When we returned from Tucson, we didn't see Rojo for a day or so which was very unusual and then one evening he appeared. I took his food down to him and he looked a little rough around the edges. He was limping and holding one leg up in the air and his head was banged up over one eye. The leg did not appear to be broken though, more bruised, as when he felt like it he would stand on it. He seemed happy to see me though and didn't seem to be in pain. As I was feeding him the landlords daughter in law was chatting with another neighbor lady and they informed me that he was going to die. Apparently while we were gone one of the landlords sons had accidently hit him with his work truck and they expected him not to make it. As he is a street dog it didn't occur to anyone to take him to the vet, it is survival of the fittest with these animals. I took a good look at him and he seemed to be healing fine and to be in no pain, so wasn't sure why they thought he was going to die. At this point he didn't seem to need the services of a vet. I couldn't understand a certain word they were saying and couldn't find it in my dictionary and of course this was the "key" word. As the days passed he continued to heal and is now his old self, with just one more battle scar. He used to sleep right in the middle of the street and just look up when a car came and expect them to go around him, which they did. He may have learned his lesson though as he seems to sleep a little further off to the side of the street now. A hard lesson learned.
7 comments:
It is a very nice story. Couldn't you and your husband take Rojo in? It seems he is looking for a good home and knows that you are the people he wants for parents. How sad to be alone in the world. I feel for him as he sounds like a caring and generous soul of an animal. I guess you can tell, I love dogs. Take care and I read your blog from time to time. Good blog. Gloria from Modesto, CA
Hi Gloria, welcome.
We can't have a dog here, or we would adopt him. We live on the second floor and would have to have him tied up all the time. After being a street dog that would be horrible for him. As we also travel and have no one that could look after him for us when we are gone, we can't have him.
We only feed him part of his daily diet, other neighbors feed him also and he "belongs" to the whole neighborhood. He loves one other neighbor lady and she takes care of him also.
If we were able to have a dog we would adopt him; but it is not possible. He comes up on our patio for a drink of water and to cool off his legs and paws in the big basin of water that I have out for the animals/birds. That is all we can do for him at this time. We do what we can for him.
Well, I guess he showed them! About to die, indeed. What a tough little guy.
It's best that the other neighbors also contribute to his feeding since you house-sit and can be gone for weeks at a time.
One more thing you could do for him if you wanted to is have him fixed. I know he won't show up with a litter of puppies, but if you did this it would also give the vet a chance to check him out, and reduce the dog population in Guaymas. It's free and the vet is right there in Guaymas. I have a folding kennel you could use.
Just a thought...You may be wishing by now you'd never brought it up.
Hola Brenda - I think it's wonderful that you're doing what you can to help this little guy and give him some adopted human 'family'.
You're such a caring person and I really respect that about you.
Cheers
Kels
Glad old Rojo is back and doing well. I wish we had something like him around here!
Hi. Since this dog is depending on you to feed him, maybe you could arrange for someone else to leave him food when y'all are house-sitting so he won't be unexpectedly on his own.
: )
1st Mate--yes, he is little but tough, thank goodness. We have thought about getting him fixed; but he doesn't seem to participate much in the mating processes going on in the area. I think he is so small that he doesn't get a chance to have his turn lol.
Kelsi-Thanks for the nice words.
Isla-- are there no stray dogs in your neighborhood? That is strange.
Susan-- He is NOT depending on us to feed him, as I have mentioned many times we do not feed him alot. Just enough to supplement his diet of neighborhood leftovers. We decided to do this because we didn't want to have him go hungry when we are not around. We would never feed an animal and then just leave him to fend totally for himself. He still gets the leftovers that he has always gotten and survived on.
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