I first found out about little Candy through my wonderful friend, Jen. We were co-hosting the PPS 3rd Anniversary party, and Andy brought her for me to see. I fell in love at first sight!!!
I was convinced she was to come home with me…now how would I convince my husband?
Although Chad was not ready to take her home during this trip to Playa, he said that we could pay for her food and meds for now. When we arrived home, he agreed that we could bring her back when we return to Playa next May.
Although I have to wait 11 months to pick her up, I know it will be worth the wait. Candy will be loved to bits and she will have two new sisters.
I’m so glad that Andy & Jen are holding her for me until she can arrive to her forever home!

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This post was submitted by Trish B..

I must share my story about our sweet Kitty, finding her forever home all the way from the Peanut Pet Shelter in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico to Wilmington North Carolina. I still remember the day I saw Kitty’s picture posted on Facebook and I said ‘Now that is one beautiful dog!! I want her!’ Never in a million years I thought my wish would come true!! So, when we went to the dog wash during our last vacation to Mexico in March, I had one thing on my mind – find Kitty, give her a bath and then love on her. When I saw her, I felt she and I had a connection. I wanted her so badly, but it was not the right time. My husband said we will pay to have her spayed, then get her at a later date if Andy and Jen are able to hold her for us. Of course they said ‘Yes!’ The next thing I knew I could not stop thinking about her and when I heard our friends Vikki and Jimmy were driving back from Playa to Texas, I asked them if they would mind driving Kitty to Texas then putting her on a plane to NC. That’s when Kitty made her journey to her forever home! All I can say is this dog was made to be in our family. She is truly amazing and we could not imagine our lives with out her!!!

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This post was submitted by Kelly.

It’s funny how things go. On a recent visit to the vet with our standard poodle Alex, we happened to see a picture of “Bethany”. Before our appointment was over I had asked if she was there so that my daughter and I could see her. There was something about her beautiful chocolate eyes. I was told that she was out with Kelly but that I could come back to see her another time. It wasn’t that big of a deal, after all, I just wanted to meet her, it wasn’t like I was actively looking for a dog. To our surprise, while we were checking out, in she came! Before I knew who she was, I was commenting on what a pretty girl she was and to my surprise – it was “Bethany”. We greeted her and spent some time with her. She instantly showed so much affection and interest in my daughter, Alex and me! After leaving, I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing her. I thought about her the rest of the day and called the office the next day to see if I could take her home for a trial. With three cats and another dog, I was worried that although she took to us, if she couldn’t fit in with the rest of the crew, it would be impossible for us to keep her. Her first day home was a little hectic as she explored the yard with Alex and then found each cat throughout the house, like a surprise waiting around every corner. As each day passed, she slowly gained their trust and her kind, good nature won them all over. She is an amazing dog. All of the love and attention that you provided her is evident. She has had such an long journey for such a little dog but, it is clear that she is finally home. From us to you, thank you. Your gift to our family is so welcome and appreciated. Bethany who is now called Ella, has made it to where she belongs and we cherish her –

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This post was submitted by Lisa Layman.

The dog my husband and I adopted is called Storm. We have had him since February this year and he is so sweet. He was so skinny when we got him and we think he may have been beaten too, but now he is doing so well. When we got him he was not potty trained, but it did not take me long to train him. His weight is now 50 pounds. When we first got him his weight was only 39 pounds. Storm is a lab – we love him so very much!

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This post was submitted by leah crow.

Almost 9 months ago I came to live in Mexico to start a company with my Mexican boyfriend. I did spent my first 2 months in Colima, but I knew that I wanted to move to Playa del Carmen..so we did.
From the moment I arrived in Colima I wanted to adopt a dog and I already started looking at the internet for shelters in Playa del Carmen. Then I found the Peanut Pet Shelter!
Although all dogs on the website of Jen and Andy deserve a new loving home and they are all cute, my eye directly fell on the scruffy dog called Mimi. She indeed looked like a cute rat with her blond, curly and rigid hair. Only by seeing the photo she turned a smile on my face.

As soon as we settled in Playa del Carmen I went to a washing day on Saturday. That day I met so many dogs including shy Mimi. I was sure about it, I wanted to take her home. My boyfriend and I arranged some things at home and picked up Mimi.
Mimi has always got a smile on her face and her tail high up in the sky! She loves to come for some cuddles and she is always on my side.

As Mimi has been in the shelter for quite a while, she wasn’t used to ‘strange things’ like cars, bikes and a lot of new noises but she is used to them now!
The funniest thing is that if you want to play with her with a ball, she doesn’t really like the ball. She is curious about it but as soon as she is near it she jumps aside. If she sees her chance she will hide the ball under the couch…to never see it again.
Although Mimi isn’t a ball player, she is the best in running! She is so energetic, she is the fastest dog I have ever seen!! It is kind of funny to see her run as she looks like a galloping horse..

