors in the pavilion looking and patting some of the Aanifeira resident dogs, Betty commented that we had some really beautiful animals and showed  surprise that people expressed little interest in adopting these middle sized dogs.  She was impressed with the layout of the boxes and the space that the animals had to move around in, the new (almost complete) block of kennels partially funded by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, as well as other recent building works i.e.