Today had to be the most successful food/medicine round we've done in Tzununa. Today, I counted over 20 dogs I fed (not including mine!) You will see videos of almost all of these dogs being fed in this post, as well as a further introduction to some of these local families that we're building relationships with. I'll start you off with the best, this video is of a family that lives a bit out-of-the-way of town down in a real Mayan style home. Very open-air, mostly stone and cement construction, and lots of little buildings surrounding a centered communal area where all of these dogs you are about to see live.
Originally, I was told there were "two sick dogs" that needed my help with mange in this house. So I get some medicine and food, come on down and find the house, and turns out there are 12 dogs living there all with the same issues, and all of this one family. I couldn't believe my eyes. Most of them are puppies, but all of them have mange and most look like they are starving. Check it out:
So after I fed these dogs I gave a few days doses of medicine and vitamins to the girl that asked me to come, and even though there were a lot more than I expected, it works out because the puppies are so small their weight requires an extremely small amount of meds. This is good, because treating them so young will make it easy for them to fight off the mange and giving them good food will accelerate that immensely. So I'm realizing that our food runs are just as much medicine runs, almost all dogs on the street (even the ones owned by locals) have mange so I'm starting to sprinkle the meds in appropriate portions into specific containers for the dogs we've started treatment for. Here's another video of them getting some food and medicine today (last one was about 3 days ago):
So this next dog is a new one you haven't seen before, he is nameless and I've seen him wandering town quite a lot and have never been able to figure out where he lived. Today I think I found his hideout, but before that he walked right by the house when I was feeding the dogs breakfast. My friend noticed him calling him "mange-face", cause this dog has absolutely the worst case of mange I've ever seen. But I was able to run outside and offer him food, which he gladly accepted with aplomb.
So what surprised me was then I turned around and went home, which was just a few feet away, and without looking back he followed me home and sat outside the gate. He was still hungry! That same friend alerted me to him having come back, and I took the opportunity to fill another bowl with food and put medicine in it. So we got him his first dose of mange medicine! He's gonna be WAY harder to keep consistent with this because I am positive nobody is taking ownership of this dog. But I did find where he hides later today when I went to feed the little pups, and I will bring emergency meds with me when I roll around town trying to find him. He's gonna be our "level expert" client to see if we can heal from mange. I cannot wait to be able to have the dog-land ready to move dogs like him in and give a real home which they've never had. Here was us bonding and giving him more food and medicine:
So this case is really as bad as it gets. But I have love for every dog I find and am going to do my best to get them all what they need. This is a very difficult effort by myself, I do have volunteers I can ask for help we're calling the "dog volunteer action team" and will start inquiring them to get a schedule with me and rotate out some volunteers. But in the meantime I'm just starting to make my route while being able to hit every spot with the specific dogs I've been asked to help, as well as the ones I choose myself to include (like this little guy, who we're gonna have to give a name.)
Okay so next up is Stella! Some of our followers have asked me to step in and care for this dog as Erica has originally posted about her in her videos, but it's not in Ericas capability to be able to get this dog food every day. So she made a generous donation to us so that I could get Stella in the frequent rounds of our food, which we've been able to do and also she happens to live exactly next to those little puppies in the Mayan house at the beginning of this blog. Here is me gaining Stella's trust and her starting to eat our food:
Lastly I'll share one more video (with Tigre!) where we get some food to the dogs we were asked to care for by the Marley and Bone Foundation, a new organization starting in Mexico that intends to help dogs all across Latin America, with our Perros Libres being one their first partner organizations to help us here in Tzununa. Here is Tigre and Guacy getting their daily food, and our partner Andrés making a quick cameo!
That's it for today everybody!
I am starting to feel really grateful for the comfortability with rolling around town and getting so many food to so many dogs in a single day, single-handedly! 20 dogs. Holy cow man. But this is starting to become a lot for one guy...I need to incorporate that volunteer list ASAP! But your donations have come a long way, as we're helping lots of locals now who are very grateful to the help and getting invited into Mayan homes is not something your average gringo gets to do. I'm so grateful for my time here, all of you who are helping us out, and especially these dogs who are allowing me to take care of them and trusting me, where many have been quite feral and not accustom to human niceties. We are changing the dog-world around here family! Thank you again, and Libertad por los perros!
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