Since the last update we've had to say good-bye to a few old friends.
Ziggy, Tito and Henry
The 3 girls dumped in February are now called Gilda, Jane and Joy. They are fun, sweet-tempered dogs.
Picture of Gilda from June 2018 (Jojo foreground).
Unfortunately Joy has hip problems which cause her significant pain and will need surgery. Despite this she is aptly named.
Gilda and Joy attack.
Jane has had no health problems since her broken leg healed.
Jane and Joy.
All 3 have been spayed -just in time to be big sisters.
Jane and Joy play with the wee ones.
May 3 Sean returned from a day in Merida to find 4 abandoned puppies in the nearby bushes. The smallest of them did not survive.
The remaining sisters are called Bindy, Biscuit and Boomer.
Bindy mid-May (she's part hippopotamus),
Biscuit (a pillow for Henry, early June),
and Boomer (mid-May) with Nico, Xmul, Sean and Murci.
It hasn't been all puppies, there were visiting bees
morning runs,
pitaya flowers,
then fruit.
Summer is a time of many milestones for us. July 29 was the 1st anniversary of finding 9 abandoned puppies; they are all happy, healthy, loved and sterilized. The occasion was marred by a street full of dead (poisoned) street dogs. They were not 'ours' but we knew and cared for all of them. We'd known some for years and the girls had been spayed. I'll spare you and myself a photo.
July 31 we brought in a stray and her 9 puppies. She had a burrow about a block away, in an open lot, where we'd been taking her food and water. It was a no win situation since we'd be worried to distraction either way -worried for their safety because of hot days, hard rain, and now a dog
killer, but also worried for our sanity if they were to survive and fill the
area with loud, hungry, fecund dogs.
We'll be desperate for homes for them as soon as they're weaned!
She is unnamed, friendly and sensible.
They are in a private pen. 6 females (+ mom) and only 3 males.
Did I mention we're desperate to find them homes?
Less than a week later, Aug 6, we heard something unhappy nearby. It was this poor little fellow, all alone. He isn't even properly weaned but he's brave. We've named him Willy because we're so happy he's a boy.
Aug 06, 2018
This summer has been full of loss, even the oriole chicks in the neem tree came to a sad end. Too soon after losing Godzilla, her father George got sick and did not recover. He died in August.
He had bounced back from heart worm, paralysis and ehrliciosis to enjoy years of morning runs. It was a shock.
Flashback to George and young Godzilla with Gracie.
He was a huge part of our family for a long time. I learned a lot from George.
George and Godzilla. Loved and missed.
I'll spare you
the photos of Monkey's eye cyst (I think she just likes to go to the
vet) and Nico's swollen leg (poor thing can't catch a break). There aren't many fun pictures because we don't have a point & click camera at the moment and the Nikon is too cumbersome for most outings. Between the 10-12 bags of kibble a month and a never ending string of vet/medication costs, a new camera is not a priority.
A walk with Zasu is worth taking the Nikon! At 19 years old she doesn't go out as often or as far as she once did, but she is still lively.
I tell her not to run but she doesn't listen.
Henry has been with us 10 years, Zasu nearly 20.
Tito is now on medication for his congenital heart defect and is doing well.
Ruby and Perl have been spayed!
Don't they look cute in their post-op jumpers?
Worked like a charm, no sand in the incisions.
Perl showing off her couture threads.
All recovered, time to swim.
Ruby waits for her pool to fill.
Sadly Maldi hasn't been around for a few months, but Sugar's 4 kittens are all doing fine.
Kevin hangs out on the cat bridge (covered to keep the clods from falling off).
It's been hard to find a rhythm again without Tori.
I remind myself we've been lucky to have known so many of our friends for many years.
April may be adorable but she's a warrior.
Matriarch Zasu is the epitome of aging gracefully.
Henry has been with us since the beginning.
He and Xmul at sunset.
Xmul and Mo have been friends since they were puppies.
We planted a pineapple top back then and it finally bore fruit! 4 years for one little pineapple! It was really good though!
