Saturday 18 April 2009

Big Puppylove on Isla Mujeres

Big, big puppylove is what is going on at Alison's sanctuary on Isla Mujeres. On the days that we visited we were always greeted by happy, friendly, bouncing puppies and dogs of all kinds. The difference between the street dogs and Alison's rescued dogs was like night & day. The dogs living on the streets of Mexico tend to be wary and skittish and understandably not very trusting of people. They also tend to be busy searching for food and a safe place to rest a bit. They also tend to break your heart. In all our years of traveling around Mexico, it was always the dogs that got to me. Before you think that I am hard-hearted when it comes to people, you would be wrong. It is just that here I choose to write about the dogs. That being said, I want to tell you that owning a mexican dog for almost 14 years was a most wonder-full experience. I would recommend it to anyone. When I found Cowgirl on that beach in Mexico she was about 8 or 9 weeks old and she was running with a pack of older dogs. Her mother was not one of them. I fell in love with her upon sight and our first kiss sealed the deal. The cool mystery of owning a puppy of mixed blood is that slowly the adult dog is revealed over the next few months until 'voila' you have a dog unlike any other! Over the years we were always asked the question "What kind of dog is that?". To which we would reply "A pure-bred, Mexican street dog". Our little private joke, but always a good way to talk about how she came to be ours. "IslaAnimals.org"

5 comments:

Appalachian Muse said...

My fathers name was Cecil. He died when I was 8. He was a professional prizefighter, a very good one in fact. He fought for the world championship (many, many years ago). My kids got a new dog, a boxer. They named him Cecil. He's pretty awesome. Unfortunately has a bum leg, and within the year will have to have it lopped off. He doesn't know the difference, he just likes being loved.

Joey Boshart said...

Hey... beautiful pictures!!!! AND stories... but I have a better one... she's laying on my hip right now... a Mexi-dog...who's won our hearts... My friend, who's put up with her at work (yeah...put up with...) said... " she's wonderful.. like the perfect dog.. she tries so hard to be invisible..." which, as you said, broke my heart a little... but she IS such a GREAT MEXICAN dog.

Joey and Ricky

Anonymous said...

They're simply awesome!

ingrid said...

Why are dogs just so awesome?

You can raise them special and breed them to standards, spoiling them with all kinds of techniques - or just throw them in a pack to mix up and run on the streets to fend for themselves.
Either way, you get awesome results of amazing personalities and perfect companions.

I know some "street dogs" from Costa-Rica! Such awesome dogs! They ended up with a couple who had no intentions of having dogs and went to great lengths to have the dogs "imported" safely!

I guess they had a similar heart stealing effect!

Cowgirl said...

So true -- all our dog experiences seem to be about the same unconditional love. We are the really lucky ones to be so 'dog blessed'.