Amigo de los Animales - Isla Mujeres Mexico - Animal Stories

Preventing an unwanted birth is preventing the future suffering, sickness and inhumane death of an animal.

Molly Fisher

Our Animal Stories
Click on the story titles listed below to read the full story.

Mario and Meesh

TITO'S NEW HOME

OUR HISTORY WITH RANCHO VIEJO

THE STORY OF LUCILLE

Mario and Meesh - December 13, 2007

MARIO AND MEESH

December 13, 2007, yesterday I got a call from Mary Louisa who lives on the island. “Some man just called me and said he found two puppies in a box, he’s bringing them to my house.”

“Bring them here,” I said. “I need some puppies today.” I had just lost one of my dogs, her name was Tuna and we knew she had neurological problems. This morning her time was up, she had a seizure and died. I held her the whole time and gave her what I try to give every dog I find in Mexico—the clear message that somebody loves them. And I do, every single one, I don’t know why. So as I said, I really needed some puppies.

Mario was the man who found them, therefore the name but I can’t explain the Meesh part other than they just sounded good together. The two of them are at my feet right now, successfully avoiding the little enclosure we made for them. They, of course, want to be where we are. I don’t mind though, Mario and Meesh will be asleep soon enough as they are working very hard gaining weight and getting rid of internal parasites.

Meesh and Mario

It’s entertaining to watch them waddle around my room; they are identical except for the white spot on their noses. Fric and Frac for sure.

It’s not uncommon to find puppies in boxes in an empty lot or next to the road. Islanders that refuse to spay their female dogs allow them to have litter after litter. When the pups are weaned and not wanted by a neighbor or relative, they are relocated in a box.

If we are lucky they leave the box where someone will find it and inevitably, after so many years of taking in strays, they will be brought to my house. Lucky, lucky me, I adore puppies.

PEDRO - May 29, 2007

This is Kerry and Molly from Chicago. Molly had to stay an extra day and change her flight to take Pedro home. He is such a sweetie she will never regret it. Did I mention that he was really smart too.

Kerry and Molly with Pedro

TITO'S NEW HOME - May 29, 2007

This is Arlene and Cobb with their new puppy. They have adopted Tito and taken him home to South Carolina. This little guy was found alone in the street. All the bigger dogs were picking on him. I am so glad he is safe now. He was a bit stand offish at first but has now decided that people are really cool.

Arlene and Cobb with Tito

Tito is doing very well in his new home and is growing like a weed.

Tito in his new home

OUR HISTORY WITH RANCHO VIEJO - December 14, 2006

Our first experience with Rancho Viejo was after the Hurricane Wilma last October. On the Island we picked up seven puppies, one from the dump and three from the streets. We also found three in this incredibly poor area by the car ferry dock. This area is called Rancho Viejo and is part of Isla Mujeres even though it is on the mainland. It’s in an odd position being next to Cancun but not under their jurisdiction and the government on Isla offers very little aid.

We went there to hand out food, offer vaccines, provide eye drops when needed and distribute ivermectin for tics and fleas. At the time we also had Drontal Plus, which is very expensive, so we handed that out for intestinal parasites.

The incredible thing was that people showed up where ever we stopped dragging their dogs with ropes, chain, what ever they can find. Then it was always a little dicey because none of the animals had ever been on a leash so they were pretty grumpy. It appeared that the dogs were mostly value for security so pit bull mixes were abundant.

I have one incredible story about our trips to Rancho Viejo and will attach some pictures. We drove all the way to the end of Rancho Viejo, literally the end of the road. Here the houses were miles apart and many had been abandoned with the animals left behind. We stopped at every place and put food on the ground or if there were people we gave them the bags of food. At one site there were no signs of people so we started to pour the food on the ground. There were a few dilapidated huts on a rise at the end of the dirt driveway. First two dogs peered around the edge of one building and then hungrily approached the food. Then there came three more, then two more followed by ducks, then geese, then chickens, hens, roasters, pigeons, all starving and thirsty. It was incredible. We were surrounded by at least 100 birds of all types. As I kept pouring more food I heard my friend said, "OH NO" and turned to see a line of some sort of guinea hens coming single file down the main road and straight for the food. All we could do was laugh and keep spreading 50 lb bags of dog food everywhere.

It was here that I found one of my pups. He charged us bravely, growling and wagging his tail. With a large towel and some quick maneuvering we caught him. He promptly melted into our arms and has been a love ever since. We called him William to go with our Wilma pup from the garbage dump.