At Christmas day we received a gift from the street, a little red cat of about 6 months invited herself in. Nobody knew her and after asking the veterinarian of Bosque Real we decided to keep her and call her Muna.
Mimi is really happy with her new friend, they play and chase around and fall asleep on the same cushion. A happy couple.

For different reasons my boyfriend and I decided to leave Playa and move to my country again. We prepared her for the big trip. She has been chipped and vaccinated etc.

Muna found a loving home in Colima for the time that we need to find a house where we can live all together including my giant rabbit: Lorenzo Corazon.

Mimi is now very happy with her coat, as it is still cold in Holland!!

Thank you for doing such a good job rescuing cats and dogs and finding them new homes. Keep up the good work!

Best wishes from Holanda!

Grada-Marie & Omar

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This post was submitted by Grada.

Bailey is a blue merle pomeranian, a rare color, which has just been bred into poms within the last ten years. I got one of the first poms, the son of the “Wizard of Merle” from a breeder here in Pennsylvania. We kept in touch with the breeder, who lived 3 hours away from us. One summer we were going camping near the breeder’s town, so we decided to take Cooper for a visit. She ran something by us before our visit. She said she had a handicapped blue merle pom and wanted to know if we were interested in taking him, for free. She said the mama had trouble birthing him, so she had to pull him out and his legs/spinal cord became damaged. She said he had trouble walking. Well, we went and met him and of course, for dog lovers, who could say no? He was a puff ball on legs, wobbly legs, but adorable as heck, with one brown eye and one blue eye.
We had Cooper, the other blue merle, and two other pomeranians at home, who basically “habilitated” Bailey into working his legs and strengthening them so he could walk and run and jump like almost a normal dog. It’s amazing.
We went through a couple of scary times when he couldn’t lift himself to walk and took him to the vet and then an orthopedic specialist. His spine is disjointed, so the nerves to his legs are not functioning properly, not getting the messages from the brain. It was determined that surgery was too risky. They even sent the xrays to a teaching university to get an expert opinion. The times he couldn’t walk were maybe due to growth spurts?
He can do most everything now except go up or down a regular flight of stairs. He has managed to learn how to go up the five steps to our deck. That was the most amazing thing ever!! That was my surprise upon my return from Mexico one year.
Bailey is a very special dog, and we call him our “Gift from God”. He is very nurturing with the other dogs and cats, often licking them and cleaning them. He is a bed bug, he sleeps between my husband and I. If I should wake up and turn to my left, I see a big ole brown and blue eye looking at me followed by pink tongue kisses all over my face. Bailey loves loves loves to eat and makes a huge fuss and comotion over feeding time. We feed him apart from others because he eats so fast then would go and eat everyone else’s meal!
Bailey is now learning another difficult task…..dealing with a new large and obnoxious puppy…..an Old English Sheepdog that is a little too rambunctious for his liking.

Submitted by Michelle

The day of Chula

Having left the dreary winter of Canada in November 2008, we headed south through the USA and into Mexico. We had been in Mexico since March and it was now May 2009. We had both decided on a new adventure and sold our house and all its contents, bought a motor home and headed south. Now into May, we ended up in a town called Catemaco in the province of Veracruz and were staying in an RV park there in a picturesque spot near Lake Catemaco. We knew we were going to be there a while as we were planning on getting our FM3’s, which meant a lot of paperwork! We had our two miniature schnauzers, Dudley and Heidi with us, who had endured the long travels and many pee stops!

As is known, Mexico is inundated with stray dogs and cats and being a total animal fanatic, this was very heartbreaking to me seeing all the sad sights of these poor defenseless creatures without the basic needs of water, food and shelter. One day soon after our arrival I ventured out for a walk with Dudley and Heidi in an attempt to get some exercise and a change of scene only to find several street dogs following us. I decided to abandon this idea and head back before I ended up with these canines running wild in the RV Park we had just settled in, not to mention the disgust of the resident guard dog that prided himself on being the sole dog over his domain. Not long after I walked down this street once again, only this time dog less and passed a typical local Mexican casa with a few sparsely feathered chickens and a tethered dog in what they would have called their front yard. The family living there turned out to be very friendly and humble as I tried to talk to them in my non existent Spanish. Over their rickety fence I then saw two tiny puppies hiding behind a make shift rain shelter, extremely thin and trying to play with their mum, who just wasn’t interested and obviously was fed up with tending to her offspring. The father of these two adorable pups then showed up having been surveying the town running in between the hectic bustle of traffic, which horrified me. He was a handsome guy with gentle qualities and the look somewhat of a beagle. The mum was smaller, short legged and longer haired and for some reason was not allowed the run of the streets.

Having now visited this poor Mexican family for several days offering chicken feed and dog food, including “huesos por perros” from the local butcher next door, the husband and father of this unassuming family very pleasantly gestured whether I would take these puppies and give them a home. At that moment my husband looked slightly horrified and tried explaining that we already had two dogs in a rather cramped 34 foot motor home and that we couldn’t possibly take on another. So when I came back to the RV Park the next day with puppy (Chula) in hand, he eventually succumbed to the idea of three dogs being OK! Well, how could I possibly leave her there? We subsequently found out that the other sibling also found a home.

