March 30, 2007, Ole Yellar!, By Mauri Formigoni

We have another glorious heroine, bursting with health and good humor: Ole Yellar! Rebecca is a 3 year old, perfect pedigreed, spayed, healthy, all shots, tattooed, microchipped, docile big girl, ready to leap over tall buildings and rescue you and the kids! We rarely get a dog of this quality and desirability, but she is here for a minute or so and we love her, and expect you will, too.

She was relinquished by her owner who felt he could not keep her and respected her quality and imagined another home would be waiting for her, with someone who loved her size, her nobility, her good will. Can you pass up this opportunity? These dogs are known for their intelligence, calm disposition, and love of water.

Introduced in England from Greenland, they are now the most popular breed world wide and make great family dogs. Because they are retrievers, they have soft mouths to retrieve game, fish, or toys. They need room to run, so consider this when you chose a pet. For all the right reasons, Rebecca is an ideal pet, once in a lifetime!

Another heroine, unsung, but often seen in Mexico, is the unspayed mixed breed female who is bred, starving, and trying to manage with many pups and no home. Such a dog is being fed by my friend, Kit, who works for the S.P.A.

These dogs will move mountains to get food to make milk for their babies. We are trying to catch her and spay her and release her, and place her puppies in homes, but it is a hard feat and one we see being fought all over Mexico. Spaying and neutering is vital to the success of a country.

Can you imagine the starving animals if left unchecked? Help us help them. Please insure that your pets do not remain intact, propagating endlessly.

My attention to cats now is taken by the two tiny four week old black female kittens I am fostering. They need their mother, but alas, they have to settle for me in a ratty old purple terrycloth bathrobe, giving milk in a bottle every four hours, day and night. But as I see them fiercely fighting for survival, struggling to drink milk without drowning and growing daily, it is unspeakably exhilarating. It will be a month, (or two weeks after you read this,) before Gina and Francesca will be available for adoption, but wait for them. Hand raised babies have a special quality of trust and bonding with humans that makes up for not being raised naturally by their feline mother. They also seem hardier because of a fierce will to survive, which we all need in this world.

Please remember that we need all current members of the S.P.A. to vote at our Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, April 4, 2007, at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Anglican Church. The nominations and the bylaws on which we will vote have been sent to member mail boxes. Please come or use the absentee ballot. We need your voice.

We also need volunteers to help walk, socialize, handle, and drive our animals to the Jardin on Thursdays. Please note that hours for volunteering and visiting the animals have been expanded to Mon-Fri 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Make an appointment with Victor, our secretary, at 152-6124 for time with Christina, our veterinarian, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. week days. Check our website to see who is available for adoptions, at www.spasanmiguel.org, or join us on Thursdays in the Jardin from 11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. See you soon.