Animals to the rescue!

Over the years we have lived in Mexico, we have rescued or adopted many many animals.  Eight dogs, a hundred and ten cats, twenty-five snakes, two Harris hawks, a parrot, a bunny, a ferret, a lamb, and several opossums, rats, mice and fish.
 
The problem started shortly after we moved into our then-new house.  We’d brought a dog Fresca, a cat Buddy and a guinea pig Zipper down with us from Chicago (never bring a guinea pig to a hot climate where Timothy hay is hard to find – they’re very delicate and I’m convinced they’re sold as an annuity pet). 
 
As we all settled in, Buddy got out.  He’d been a housecat in Chicago, then a half-in-half-outside cat in our rental house when we arrived in Mexico, and now considered himself a fully-fledged outside cat - and a Fearless Hunter (of birds, frogs, lizards, squirrels).  We were desperate.  We loved Buddy, and looked everywhere for him, and finally put up posters advertising a substantial reward for his return.  We got calls with kittens, cats that looked nothing like Buddy’s poster photo, and even a dog, then finally our next-door neighbors brought him to us, and claimed the reward.  But for years afterwards, I’d be stopped on the street by people offering me animals.
 
Well, one thing led to another, and our reputation grew.  People would drop off boxes of kittens, sometimes with their eyes still closed, or the worst, a burlap sack with two puppies in it, one already dead.  We rescued two soaking kittens from the creek behind our house, where they’d been dumped.  We rescued a pair of hideously flea-ridden puppies on one of our walks. We rescued a hawk whose wing had been torn almost off by a wire (we had to put him down) and another who’d hurt his wing, then been held in a too-small cage and had damaged his tail and wing feathers (that’s a whole other story!). A friend brought a shoebox of baby mice whose mother she had accidentally killed – I had to give one of them mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (more on that another time!). We “won” a lamb in a raffle, “because they knew we’d take care of him” (we ended up giving him back, with a small donation).

We’d also get sick animals who were dropped off or wandered in – I started to wonder if there were signs up in animal bathrooms saying, For a good time and free food, call Emerson… almost all of them arrived with fleas and/or parasites, so I stock flea and parasite medicine, and administer that as the first step, so our population doesn’t get infected.  But then there has been all kinds of mange, worms, minor cuts and more severe injuries or illness (lymphoma, feline leukemia, cat AIDs, distemper). I have been bitten by a gazillion fleas and had mange several times, and usually have an assortment of scratches and bite marks. When the animals arrive, we patch them up if it is within my limited scope, or more often, take them to our growing circle of vet friends.  Most have survived, but heart-wrenchingly, I’ve had to put lots of animals down who were too sick or had them die in my arms from rat poison or leukemia or organ failure or being run over.
 
For the others, though, once healthy, everyone gets sterilized, though it barely makes a dent.  We placed many dogs and cats in homes, but we were getting overwhelmed.  So finally, with some friends and the help of our little town’s mayor, we organized a castration/neutering clinic.  We sterilized eighty-five dogs and cats over two weekends, then COVID hit.
 
Maybe because of the sterilization clinic, or because I finally had to put up signs asking people not to drop off animals, our population has finally stabilized.  We only have three dogs now, and ten cats. 
 
I have loved each and every one of these animals, even or maybe especially the ones who arrived looking like monsters.  And though theoretically we rescued them, I feel like my life has been infinitely improved by having spent so much time living with, tending to, and being delighted by them!

Here are some videos and more photos I took, so you can see what I mean:

Cat Breakfast Time
Itsy Bitsy Making Friends With Calvin and Co
Kitten Tuna Feeding Frenzy
Neighbor Cat Nursing Pepito
Simon When We First Found Him 

I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoy them!