Four months ago, when I bought the ticket, I was very excited to visit my family on "La Isla del Encanto"(The Island of Charm), Puerto Rico. I couldn't wait for the time to come to get on the airplane, arrive in San Juan and drive the 2 hours to my town Isabela to spend a great time.
Once we were there, we found out that, because of the weather conditions, my parents couldn't get back to Puerto Rico from New York, where they were visiting family, in time for New Year's Eve. In those days, while we waited for them to come home, I decided to drive around my town, to see what had changed during the time that I wasn't there. I noticed a lot of abandoned and empty buildings, and I imagined the economy had affected those business, and I became sad. Later, I drove around the different beaches and I started noticing many dogs that were abandoned, walking in packs. I kept driving and I saw more dogs; I looked at my wife and I said, "In the US, we need to be careful because of the deer, and here, because of the dogs." I was feeling ashamed and sad to see all these animals abandoned, without a place to go, with no place to eat and have clean water and shade from the heat of the tropical island. I was so embarrassed, because my wife is a real dog lover and she was seeing all this in the place where I grew up. I don't know if before I had gotten used to seeing these things, but right then, it felt new to me. Now I know why the Save a Sato Foundation has a big campaign to save all those dogs. They report that in Puerto Rico there are over 100,000 dogs in the street, and they are not spayed or neutered. Just imagine all those dogs on an island 100 miles long and 35 miles wide!
After three days in Puerto Rico, one night I couldn't sleep because my parents' dog Snoopy was barking. When I finally got up and went outside, I found a small hairy dog at the corner of the house; I thought it was a Shih Tzu mix. The dog was scared to death, because Snoopy had trapped him in the corner. I walked slowly toward the dog and he barked at me and tried to bite me; I understood his message and walked away. A few hours later, my wife and I decided to give him some food. He came around slowly and started eating, but after he finished the food, he returned to his corner.
The next day, the little dog approached my wife, and he was like a different animal. When I tried to touch him, though, he wouldn't let me. At that moment, I thought maybe a man had abused him in the past. However, after one more day, he began to like me, too, and let me touch him. He was very skinny. His long hair was in very bad shape and he had some trouble using the bathroom. We decided to make an appointment with the vet for the next day. At the vet's office, they told us that we had found a purebred Lhasa Apso. We had them cut all his hair off and also de-worm, vaccinate and neuter him. The next day he looked so happy, and by that point, he had a great connection with my wife. He was very funny and had a really cute walk, and I could tell that he was very thankful for everything that we did for him.
Later, we started debating whether we were going to bring the dog to Mississippi, but after a lot of thinking, we decided to find a family for him. We gave him the name "Peluche" ('stuffed animal') and bought him a collar and a leash. Two days before we got back to Mississippi, a lady at the vet asked us if we were going to keep the dog, because if not, she was interested in adopting him. I was very excited about this but sad at the same time, because he was so happy with us, and maybe for him, we were his family. After thinking about it, though, we made up our minds to contact the lady, but first, I wanted to see her house.
It turned out that she was a great dog lover and Peluche was going to be an inside dog--that is very rare in Puerto Rico. Peluche was a little shy in the beginning, but after a couple of minutes he relaxed and start sniffing her legs and finally got in her lap. We were very happy about this, and finally we decided to say goodbye. It was a weird feeling, like a happy but sad moment at the same time, but we knew it was the right decision.
It was nice to rescue this little dog and find a family for him. Later, I did some research and on the island they have some good organizations trying to help these animals and in the meantime, educate the people--that is the hard part. I hope this problem is solved one day and that people understand that these animals have feelings, that they are not just animals. This trip after all is one that I am never going to forget.
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