The Future

Hello, readers. Yes, we are still here, not blown away by storms, although Milton tried. Still keeping the faith and taking care of the dogs, ongoing pandemic(s) and all.

Old hand Xmul and some new arrivals:

We were wracking our brains how to feed the dogs, our stores being bare of both food and money. Feeding ourselves is generally not too tough around here, there's only two of us and we are beans and rice kinda people. The dogs are another matter.

Things have not been dropping for us of late, a string of bad luck in various areas and rising costs have had us dealing with the bare necessities on a day-to-day basis. Trying to keep up the faith has been difficult.

Recent weeks have also found us both struck down by some sickness, we're still not sure what (yes, there are obvious candidates), both of us at once: not a usual occurrence, raising the degree of difficulty.

In this mood, our friend Freddy pulled up out front in his moto-taxi. He comes by a couple times a day; we are a sort of informal support group for each other since the pandemic hit. He's one of the few people who lives even farther out from town than we do. He also has many dogs, helps us find homes for strays/pups, helps the people at the garbage dump who help strays, etc. He motioned to me to come out, shaking his head: "You're not going to believe it," he said to me.

I went out and was floored to see multiple large trash bags filled with dog food, plus a large box of small, clear plastic bags of packaged dog and cat food.

He related the story to me: a buddy of his was part of a work crew that went to a ranch outside of town early that morning. On the way home around mid-day they came across a very recent road accident: a truck bringing dog food to town had overturned, spilling its cargo everywhere. The driver was thankfully unharmed, but his cargo was a loss. Freddy's buddy knew he always was doing stuff for strays, with us, etc, so thinking quickly he and his crew gathered up as much of the food as they could into garbage bags they had handy. There were rocks and debris in it that attested to its origin. He called Freddy and told him to meet him at the bridge with his taxi, and thus did dog food literally fall from the heavens into our lives and what was it we were worried about, again?

In the days since that happened I have thought of it often. The food from that day has since run out, and most days are a challenge to keep them fed and our spirits up, but thinking of the time dog food fell from the sky does calm me down a little, gives me hope.

With that hope, there must also be concrete action. We must face some realities at the intersection of: us getting older, a lot of geriatric dogs and still quite a large pack, difficulties in finding work, and the continuing pandemic. There are some positive signs for paying work in tech in the near future, but it isn't as near as I'd like, and nothing is a sure bet anymore. Crowdfunding is clearly something we should be doing. We have done a little in the past, but things have changed over the years. We decided to try chuffed.org to raise a month's worth of food and medicine for the shelter (roughly USD$1,000 aka MXN$20,000) and are pleased to say we raised a little over MXN$11,000. Sadly, chuffed informed us that they were dropping all support for Mexican campaigns, and ours would be deactivated on 30 Nov 2024. We have therefore created a GoFundMe campaign and have verified it works.

As you can see, these things are a bit of an adventure in Mexico - many platforms do not work here. We appreciate any support you can give the GoFundMe campaign, just boosting us on social media would be great. There is also more content at the @DogsOfCelestun X/Twitter feed and increasingly on BlueSky, please let us know what you think. All support helps The Dogs of Celestún.

Comings and Goings

In other news, we note the inevitable changes in the pack over the last two years.

January 2023 started with this adorable puppy, who went to a great home, where he is now called "Snorro", international dog of mystery!

After that brief but rewarding event there was a string of deaths...

2010 - 2023-01-11: Stella had to be put down, with a mouth full of cancer and swollen organs. She was an independent spirit in need of some assistance when we met her, and was really good company.

2013 - 2023-02-08: Roxy died of cancer peacefully here at home. She went in to the vet's the same day Stella had to be put down and was diagnosed, we were giving her meds to fight it. We don't know how old she was (nor Stella), they both came to us full-grown and in crisis, were cured of heartworm and lived with us for many years. We loved them and miss them.

2015 - 2023-02-22: June had to be put down, another mouth full of inoperable cancer, like Stella. She could've gone on for a few months in her drooling, grouchy old age but we decided it was enough suffering. I cannot express how hard this was... miss my running buddy (she's the one on the right, with her sister, Zoila, who is still with us).

2014 - 2023-12-06: Cancer claimed sweet kitty Cali, the most affable of Sugar's kittens.

2009 - 2023-12-09: Three days after Cali, loud, joyful Maggie had to be put down. She hadn't been able to get up on her own for several days, was blind and had lost enthusiasm for everything. We miss her dearly.

2009 - 2023-12-26: Goodbye to our sweet, serious Jack. Some dogs gray gracefully, others sprout silly eyebrows. Love him.

2011 - 2024-04-05: Four months into the new year we lost Daisy. Just a few weeks before we could feel she was slowing down, but she still had her little light and she never stopped letting it shine. One evening in March I remember walking to the kitchen and having her just appear besides me, so joyful to accompany me, and I thought: "Remember this. It's an honor that she's so proud and happy to be with you." So it was.

2014 - 2024-05-30: Another of Sugar's kittens died (how we'll always think of them even though it's been a decade), this time Falafel. Like Cali he had some kind of cancer and had to have one ear removed a year ago, but he gave it a good run afterwards and outlived expectations. He's buried next to Cali, out by the Jeep. Post-op Falafel catching some rays on the roof:

2009 - 2024-06-07: Elewah finally had to be put down, she couldn't get up and had been through a string of bad nights. She was with us 15 years, and was probably 2 years old when we met, so that's a long run for a dog. We miss her, will always miss her.

2009 (Lily), 2016 (Perl) - 2024-06-15: A doubly sad day: both Perl and Lily went to the vet in bad shape and neither came back. Perl always had problems, we used to say she was made of spare parts; her sister, Ruby, is still fine, but Perl's kidneys finally crashed and there was nothing to be done. Lily had long been suffering with some urinary ailment which was finally dianosed as an inoperable tumor in her bladder. Left is young Perl, right is Lily.

2024-06: Somewhere during the month of June, an errant pregnant dog we now call Nell made her appearance and unceremoniously produced 10 pups, out in the shelter we have arranged for the Jeep/Street dogs. Two died early on, leaving eight, four of which found homes around their 8th week. The remainig four are still with us, still looking for good homes.

2010 - 2024-07-24: Monkey had to be put down. I am not strong enough to write down what the last few months have been like, how important Monkey was to us both, I just can't.

2011 - 2024-09-14: Our buddy Steve McQueen died peacefully in the night. He had not been doing well for a few days. He was good looking, not so much with the smarts, kinda skittish but a sweetie and he loved his siblings, two of whom still remain with us after all these years.

2011 - 2024-10-17: Had just "finished" this post last night and then Linda took a turn for the worse, was all of a sudden very weak and listless and just died next to Roni a few minutes ago. She was an amazing, awesome presence who could fill a room with her razzle dazzle. She was 13.