Our sweet nervous Bosha has gone back to be with her original person. She had been unable to care for her 4 years ago, but things have changed and she wanted her back. Bosha loves her and we knew she'd be happier in a calmer home. We'll keep an eye on her and make sure she stays up to date on her heart worm preventative.
Bosha heading to her new home.
Making the next clinic happen has been weighing heavily on me but I
seem to have been rendered inert by grief. Maintaining the dogs and
mustering enough enthusiasm to pacify them is all I've been able to
manage. We had hoped to have Cookie spayed then, but we couldn't wait
any longer. Many people with dogs here don't have the option of going to
a vet in the city. Another clinic is long overdue!
I can't set
the date until we've raised enough to cover costs; we aren't in a
position to cover a deficit at the moment. This time the vets will
be doing mostly females, increasing the amount of anesthesia needed -so
we need to raise at least 1200US to cover costs.
We are securing
a larger space this time around and Dra. Sandra will be bringing more
vets. The incoming mayor has voiced an interest in allocating funds for
future clinics. We hope that will happen and think that a good 'buzz'
surrounding this clinic will improve the chances that it will.
Cookie's surgery and recovery went perfectly.
If you've seen my Twitter feed (or you know us at all) you know we brought in the 2 puppies that were in a burrow down the lane.
Junebug the pup and Eddie the rooster regard each other.
Zoila spends some quality time with Monkey.
Zoila and Junebug like the beach!
They weren't so sure about the water.
We've finally started getting rain so everything is nice and green, and the mosquitoes haven't been too bad (yet). Some things don't change; hot days and early mornings are a constant, as is Stella's willfulness. She can't be trusted off the leash. Every time I forget, she reminds me!
Clever, lovely Stella.
We've been gloomy but the weather has been beautiful.
Sean, Rufus, Cookie and Linda.
Our little Cookie is nearly grown and needs to be spayed soon.
She and Amber are just about the same size.
She's got an inch or 2 on our old friend Henry.
He had a few more teeth removed recently and is feeling fine.
Cookie and Linda remain great pals and sparing partners.
Cookie has reach but Linda has a better ground game.
Elewah is surprisingly tolerant of the pup.
Maybe she notices a resemblance?
Elewah, Daisy, Cookie and Mega.
Pretty Xmul keeps an eye on the cats' evening shenanigans.
So many sweet faces at the gate!
They all want to know where I'm going.
This is a view from the other side of our gate.
I'm headed to that farthest tree, on the left side of the road.
One of the local strays had puppies and they're in a burrow there, under some tree roots.
Sean once saw four but I've only seen two. This striped angel...
and this little cutie.
The smaller brown girl is the Mom and is obviously still nursing. I think the other dog is her offspring from a previous litter. They both hang out under vehicles parked at the neighbor's place. They are too skittish for us to get near (we've been trying).
We're concerned that the burrow will flood when we get a hard rain so we built a little storm shelter next to/above it. It's a big plastic garbage can that I split in half lengthwise, weighted down with an old rubber kitchen mat and some limbs. Their burrow is to the left in this picture and the camouflaged shelter is in the center.
We aren't sure how much we can do for these girls. We can't raise every dog we find but we dread having even more fertile dogs living nearby -for their sake and ours*. The adult females will be pregnant again in no time and if these 2 survive 6 months, that will be 4 fertile females nearby! That will mean unending noise, an influx of males and an avalanche of puppies. Shit. We had the stray that lives around the army base just north of us sterilized a couple of years ago, and that has worked out great! We would do the same for these girls if we could lay hands on them.
There is a small window of time while we have access to the young ones. I think they are around 3 weeks old, maybe a little younger. Soon they will be too skittish. It rained last night and today they were still crammed in the damp burrow that they've practically outgrown. We'd be happy to foster them if there were homes for them to go to once they've been socialized and inoculated. If anyone is interested, get in touch!
This is the only time I've spotted one out of the burrow.
* We are both well aware that a likely scenario involves us on our knees, at night, in the middle of a downpour, pulling puppies out of a flooded burrow and bringing them home in our pockets.
