Animal-Kind International
Jun 26, 2017
These are some of the pets that Helping Hands for Hounds of Honduras is currently caring for at their sanctuary, the Nereida Montes de Oca Refuge. AKI donors provide the funds for food, supplies, vet care, including spay/neuter, and sanctuary maintenance and renovations. We've told several of their stories before in the AKI Blog and on the Helping Hands for Hounds of Honduras page on the AKI website (https://www.animal-kind.org/aki-honduras). Many of them will spend their lives at the sanctuary due to their significant physical and emotional injuries.
Currently we have 19 dogs at the sanctuary, down from 22 in early May: Maya is now with Jennifer pending adoption; Oreo (paralyzed senior dog here for 2 weeks to get some TLC) went back to her owner; and Garcia was euthanized at 15 or 16 years of age and deteriorating health.
We have 3 cats: the 2 females I saved and raised at 2 weeks old and 1 from Soto-Cano, who I am taking care of after her spay surgery. In total, I've now helped get 5 cats (semi-feral) from the base to homes in the US.
These are some of our HHHH dogs.
This is Chingo, below. I (Pilar) and Kelly rescued him after he had been hit by a car, left on the street, and couldn't use either front leg. As you can see, his left leg had to be amputated. The US Embassy marines fostered him for two weeks, but sadly, they weren't allowed to keep him, although they would have loved to have made him a US Marine mascot!
This is Mundo. As careful as we are about the people who we adopt HHHH cats and dogs to, Mundo was adopted twice and brought back to the sanctuary-within a couple of weeks-- both times because he didn't adjust well to the new homes. He's been at the sanctuary about 8 years, and along with our boxer Ali, they are the oldest males. He loves everyone but especially men and loved the US marines and the male students from the schools who have come over to volunteer at the sanctuary.
This is Flor in the picture below. She was in very bad shape when we rescued her from Miraflores (hence her name, Flor; miraflores is look at flowers and Flor is flower.) She had one large mammary tumor dragging on the ground and two smaller ones. She was not thin since several people were feeding her but she had mange and a flea allergy. A fellow biologist saw her collapsed on the side of the road and talked to neighbors who said she had been abandoned at the end of last year so I rescued her. AKI paid for her spay, antibiotics, hemogram, mange treatment, and tumor removal. She is an old dog who loves to eat and sleep.
Suyapa (with Maya behind her) is a sweetheart, who gets along with everyone. She's been here the longest of any of our cats and dogs, about 8 years. She was rescued from the middle of a busy highway by the Suyapa church and had a broken hip, for which she needed fairly intensive treatment.
Dobby (Doby or Dobie), a cheweenie, when only a puppy, had been hit by a car when a cousin of HHHH helper, Letty, rescued her from where she was left on the street to die. She was in really bad shape from the accident, very thin, had skin problems, and no one was sure if she'd make it. But she did pull through and has been at the HHHH sanctuary ever since--it's about 4 years now!
It's been almost 5 years now that Bootsy joined the HHHH family--back in October 2012! Bootsy had also been hit by a car and left on the side of the road to die. A security guard called someone for help and that person knew about and contacted Pilar. Pilar and Letty rushed off to rescue the dog. She was in such bad shape, very thin, mange, full of internal and external parasites. At that time she was a young dog (2nd picture below), and we had hoped she'd be adopted. But it never happened-it's so difficult to find good homes for mixed breed brown, short haired dogs--even though Bootsy would make such a wonderful companion!
Ali had a rough life, but is now on easy street at the HHHH sanctuary. Back in 2012 (2nd picture below), Ali's owner brought him to the vet to be euthanized. Rather than euthanize him, the vet asked me to keep him while he had xrays taken and exploratory surgery to try to discover why he regurgitated non-stop-he couldn't keep any food down. The diagnosis was mega-esophagus. When he 1st arrived at the sanctuary, his meds and special food cost about $100/month! AKI donors paid for the exploratory surgery, covered the hemogram, antibiotics, and three years of daily, multiple injections of atropine. HHHH friend Maggie paid to have a Bailey chair made for him. He's gone from 30 lbs (starvation weight!) to a more normal 55 lbs and no longer needs the specialized and expensive care.
Some of the other dogs at the HHHH sanctuary are:
Nala, an old cocker spaniel thrown out by her owner and rescued from the street by the next door neighbor's son, she has some skin issues and digestive problems, but the vet is treating her.
Lucy, the 15 year-old completely blind toy poodle, missing one eye and with severe cataracts in the other eye and with very few teeth that are in bad shape.
Molly, the cocker spaniel mix rescued when her owner wanted to kill her because she had pyometra and someone gave him a new puppy.
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This is the second group of students from the Del Campo International Bilingual School who donated 2 bags, 66 lbs each, of dog food and the six of them stayed a couple of hours playing with the dogs and taking them on walks.
The US Marines came to volunteer and wanted to adopt all the dogs--although while living at the Marine House, that would be impossible-sadly. Anyway, they were a huge help and much loved by the dogs and cats (and vice versa).
To help the Helping Hands for Hounds of Honduras cats and dogs, please go to this link, https://www.animal-kind.org/aki-honduras and designate them for your donation. We'll send 100% of your donation to HHHH, and HHHH will use 100% to help the sanctuary's cats and dogs.