When we left this quaint town of Catemaco I was still visiting the family and offering dog food to Chula’s mum and dad. Sadly the day before we left Catemaco on our onward journey to the Yukatan I stopped by this house once again with a bag of dog food only to find out that Chula’s dad had been tragically hit by a car and killed the day before. This was devastating and to this day I think of him. My one saving grace is that had it not been for him there wouldn’t be my Chula, who incidentally has turned out to be the most affectionate and loyal puppy one could wish for, albeit for her cheekiness and of course those naughty puppy traits, which I also love.

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This post was submitted by Rosalind Humphrey.

My Wolseley Sinclair was found in Prince Albert, SK,Canada on the streets in -40 degrees, with only his back legs working, he had rickets from being malnourished, and had dandruff all over as a result also of the malnourishment. I was told he was quite shy at first, but when I came to pick him up, he literally ran down the hall into my arms! I believe he was meant to be mine. I fell in love with him on a humane society website. He is now the fastest runner I have seen…

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This post was submitted by jennifer .

Hi everyone! I’m Trish and I’ve been in love with the Peanut Pet Shelter since our first wash day last June. For anyone who has not had the pleasure of meeting all of the pups at the shelter, I must say that you are missing out. All of the work done at the shelter is so amazing, and it will steal your heart. In the future, I will be getting my next dog from the PPS.

A lot of people know me from either prior visits or through Playa.info, but few of you know about my little pug, Chiquita. She truly is the little smile in every day. My mom got her for me for Christmas nine years ago. (I had wanted a pug for so long) She has been there through so many good times and bad, and was also the deciding factor on whether I would marry Chad or not. You see, Chad has a Labrador named Christine, and we had to make certain those two got along first. They hit it off great (they were ages 2 & 5 at the time) and the rest is history.

Chiquita is now nine and a little slower and all gray-faced, but still my little banana.

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This post was submitted by Trish Bennett.

Who is Mickey Blue Eyes?

Mickey Blue Eyes is a very special cat. His story is one of survival against all odds, and reward beyond all expectations.

One month later, his beautiful blue eyes watched us without fear, and his little body was doing much better. We had interviewed several prospective new homes for him but… none of them seemed quite good enough. We soon realized that we were making ridiculous excuses regarding each of the wonderful people who offered to adopt him, such as maybe they would give him chicken, but did they realize he preferred white over dark meat? Would they know how to scamble his eggs properly? Would they let him sleep under their shirts during the day and on their pillows at night?

Obviously, at this point, he was here to stay. He decided the dog was his mom and we already had “too many cats,” but we didn’t have any with blue eyes! Plus Mickey had (for some reason no one understands) bonded to the one member of the household who “didn’t like cats.” This same person was now getting up in the middle of night to feed him tuna, was carrying on entire conversations with him and was convinced that this kitten was smarter than any other. Ever.

So Mickey grew, and grew, and grew some more. Despite his starved babyhood, he has just passed 20 lbs and is by far the largest cat in the house. During the last 2 years he has provided countless hours of amusement and stress relief as his character and very unique personality unfolds. He sings and coos to us like a pigeon. He runs to greet us at the door when we get home like a dog. He naps in the strangest spots and positions and has learned several words and hand signals. He has developed his own version of billiards. He does not like to be picked up, but chooses to sit beside us on the couch, sleep on our bed and follow us around the house. He’s very affectionate with us, but rather hostile to strangers. He is an excellent guard cat, patrolling the windows and alerting us to anything that moves outside.

This year a member of our family was diagnosed with cancer, the same person mentioned above who supposedly didn’t like cats. Mickey’s bond with him provided comfort, stress and pain relief, and even humour. Much has been written about the healing power of pets… we believe it and wonder if we found that pathetic little bundle of fur 2 years ago, or if he found us. Either way, we are so grateful for what he has given us in return.

He has also inspired the 10 Top 10 Lists For Cat Lovers project. There are so many cats, strays, ferals, abandoned, neglected and abused, that need and deserve help, and there’s a lot of amazing people doing their best but… it always boils down to one issue: lack of funds.

And the thought occurred to us: what if there was some way we could earn a living doing something that also raised money for the countless struggling rescues and shelters? We couldn’t think of a better ocupation, including our current one. So this project is our attempt at that. Mickey’s personality may be unique, but his story is certainly not. There are literally millions of Mickey’s out there, starving, cold, suffering and dying. These innocent souls have so much to offer, if they are just given the chance.

Supporting the people who are out there every day, despite the horror, heartbreak and endless obstacles of their work, is very important. They have triumphs and victories too, they accomplish much with very little, and they are responsible for happy endings that would never happen without their dedication. Please take a moment to look at our site and consider joining us in our efforts to help them. http://www.cats.10top10lists.com/Home_Page.php

10 Top 10 Lists For Cats http://www.cats.10top10lists.com/Home_Page.php