Perros Libres stands, today, as a dream that was once in the confines of a single mind. A blip of an idea presented by many people to me, rather than "coming up with it on my own", a collection of suggestions started to boil-up in my mind. At the same time, in the process of finding myself ready willing and able to help dogs, nothing really better to do, and opportunity to begin an idea which I have never done or attempted to do in any way before in my life: I thought, "what the hell?" A new frontier awaited, on the other side of manifesting one's dreams.
After the hard work of creating the space, now we stand on the edges of the cultural front of Guatemala, in-between the old-world and the progressively healthy future world we all want for the dogs. Guatemala as a country seems to be opening the doors to Dog-reformation decisions, with the new Seed political party new opportunities may come for us and other dog-rescues here in Guatemala.
Dogs may seem so, innocent, even dumb to a fault, but believe you me when I tell you they are highly intelligent beings. They put on the goofy face cause they know we love it, they express themselves always joyfully and emotionally, but they don't have the same language we do. However they still speak, and communicate, with us on a daily basis.
At my very core...
I think it might be fair to say I like dogs more than people. 😂 But I know all the rescue people say that, which there may be some truth to it. Only people who don't mind spending 100% of their time with animals can really do this work. I would daresay it's not "easy" by anyone's standards. And it can make you kind of a loner, if you're not careful.
I don't desire to be boastful here, but sincere. I consider this path one of the most difficult I ever could have ever dreamed: not knowing I would have to fight, literally at times, to keep my dream alive and not under dangerous threat or harassment. This is perhaps something many, many organizations face that work in cultures outside of their own, and do work in places they may not always be welcome. It's a part of the territory, we can say.
Vaccines for dogs!
Thanks to the awesome Vetitlan from San Pedro, our favorite Perros Libres vets, we got a large donation of 22 multi-vaccines. We were able to re-vaccinate all the dogs needing multi-vax, which is just one way to say the "complex-vaccine 💉" that covers so many different dangerous diseases for dogs.
Thank you Vetitlan!
Anyone wanting great veterinary assistance on the lake should check out their Facebook page here. They speak English and Spanish and are very professional with their service, having saved many dogs of ours over the years.
Adopting Doggies!
Thanks to blessed luck and good people, we have had at least a couple successful adoptions this year so far. We have:
1. Beema, a dog from our pack with Nila & Nula, who successfully made it to Germany with the great volunteers Ana & Artur from times past.
2. Chad, previously known as Coco, a dog from another pack of 5 puppies who have now ALL been successfully adopted into others hands. These were the dogs from Mama dog Daisy, who is unfortunately no longer with us. She had passed away a couple days after her sterilization surgery. R.I.P. Daisy.
3. Neptune (foster), Neptune has not been officially adopted yet but is being fostered with a new person that loves him, while they seek a forever-home.
There are some other "pending adoptions" in process, but we can say 2/24 dogs in our large campaign this year have been officially out (and stayed)! It's not as much as I would have liked so far, but it is progress. There have been more adopted through The DOX project, but because they took on those pups as theirs we don't count them in the list. However dogs are moving all over, that have come from our initial rescue. That brings a lot of joy to my soul, and reminds me of the good work we're doing here. Every adopted dog is another touchdown.
We continue to seek adoptions constantly and ask anyone who can help with this feel free to reach out. As you can see we're working harder on promoting these dogs with better targeted advertising, graphics and posters and stickers, and just doing everything in our power to inevitably finding them the homes they deserve.
Lastly I'd like to give the biggest THANK YOU to you: our sponsors and supporters.
I'll be the first to admit I feel personally guilty sometimes I do not get to update you, the sponsors and supporters, more often. Originally I designed sponsorships to be once-a-month updates, and I have not been able to update as we would like to in a timely or consistent way. This has weighed heavy on my heart as a promise not kept, but I am here to right that wrong and improve communications further with you, our support and community as well as doggy-family. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
So, please accept my formal apology if you as a supporter do not feel you are updated enough of our work and progress. It is in my fullest desire and prerogative to create the system which will be able to consistently and frequently update all sponsors so you can see more into our work is done and how the dogs live their lives.
It is a joy to do this job, yet social media and "computer time" is harder and harder to access as the day progresses and the dogs need their daily care. It seems almost personally impossible for me to be comfortable as in an "office" while on the Dog Sanctuary.Thusly, we do not get to update as much as we would really like. So, there are steps being made to hopefully fix this problem in due time with some professional help.
Thank you for your patronage, your energy and your donations which have helped create the reality we now live in, take care of 35 dogs full-time, and do the good work we were put here to do. Thank you, and Libertad para los Perros.