We are pleased to announce that an order we put in of 20 Nexgard Spectras from Mexico have just come in! This is one of the most powerful forms of flea, tick, mite, intestinal worm, and heart worm medicine there is available. We have a friendly organization near us on the lake that offered to include us in their "medicine run", where they acquire lots of brand-medicines at severely reduced rates from the lovely country of Mexico. Viva La Mexico! Many thanks to this organization which offered this to us, whom are called Xolo Sanctuary! You can help them by checking out their website and even donating to their cause, as they run the only other sanctuary we are aware of on this side of the lake, in the town in-between here and San Marcos, called Pasajcap. Thank you Xolo! I've used 5 of these things already, and we will be distributing them to local's dogs we know who are in severe need of them, too.
We look forward to communicating more with these other efforts, learning how other sanctuaries work, and helping each other out in the process of trying to take care of all these dogs on the lake. It's good to know there are neighboring efforts, as this is a big task as we all know.
We found a brand-new rescue, right in front of our house!
This poor little thing was found only yesterday, at the neighbors house down the street from us. I was on my way walking to San Marcos with the big dogs, and it always takes me awhile to get ready, but I had everything and started trekking. Just as we walked 20 seconds down the hill, here is this little, lonesome, puppy. I asked the neighbors if it was their dog, and they said, "No, it's a street dog." I have a video here of the moment right after I found him, showing him in his "natural habitat", the same condition many, many other puppies are found in:
(That's Koko bear walking back-and-forth in front of him. He has been a "guest" of Perros Libres for a bit of a while now...)
Thankfully, this dog doesn't seem to have any severe illnesses.
He definitely is a carrier of Mange, that oh-so-common parasitic disease we work so hard to fight against. Thankfully we're quite experienced in this illness, and our dogs have their Nexgard now, which prevents the spread of Mange, if this happens to be the contagious variant. So, this nameless yet adorable little guy will be staying with us until we can do three things:
Give him proper food and nutrition to start improving his health & quality of life.
Rid him of any pests and worms, as I found a couple fleas, gave him a flea-bath, and already given him de-wormer.
Get him fixed. I estimate he is only 8-10 weeks old, and our veterinarian said dogs should never be spayed or neutered under 4 months. Thankfully, it will be in hopefully exactly 2 months or more that our next sterilization clinic happens, in February. He will qualify for this procedure at that time.
Here's just a few pictures of him we also posted on our Facebook page:
If you have a good name for him, leave it in the comments!
Someone already suggested "Teddy Bear" :)
In other news, Perros Libres needs a new gate.
As you can see, this gate is just not cutting it.
As our followers are aware, this house was not designed to be the Dog Sanctuary. After Perros Libres began as an idea, I was living here with only 4 dogs: Tzunun, Tostada, Perrita, and Scabby. They were a very reasonable and manageable quartet of dogs to take care of. However, Tzunun and Tostada both have a method of squeezing through the gate, because it is so loose it can be pushed by force and a dog can get out. This obviously has caused us a lot of frustration, as dogs should not be able to just escape and run amok if they feel like it. Even when I put cinderblocks and rocks in front of the gate (which is annoying to have to do every time you open it), Tzunun and Tostada will paw at it until they are able to knock it over, and then the gate just automatically opens, because of it's poor structure. So, what to do?
I commissioned our Guardian, Moises, who is an excellent craftsman to design us a new one and build it ASAP.
Thankfully, we were able to just pay the upfront cost of all materials and labor to Moises immediately, after he wrote us up a nice invoice, which he was grateful for and has put in the order for the materials. Even though we were not planning to have so many dogs here, it happened: and this is the kind of stuff we have to do to keep them safe. This takes us to the next steps...
The big next step: prepare to build the Real Dog Sanctuary!
This gate situation, and our growing requests for aid, only exemplifies the need for the Real Dog Sanctuary, which we hope to start building first-quarter 2022. We will be creating a GoFundMe page for the Sanctuary, which was the original motivation to start Perros Libres. Andrés our land owner gave me the idea, and the land, and in order to start moving forward with this we need to do two things:
Sign a Contract. This is to ensure the success of the sanctuary: that we have a legally binding contract that will allow us to remain legit, legally protected, and legally visible to the surrounding area that this is what our function of the land will be.
Create the GoFundMe page. This will have the business plan, architecture plan, land-overview, and concept for the functionality of the Real Dog Sanctuary. Not this house, not this property, but a large piece of land intended to house and care for dogs.
Without Andrés' offer to use his land, I probably wouldn't have started Perros Libres.
Perros Libres has had a hectic, wild ride up the popularity chute after our humble beginnings. I also started getting asked by people all around Tzununá to help with their dogs, locals and foreigners alike: to take in their dogs, clean their dogs, get medicine and food to their dogs, and this was all really too much for one guy. I've had lots of volunteers in-and-out, but now we need to hire somebody, come January. We've got a huge workload: with dog runs for the town, 10 dogs here, people always asking us for new help with their animals, there is a HUGE need for this Dog Sanctuary to happen. One thing is for sure: it is not this house. However, as long as I am here, I will make sure this home, our current headquarters and office, will be a safe place for our animals. It needs repairs, but thankfully we can do them, and once we get this Real Dog Sanctuary up-and-running, this job will become easier and easier, day by day.
Help us accomplish this goal: help us build this Dog Sanctuary. You can start doing this by Sharing, Liking, Commenting, and telling your friends what we're doing here. We are okay on donations for this month, what we need to do is expand our reach. Sharing on Facebook with a description of what we do, and what you've observed from our development, can help us be seen by more eyes to prepare for the GoFundMe launch, which we plan to do as soon as it is ready.
Thank you, everybody, for your continued support of our effort.
This has been, without a doubt, the hardest endeavor I've ever taken on in my life. Taking care of 10 dogs is no easy task, and that's only half my job, we're trying to take care of every dog in Tzununa. But we CAN do it. I AM confident I have the ability to spearhead this organization to success for all dogs here by means of health, happiness, and a safe place for these dogs to live.
Let's do it together.
Libertad por los Perros! Ándale!
Comentarios