We "Rescued" a Dog.

There are alot of "street" dogs in Cuenca, we are told that most are actually pets, in the morning the dogs are let out to fend for themselves, and at night the dogs return and sleep outside. The culture here is very different regarding the care of pets.  

One day I was coming home, I opened the gate to our neighborhood, and a dog followed me in.  He walked along beside me, but became frightened as we passed a neighbor's home, they have two Daschunds, and two Goldens that bark like crazy, the poor stray got scared and ran off. 

Time went by, and one day we were walking Oscar down the road behind the house, and guess who showed up?  The stray dog.  He strolled along with us and Oscar quite nicely. He had gotten really thin, we realized he wasn't really a street dog, they know how to find food, and are usually pretty wary of people.  This guy stuck to us like glue, and he had lost a lot of weight, which is why we thought he had probably been "thrown away" by his owners, and didn't know how to fend for himself. 

We decided we couldn't leave him without food and water, so we brought him home. 

There were a few problems, he smelled like an ELEPHANT, and he scrapes and bruises that were covered with flies.  There was NO WAY he was coming in our house.  We brought him into our enclosed, safe yard.  We fed him, and fed him, and fed him.  The poor guy was very hungry, but super gentle.  He didn't make a peep the whole time he was here.  We think he was just happy to be safe, off the streets, fed and watered.

We decided to call him George, or "Jorge" in Spanish.

A few pics:

We think he might be a Boxer, or Boxer Mix.

What a sweet face

His ribs, spine and hip bones were protruding, he needed nourishment.

The guy just wanted affection, when I would sit down, he would walk over and plop his face in my lap. His really, really dirty face, in my lap.  LOL!!!!!

I sat and petted "George" for a while and my hands looked like I was a coal miner.  Not dirt, but soot or something.  I think it was a result of him trying to find somewhere warm to sleep at night. 

In the mornings, we would leave the back gate open to let him roam to see if he would come back.  During the day he would leave, explore and return.  We think he knew a good thing when he had it. 

Michael decided to try to put a collar and leash on George, and he was quite accepting of it.

George lounging in our yard.

The poor guy had scrapes on his face and a few open cuts on his ears and body.

We knew that there was no way we could give this guy a bath,  but he really, really needed one.

We weren't even sure if we could keep him.  I made several calls trying to find a place we could take him to.  One shelter said they would take him, but they could not arrange to pick him up. It is a no-kill shelter we had seen on YouTube,  so we thought that would be a great place to bring

 "George - Jorge" to.  We called our friend Manny to help us.  He is great, we explained that the dog was way too smelly to be put in a Taxi, so he rented (means - we rented) a pick-up truck to transport "George -Jorge".

When Manny arrived, he thanked us for not expecting that the dog would go in his Taxi.  The dog really, really smelled bad.  LOL!!!

We brought "George - Jorge" to the shelter on a Friday, we visited him on the following Monday, OMG, what a difference.  He was all cleaned up and playing with other dogs.  The attendant told us we could not adopt  

"George - Jorge", until he was neutered, which they did not want to do for at least a week, they wanted to watch his health and weight.

. 

OK, we were happy that the dog was safe. 

We went to visit  "George - Jorge" two days later, and guess what, they had already neutered him.  Down here, they don't use the word neutered, I won't mention how they describe what the procedure was, but anyway, 

"George - Jorge" was happy and running around. 

Apparently, someone had already come to the shelter, saw "Jorge", and wanted to adopt him. The shelter told the prospective new owner that "Jorge" might already have a new home.   

We were going to the coast for a few days, and wanted  time to think about taking in another dog.  It was REALLY hard to find a place that would rent to us when we came to Cuenca, with one, very well behaved, very small dog, and now we were considering a second one.

We realized that we couldn't take another dog.  It was a really hard decision. 

When we returned from Puerto Lopez, we knew we had to go the shelter to tell them that Jorge should be adopted, that we could not take him.  When we got there, it was really great to see the his progress.   He had become a total chatter box, yelping, barking, and playing.  We think he recognized us, it was very cool.  His wounds were healed, he had gained weight, he looked great.  What a huge difference.

The person that wants to adopt Jorge has built a dog house for him, but it was not acceptable to the shelter, they said it had to be larger.  How great, they are really looking out for the well being of the dog. 

I went to visit Jorge this past Monday and I cannot believe how great he looks. 

I am sad that we didn't bring him home, but we know that we made a difference for this dog, and his life better. 

A small chapter on our life in Cuenca.