Puppies available for Adoption!

Mayan Families has a whole mess of puppies--3 different litters--that are just about old enough to go to good homes. They come fixed, vaccinated, and well socialized with other dogs and people. Just send me a message or comment on the picture if you want more info, in general or about a particular puppy. I'm going to put up a few more puppies periodically until they're all on here (I think there are 9 total). Two of the moms are street dogs, (one has a home that wouldn't care for the puppies), but all three are great with people.

Please adopt a Guatemalan Dog, Puppy, Cat or Kitten!

Hi everyone,

Please adopt a Guatemalan Dog, Puppy, Cat or Kitten! Ask us how by e-mailing Dwight at dwight@mayanfamilies.org

They will be spayed/Neutered and have had their shots!

Thank you for helping save the life of a Dog, Cat, Puppy or Kitten!

Clinic news

Caroline, thank you so much! This is so nice of you. It is a big job and it takes a lot of us to get it done each month but when we first started I had to bribe people to come by giving them a pair of shoes or a t.shirt or something, now we don't have to do that, and people come willingly. That I feel is amazing and is due to a lot of the education classes that we do at the schools. Helen goes to schools 2-3 times a week and gives talks to children about how to treat animals and how to look after them and encourages people to bring their dogs and cats to spay and neuter.

I wish we could afford to spread this program further but it is so hard to come up with the funds for it. We have people from all over Guatemala asking us to come there and do clinics.

I got a complaint from someone the other day when I posted on Facebook about all the dogs and cats we have that are needing a home. I jokingly said that the dogs were all bilingual and that they could go to the U.S. and Canada....she took a lot of offense at this and said that when children are starving we shouldn't be promoting the animals. It is a fine line because I know that a lot of people will feel the same way but we are not going to stop.....as animal lovers you just can't . The suffering is too much and while we are just a drop in the bucket, we will keep on dropping!!! :)

Thanks for your encouragement!

abrazos,

Sharon

From a Nashua classroom to a Mayan burial pit - NashuaTelegraph.com

From a Nashua classroom to a Mayan burial pit - NashuaTelegraph.com

Spay and Neuter Clinic

I was just looking through the photo album for the last spay/neuter clinic, when 43 pets were spayed or neutered in one day. First, photos #102 and #117 should win some photo contest!! - in the first one, the little boy holding his puppy who has just been brought home from the clinic, sporting a new collar that I am sure is courtesy of Mayan Families, is just precious! Likewise the second one, with the two puppies nestled in a lady's arm, one pup with his paws wrapped around the other's neck. Priceless!

I also wanted to say, as an animal lover, former vet tech and having worked a lot in rescue, how incredible it is that Mayan Families and the veterinary staff can consistently pull this off every month. I mean, it's not just the 43 surgeries, but the pickup and drop off of the animals - not always so easy as the photos show ie some dogs having to be captured, some wearing muzzles, and one person's apparent bite wound - the dog food and collars given to the owners, wow! There is another photo of the vet or maybe vet tech with sweat pouring off his face and his scrubs soaking wet - that is hard work!

I still hope to plan a trip around a clinic sometime soon, but in the meantime I just wanted to say again how incredibly important this is not just to the animals (both to save them from horrible deaths by poisoning and the overpopulation issue) but to people, from a public health standpoint. Thanks to you and everyone connected with Mayan Families that make this possible. How I wish it were so in other parts of Guatemala!

Caroline

Here are some photos of our February 2011 Sterilization clinic! We were able to do 43 dogs and cats!

View all

Get your own

National Spay Day 2011

Hi, everyone,
Today is the U.S.'s national Spay Day 2011. Organizations all over the world
are joining in and they can have their own Spay Day at any time. Sharon
recently posted about an upcoming spay/neuter clinic. I'm sending out a
challenge to all animal lovers on the list, to donate to spay or neuter one pet
or street animal, or to have one vaccinated. Last year over 50,000 animals were
spayed or neutered on Spay Day and this is the 17th year of the program.

I've told Sharon many times, that nowhere in Guatemala are the dogs and cats as
prosperous as they are in Panajachel and surrounding villages, and it's all
thanks to Mayan Families' spay/neuter programs. Even if you're not an animal
lover, the benefits of participating are far-reaching for public health and
safety ie rabies prevention and keeping poison meant for dogs off the street and
also out of the hands and mouths of unsuspecting children.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, please but I believe that $25.00 will spay or
netuer a dog or cat and $5.00 will sponsor their vaccinations. Go here to
donate: www.mayanfamilies.org/DonateNow If you want to sponsor a dog or cat
in memory of a beloved pet, you can do that too.

For more information on Spay Day, go here:
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/spay_day/

And if I can put in a plug for this - if you're thinking of adding a pet to your
family, please consider adopting from a local shelter or animal rescue group, or
even from Mayan Families! Yes, they ship! To paraphrase a Humane Society
slogan: "Until there are no more unwanted pets dying in shelters or on the
streets - UNTIL THERE ARE NONE, ADOPT ONE!"