Rancho Viejo bird farm

THE STORY OF HERO
On the same trip to Rancho Viejo and after we fed all of the birds we continued on to the town square. It was an odd location since most town squares are in the middle of town but this community is very spread out and we found the square at the very end of the road. It consisted of a small church, some out buildings and a community center which was simply a covered area with chairs.

Hero

In front of the buildings were 3 or 4 broken down trucks and under these vehicles were a large assortment of very skinny dogs. The smallest and liveliest was Hero. Like William he came towards us while the older and wiser dogs held back until they could tell if we were friend or foe. Hero had a nasty sore on his head, terrible skin and the usual extended belly from intestinal parasites. There was a young man working on the truck so we asked him if the dogs belonged to someone. He looked at us like it was a whole new concept. “Take them,” he said, “take as many as you want.” So Hero joined William in the back of our little blue car.

There was another puppy there just a bit bigger than Hero, but I thought he looked too far gone and left him behind. Oh boy, did I pay for that decision. I couldn’t get him out of my mind.

A few days later one of our wonderful volunteers went back to Rancho Viejo to distribute more food. I had told her about the puppy that we’d left behind and asked her to check on him, I was sure that he would already be dead. That evening she returned with a gift. I have never seen a puppy in worse shape and still alive. We called him Rancho. We tackled Rancho with everything we had and my wonderful volunteer fell madly in love with his little wounded spirit.

When she returned to Canada she took Rancho with her and he is thriving and loved and lucky beyond belief.

Other great news, Hero now lives in a wonderful home in Kansas City, and Wilma and William have found perfect families to live with in Denver, CO. We keep track of our guys and they are all doing so, so well.

THE STORY OF LUCILLE - March 27, 2006

March 27, 2006, this little girl was found in the road at three to four weeks old. Her skin was so bad that she had hardly any fur and scabs all over her body. She stayed at the clinic for a month while an assistant dipped her and treated her for mange. The poor little thing was so good about getting bathed everyday. This picture was taken after she had already been in the clinic for three weeks.

Unfortunately, we didn’t realize what a strong dip the assistant was using and she wasn’t growing or getting any better as you can see from the picture. So I took her to my house and emailed one to the many wonderful vets that have come to help out on Isla Mujeres over the years. We decided that she had seboria and started to treat her for that. She started to improve immediately and what a character she was. The poor thing had been in a cage for so long that she would run from one side of the room to another just because she could, (move over Bill Clinton). She loved having her own dog bed, just any space without bars around it. When the bigger dogs weren’t looking she would sneak off with a dog toy and hide it in her bed. Then she would stay there for hours nuzzling her prize until some larger dog would see and take it away.

One of the hardest parts of having so many dogs at our house is that when we get new dogs with behavioral problems, which we often do-at least at the beginning, we don’t have the facilities or manpower to separate them. All we can do is keep a close eye on things and immediately work with our new charge, letting it know that we love it and the change is usually remarkably quick. Unfortunately for Lucille she was the smallest pup at our house and so we never let her out with the other dogs with out staying and watching out for her.

I’m hesitant to admit to the next part of this story but will do so because my heart is always in the right place even if I make a few mistakes. I was outside with Lucille and the bigger dogs and she was having a great time. Leaping up to say hello when ever she could and getting under everyone’s feet or trying to nab one of the many dirty old toys we have around. A newer five month old female lab mix who had had a rough time decided that she was going to show Lucille that she was higher in the pack pecking order, or the PPO as we call it. She kept chasing and growling at her until Lucille would roll over on her back, her way of saying ‘uncle’.

When I decided that it was getting too rough I scooped up Lucille and starting towards the front door. The other dog followed jumping up to get Lucille. It is here where I made the mistake. I’m thinking this could be a training opportunity and I’m right there so everything would be okay. I sat down on the bench by our front door and made the other dog sit in front of me. “Look,” I said as I had Lucille on my lap, “this is just a baby. You don’t want to hurt this little pup.” I am stroking Lucille lovingly as I talk. The other dog promptly jumped up and bit Lucille right around the neck. Poor little Lucille yelped for the next two minutes as I raced upstairs with her feeling incredibly stupid and irresponsible.

I placed her on the kitchen counter to survey the damage. She had two nasty puncture wounds and one bit of torn skin. I shaved the fur from these areas, which I hated to do-we had worked hard to grow that fur, and then dressed the wounds. She healed very quickly and I guarded like a jewel after that.

She seemed to get bigger over night and we soon sent her to Denver where she was placed in a foster home in Steamboat Springs. I think the foster home has become a permanent home and the woman who transported her called me after one night to say what a wonderful little character she is.

Just an interesting note: the dog that bit her only needed a little more TLC and soon became a wonderful pet to a great family in Indiana.

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