First off, here's a bit of footage that will both break and gladden your heart. If you aren't a better and more humble person after the 52 seconds it takes to watch, then call your doctor. You may need heart and brain implants!
It's a dog helps dog world!
~via Animal Rights Blog via Metacafe
The long of it or, if dogs can do it, people can too.
Angel
Nicaragua update
In other goings on, I have been busy setting up a blog for
Casa Lupita, a clinic in Granada, Nicaragua for street animals. The clinic is a project of an
NGO called
Building New Hope. I was inspired to get involved by the little dog in this photo. I call her Angel. She was stranded on the sidewalk with a broken hip right where you see her and completely unable to drag herself to a safe place, had there been one. People were walking around and over her as though she did not exist but she stopped me cold. I was stunned. I stepped to the wall and leaned back. A Japanese girl was standing there so, after a moment I said,
"I can't go any farther. This is too much. I can't leave just this poor dog laying here on the street." She said it was the same for her, that she was a vet student and could not walk by and leave her suffering like that. Her friends, also students, were off looking for help. Eventually they returned with rumors of an animal shelter somewhere in the city (Granada) and coaxed the girl to leave with them to search it out.
I stayed a while longer with the little dog but finally decided to go back to our room to get her some food and water and tell Mr. Lee what was up. He remembered seeing a poster at the
Bearded Monkey about an animal shelter so he went in search of information and I returned to Angel. Unfortunately, I didn't think to bring a bowl. That's why there's water on the sidewalk in front of her. It freaked her out. I instantly regretted pouring it, plus I felt like a total idiot. She was happy for the food though.
I wish I had gone to
Casa Lupita that night. It's easy to care. Taking action is the hard part but I did go the next morning.
Donna was there, along with a volunteer veterinarian from the US, a Dr. Terry Kane. He said no one had brought in a dog of that description but it quickly became clear that this would not be the end of it. This was Casa Lupita after all, where no one is too small or insignificant to be loved. Donna grabbed me. We jumped into her old black truck and headed off for Angel's last known place on earth.
She wasn't there, but as Angel had lain directly in front of an open door the day before, Donna asked the woman inside if she knew anything.
Yes. She had witnessed the whole event and said the Japanese girls came back for her in the evening. Mystery not solved but, as we could do no more, Donna invited me to join her on her rounds. We fed a group of street dogs that live along the shore of
Lago Cocibolca,
(or Lake Nicaragua if you prefer). We distributed more food along the road back to town and stopped by her place for a minute where I met a couple of other street dogs recuperating from sever injuries and emotional trauma, then we returned to the clinic. When we told the vet how the girls had rescued Angel from the street, he realized she was the dog who'd been brought in the night before. He told us that in the states he could have saved her but, unfortunately, Casa Lupita isn't currently equipped for major surgeries. Her whole hip was crushed, not just her leg. Amputation would not be enough. He had to put her down.
Before we left on our trip to Central America last September, I prepared myself for the suffering animals I knew I'd encounter. Mexico drove me to distraction so this time I was determined to pace myself. Yes, I know there is so much human suffering that needs addressing but I feel a call to help animals. It's just the way it is. So I fed a dog here and there but kept reminding myself that that I couldn't drop everything every time my heart broke. Then I met Angel. So a week or two later, election night to be exact, while the US was choosing Barrack Obama to be President of the United States, and sweet hope hung heavy in the air, a bunch of us gathered at a local hotel lounge to cheer and celebrate and I promised Donna that, after we returned home, I'd set up a blog for Casa Lupita to help spread the word, a tiny contribution, but something I could do from afar.
That was nearly two months ago but last week, after coming across Angel's photo
one more time, I got down to it and hammered a beginning. I scrounged up a little content but am not quite ready to tell Donna yet but here's the link, if you want to check it out. If you have any suggestions before I email her this coming week, I'd love to hear them.
So here's the short of it: Casa Lupita Nica
Last two photos of dogs and cats on the street by Finnegan Dowling, Nicaragua Redux: The Sarna Dog Chronicels. Thanks, Finnegan.
