There will be problemas
Senora
“There will be significant problems if one of these dogs attacks a child for example, you must stop feeding the street dogs, senora. You put out food and water and so they are yours. And you must control them.”
All of that is bullshit.
I am in Mexico in a town with about 129 street, feral, unspayed, starving dogs on the street. No one takes care of any of them. Babies ride on the top of cars, 12 year olds drive 4x4s to the beer store, dead bodies show up on the beach. If there’s a law here I’d be shocked. I found a literal DOG HEAD in a field that had been cut with a machete. I have rescued and helped 40+and 12 of them live in sanctuary and they get food, water, medicine, vaccines and spay/neuter surgery. Beds, toys, walks, AC and more. Two are wild and don’t like to be inside and so they sleep on the sidewalk and come in for food. They have been there for 8 years some say. I got stuck here after a car wreck 2 years ago. We’d all leave if we had a chance.
No one does anything to anyone who tosses dogs outside or knowingly ignores their female dog is in heat and lets her roam around town for a week. No one ever sees who dumps boxes of puppies into barren fields with fences made of barbed wire and there is no clinic here even if someone felt like being responsible. I bring in and pay a mobile vet from 3 hours away. He’s down to once a month. Also I am out of money.
The old yeller dogs out on the sidewalk are bothering no one and Mexico isn’t litigious and also no one here has 2 pesos to rub together for an abogado (lawyer) they just think it sounds threatening and dream of a windfall from a rich American. They think we’re all rich Americans. But really rich Americans who have assets to protect have really good lawyers. To put it nicely, they’re out of their league. And also, all the rescue dogs are cozy inside this property. Yes I leave food and water out for the ones I haven’t caught yet.
I ask the (likely corrupt) policeman if he thinks the yeller dogs will be more agreeable if they are dehydrated and starved. Like most idiots who have no basis for their argument he couldn’t answer.
I’ll wait, I said.
Look, you cannot put food and water out for them. It attracts them! (like they’re ants)
I’m not going to starve or dehydrate desert dogs in 105 degrees. Also those dogs are out there because no one gives a damn. Not because of a water bowl. And also fuck that guy, it’s likely his job to be dog catcher as there are no services in this town, but it’s easier to shake down the one person who isn’t pressing fentanyl pills into a coconut to be smuggled. So they go for the low hanging fruit. What he doesn’t know is that I don’t give a shit what he says. I smile and say okay and walk away. I’ve lost everything and am in this place without resources and I get 3 day migraines that make me think I’ll not wake up to fill water buckets ever again. So I’m not afraid of Pepe the Mexican Mall cop.
I can’t make those two on the sidewalk not bark at the shitty fat teenage girls who throw rocks at them walking down to their cafe jobs on the corner. I tried making friends with the girls, bringing them mangoes, explaining that if they are aggressive with dogs, dogs will be aggressive with them and offering them to meet the dogs and I was met with eyerolls and ignored. Also that if they were afraid of these dogs why not take another walking path. I reroute myself daily. There are literally dozens of aggressive and friendly dogs out there. I throw no rocks though and dogs are pretty astute about energy. I’m not the bad egg. Also I probably smell like chicharrones and likely have some in my pocket.
I fantasize about opening the gate when those girls throw a rock at one sleeping dog and letting all 12 charge outside. I won’t of course, but I can dream. Also that’s where they’d all be if I wasn’t here giving them shelter. No one seems to figure that out.
Pedro, the yeller dog in question was here before I was. Sort of cared for by a gringo worker before he left back for Texas and another fracking job like so many folks they can’t think past 3 days. Should I make arrangements for this dog I think I love? who is now used to me giving it pancakes and chorizo every day after breakfast? Nah, I’ll just leave.
Pedro was a bag of bones with a broken back leg when he drug himself over to my door. I thought he had gone back with the gringo worker. Not sure where he had been for 6 weeks. I’d hate to think they dropped him off in nowhere land desert, but likely. He made his way back to the pueblo and looked like he’d been run over. It took a month to bring him back to life. That gringo worker saw Pedro during a recent work contract and looked like he saw a ghost. “Where did you find him?!” he asked. Out at the magic water bowl. Here’s Pedro nearly dead:
And now a year later he goes from my door to the lady next door who acts like she doesn’t feed dogs but who has a big plastic bucket outside where she pours all her kitchen scraps and grease and trash. It’s just a less attractive form of what I’m doing. She also has a shade tree and so Pedro lays over there and then comes here in the mornings. He goes for walks with us.
Here’s Pedro today Summer 2023
I will not stop. As long as I’m here and watching the suffering I will help however I can. We finally have a placement in Phoenix for Niles and Frasier. It’s not much but it’s a start to getting some good pups into safer environments.
for more info on the rescue, linktr.ee/lolasdogrescue