The Guatemalan September Animal Clinic

These adorable faces below were also very anxious but they are now all doing well.
They are in a big fenced area that we have for puppies. We have homes for three of these little puppies when they are bigger. We need to spay and neuter them, there are four girls and one boy. There were two other puppies but we couldn't find them.

The mother dog was very worried about her puppies and were they were going.

We unfortunately, were not able to get the mother dog to spay. She is a street dog and doesn't trust people and was not going to let herself be captured.

This is the new community of Xecotoj. It is a housing community that was built by the govt. for people who lost their homes in Hurricane Stan in 2005.

Saturday 26th we had our monthly spay and neuter clinic to reduce the population of unwanted animals here in the Solola area of Guatemala.

Here Mayan Families employees are helping collect animals from houses that have asked to have their dogs spayed or neutered.
Jonathon below is a sponsored Mayan Families student who is in our skills program.
He is very involved with the animals and helps run the monthly spay and neuter clinics.
Here he is collecting unwanted puppies from Xecotoj. The mother dog had the puppies and they are now just running around the streets.

Maria is the mother of one of our sponsored students....Maria is a single mother who loves her two dogs but could never afford to have them spayed without the help of Mayan Families.
This is her second dog that she has had spayed and she is so happy that now she will not have a horde of male dogs coming into her yard and will not have puppies that she cannot afford to feed.

We had several cats come along to be operated. Some come in bags and some come in boxes!

Pedro who is the Mayan Families Tuk Tuk driver is a new convert to having an animal spayed. He brought his cousin's dog from San Marcos , a village on the lake, he then took him home and is caring for him for two days before the dog takes the boat trip back to the village. Pedro also adopted a cat this week.

This young girl brought her two puppies to be spayed and neutered.

This woman is a widow and now a single mother, she is so happy to have her dog spayed. She loves her dog but she could not afford to have this operation nor could she feed more puppies.

Rosa, who volunteers with Mayan Families for the animal project, Hope for the Animals, brought several widows with their dogs. Rosa talks to many people in the community and encourages them to spay and neuter their animals. Rosa also feeds many stray street dogs and brings them for medical care when needed. She recently brought a dog in that had been run over and was screaming in pain. Unfortunately, we had to put him down his back legs had been severely injured and he would not be able to walk again. If it had not been for Rosa, he probably would have laid in the street for several days in terrible pain before he died.

This other woman who is another animal lover, shared with us the horrific story of her neighbors who buried new born puppies alive. She talked to the young boy who had buried the puppies and tried to explain to him that this was not the right thing to do. The family has moved away from the village or else we would have sent Helen, our project manager to talk to them and explain that this kind of treatment of animals is against the law and that they could be fined. Admittedly, it is a very tiny fine but at least they will know that there could be some repurcussions

Little Louie

Louie, the one eyed kitty is the only one that survived of three kittens.

Louie is a an adorable kitten and our daughter, Aleeya loves him and is giving him lots of cuddles and love while he is waiting for his surgery.

Louie's bad eye is infected and we are giving him antibiotic drops 6 times a day.
We are hoping that he will be able to put on enough weight to have his operation. At the moment, Louie only weights 1lb 1oz...he needs to gain at least another 2lb to be able to survive the operation. The problem is that Louie is in danger of the infection causing meningitis in his brain.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that he will stay healthy until he is able to be operated.

Louis is part of our animal program.....please donate to help animals like Louie.

Distemper.

This is Sylvia who works at the Veterinarian clinic. She is holding the body of a young pup , about 4 months old that we had to put down yesterday. His owners brought him to us saying that they couldn't keep him at the house any longer. We sent him immediately to Dr. Miguel's and found out that she had distemper. She was suffering a lot and there was nothing else to be done but put her down.

We would love to be able to vaccinate against distemper and parvo virus but we need more funds.

If you can afford to spay or neuter an animal it is only $20 US.
If you can afford to vaccinate , it is just $10 US more.

Please help us to help the animals.

Lucky Linda!

Linda is a 6 month old "Mayan Terrier" who we have had at Mayan Families in Guatemala for approx the last three months.
She is spayed and vaccinated and was waiting for a family to love her.
Catherine fell in love with Linda yesterday and took her home.
We are so happy that Linda has found a loving home!
Thank you Catherine!

Little cutie.

This is the last puppy in the litter of 6 that we were lucky enough to find homes for.

He has gone to his new family in San Pedro la Laguna. He is already vaccinated, neutered and ready to have a great life!

Life for him would have been much different if he had been thrown in the trash and taken to the dump as the people in the market wanted to do to him and his siblings.

This month the spay and neuter clinic will be held on September 26th.

We will hopefully have at least 30 dogs and cats to spay and neuter.

It is only a drop in the bucket but it makes a huge difference to the lives of the cats and dogs that are spayed and neutered and it makes a huge difference to the number of puppies being abandoned and dumped on the streets next puppy season.

Puppies finding homes!

These two puppies were part of the litter that we rescued from the market in Panajachel.
The mother, a street dog, had given birth underneath the staircase at the market and the puppies were a nuisance.

It was decided that on Sunday the puppies would be thrown into the trash truck and taken to the dump and that the mother would be poisoned.
One of the women who works at the market, is the mother of one of our sponsored students and she felt very sorry for the mother and pups. She called us asking if we could rescue them .

We went down the afternoon before they were set to be thrown away and brought them back to the pre-school. They have been in an enclosure and have grown very fat and healthy. They have all been spayed and neutered and vaccinated.

They have brought so much joy to the children at the pre-school and we have been showing the children there what is the correct way to treat a puppy and how they need love, food and shelter.

Out of the six puppies , we have only one left and the mama dog.

Humane Education Classes.

Helen, who recently retired from the Health center after 23 yrs ,is now working with Mayan Families.
Helen, an animal lover is giving the children classes in Humane Education .
She is using material we received from the World Society Protection of Animals. They have given us some wonderful videos . The kids keep asking to watch the videos again and again!

Poisoning.

These three dogs were poisoned overnight. The city council no longer poisons dogs in part because of the help that Mayan Families is giving by spaying and neutering dogs every month to reduce the amount of animals in the street.

These poor dogs were poisoned by someone throwing poison indiscriminately.

It is very sad to see because we know how much these dogs must have suffered before they died.

Unfortunately, poisoning is a common form of ridding the streets of dogs. We are fortunate that the Muni in Panajachel has stopped this barbaric practice.

We hope that the classes in Humane Education that we are giving three times a week in schools will help to educate the children that this is not the way to treat animals.