Some dogs like to have a bath, others don’t.

Oscar certainly didn’t put up a fight!

Just look at the difference in his skin!

Oscar is now in a run with 5 girlies and enjoying life! He is not a completely healthy dog yet, there are still issues with his skin and he needs to put on weight. As soon as he is well he will be neutered, which he might not be too pleased about!

It is amazing how much dogs improve once they realize they don’t have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, where they will find water (especially in a climate as hot as this) and when they know they have nothing to fear from humans and from other dogs.

Oscar received a lot of attention at dog wash today and he enjoyed every minute of it!

Andy and I are not big fans of the word ‘Rescue’ being used too lightly although it is very useful as a generic term. If someone brings a dog or cat to our door, we cannot in all honesty say that we have rescued him or her. We have taken the animal in and we will love and care for it, however the true rescuer is the big hearted person who cared enough to enlist our help.

‘Rescue’ however, was definitely the word of the day yesterday. There are some days when Andy and I feel like we should have a big flashing light on our vehicle and our very own theme tune.

Yesterday was certainly one of those days.

Immensely kind hearted Danielle had become distressed by the amount of barking and whining that she could hear all night coming from somewhere behind her condo. Daylight investigation revealed 15 dogs and puppies in need – which is when she called us.

We arrived at the location (with Mexican backup in tow), to find 3 families living in the utmost squalor on a huge site. Their accommodation was of the most basic (although the people themselves were well dressed and appeared well fed). The site was a confusing mass of rubble, garbage, numerous turkeys and chickens and dead and dying birds in extremely small cages (they refused to engage in conversation about the birds).

From the gateway we could see a thin Rottweiler chained to a tree in full sun with no food or water in sight.

Requests to access the site and see the animals led to repeated refusals. We cannot access property uninvited and unfortunately there is no higher authority that we can appeal to for aid if we suspect or know that animals are being neglected or ill treated.

Somewhat bizarrely, after a stand-off with neither parties budging, we were told that if we came back with a car we could take the dogs but we couldn’t go in and just look at them! Andy left and returned a few minutes later with our vehicle at which point we were very politely invited in.

We approached the Rottweiler with caution – unnecessary as she turned out to be an absolute sweetheart, very gentle with a look of desperate pleading in her eyes. We were told that she had been chained (with a very heavy chain) for some time as she had killed a couple of their chickens and in any case they were unable to release her as the key to the padlock around her neck had long since been lost. Andy set about cutting the chain, which caused great consternation as is it now appeared that they really needed the chain and they were worried that it would be unusable. We assured them that we would be more than happy to purchase a new chain for them.

The lady of the house now seemed eager to show myself, my friend Jan (aka himynameisjan) and our Mexican friend the rest of the dogs. Behind the main building we found an extremely skinny young dog with 7, 8 day old pups (again, no sign of food or water) and a (possibly) Wheaten Terrier chained up short with an even heavier chain than the one around the neck of the Rottweiler. This little dog is probably in the worst shape of the 3 adult dogs and is very wary and distrustful towards humans. Her 5 male puppies (4 – 5 weeks old) are just adorable and bear an uncanny resemblance to Ewoks but unfortunately mama dog wants no more to do with them.

At this point, the residents were happy for us to take all 3 adult dogs and the 7 very young puppies as they didn’t want any of them but they didn’t want to part with the Ewok puppies as they wanted to sell them. In that case, we were willing to buy! After a little negotiating, we settled on 750 pesos for 3 of the puppies but they insisted that they already had buyers for the other 2. We upped the price, but they wouldn’t be moved.

We piled all the dogs into our vehicle and left (Thank you Jan for being on hand to help and also for your calming influence on what could have become a very heated situation). We were extremely concerned for the 2 pups that were left behind as without a doubt, no-one was going to care for them.

Early this afternoon, Danielle called to say that she had successfully manged to purchase the remaining 2 pups!

The Rottweiler (Gizelle), mama (Hattie) and 7 pups and Wheaten Terrier (Biscuit) are all now at the shelter in their own areas and the 5 male Ewok puppies are sharing our spare bedroom with 2 kittens!

Most visitors to the shelter will remember Hayley. Poor Hayley has suffered from a chronic skin condition which caused her to lose all her hair, ever since she was a small pup. We have tried everything…..medicines, pills, potions, lotions and special shampoos – all to no avail. Her skin stubbornly remained hard, dry, scaly and itchy, with an unpleasant yeasty odor. Sometimes she would develop bleeding sores and she was always prone to infections. More than one vet told us that it was unlikely she would ever have hair as the hair follicles had probably died. We didn’t care if Hayley never had hair, we just wanted her to be comfortable.

We are simply amazed! Hayley’s skin is now as soft and smooth as silk…..and her hair is growing!
She may never have a full coat but wow, what a difference and all in only 10 days!!

Have you voted today for Peanut Pet Shelter?Your votes could help us help more dogs like Hayley!