Of course there are dogs everywhere and when we have spay and neuter clinics we go there to pick up animals. And when we get donations we go there with de-wormer, collars, vitamins, food and medicine if needed. I would love sometime to be able to vaccinate all the animals but we will need a bigger budget for that as most of our funds go to the sterilization clinics. 
The children are wonderful and after many, many visits the people are used to seeing me hang around making a big fuss over their dogs. 
2011 ROSIE'S BOW WOW CLUB
The club for 2011 raised a total of $2,950.
In memory of Dr. Zhivago
Extra Large Bones $300 & Over
Cheryl House. In Memory of Rosie
Jan & Terry Gerken (Moby)
Large Bones. $100 to $299
Lael House Wojcik, Honoring - Rookie
Julie House Presa, Honoring - Trucco
James & Kristin Yasord. In Memory of Vago
John & Jean Epler
Chris & Kim Cannon
Roxane Osantowski, Honoring - Tequila - adopted from Plaza Almendros(AKA, Oreo, Patches)
Kelly Ragsdale
Valerie Kordyban
David & Karen Childers
Ron & Diane Seals
Medium Bones $50 to $99
Karl & Deanne House
Drew & Alison House
Tom & Barb Carlson
Small Bones $25 to $49
Mike & Tina Lawrence
Julie Howard
Dan Lindner
Don & Jan Hardin Honoring Goldie, Plaza Almendros Cat
Here is our new mom warming up her pups after their bath this morning, such a good mom. This must be black dog week, out of the thirteen puppies there is only one white one.
We are so looking forward to moving ahead this year. With all the rescue groups and people that we are working with now, we can get more done and we're hoping that we can get some help with this. Already we have some wonderful monthly donators, and it makes a huge difference.
So many people ask me what they can do to help, well it's really easy. If we can get enough people donating $10.00 a month we will have a budget to work with. Ten people giving up two starbuck coffees every month can buy enough dog food for a week, or three spays or four neuters, or twelve vaccines, or five distemper tests, or four parvo tests, or two and a half medium crates, or ten bottles of specialty shampoos, or two bottles of de-wormer, or five dog rides to the airport, or five health certificates, and on and on. Every penny goes to the dogs, there is no administration, we pay Marcelino's salary (he works at the house and helps with the dogs). IT'S ALL FOR THE DOGS.
We've been home three nights and already have two momma's with their pups. There is no where else for these dogs to go. We will find homes for the pups and spay the moms. Each spayed female is one step closer to a better life for dogs in Mexico. If you already donate, ask a friend to do it too, and ask their friends to do it as well. Ten dollars a month and we can make a huge difference together.
I forgot to mention in this blog yesterday that the Isla Animals Website is set up to do monthly donations. If you scroll down to the very bottom of the front page there is a donate button, click on that and then there are instructions on how to continue. Thank you everybody, in advance, who donates. It makes all the difference.
We are setting up for a big spay and neuter clinic today and getting ready for all the street puppies that we find.
We haven't finished with the tally because Jeff is still working at the music festival but as soon as we have numbers I will post them. We had over sixty runners thanks to all of you wonderful people who signed up to sponsor school kids. And for you generous supporters who sponsored teams of five, it added so much excitement. Unfortunately we couldn't fill all the teams but next year people will have a better idea of what's going on.
The whole event was fun and involved the entire community. From the island government to the police department to the Navy that allowed us to run on the runway. We had help from the Red Cross, they sent their ambulance to be on standby. We had runners of all ages from many different countries. For the first year we couldn't have asked for more.
Into this
It's a great gift idea for the person who has everything. You can buy them a monthly donation to Isla Animals. I will make sure that every penny that you donate is put to work. It's the most wonderful thing to know that we can count on a certain amount of money coming in each month. It allows me to plan ahead in this work that is other wise, to say the least, financially chaotic.
And if you are looking for something different you can donate a certain amount of spays and neuters in someone's name. The surgery averages out to $20.00 an animal and it's the bottom line solution to overpopulation and suffering of animals in Mexico.
Donate and then let me know by email bayfirestd@aol.com so I can make sure that a Christmas card is sent to your friend or family member. They will love it.
Author Archive
ROSIE’S BOW WOW CLUB 2012
Rosie’s Bow Wow club has supported Isla Animals for years. We are forever grateful for their support and encouragement.
Bow Wow contribution for 2012 was $800
Contributors were
Extra Large Bones…….Jan Gerken, Cheryl House
Medium Bones…………..Karl House
This year the donation are dedicated to Rosie, who passed away but was loved dearly.
KEEPING AN EYE ON THINGS
Before Christmas we went out to the Guatalupana after hearing that there was one family with thirteen puppies. We found the house. One momma had 5 six week old puppies and the other momma had 8 two week old puppies.
We took the older puppies and Delfino spayed the mom but we had to leave the younger ones behind. I made a note to myself to return. Then after Christmas someone came to my house with a little puppy that someone had handed them on New Years Eve. The pup came from the same area and was about the right age so I pulled up my picture of the younger pups and there she was.
If you check the bundle of puppies the new little one is upper right. So now I’m worried. These pups are too young to be given away. If the family has started to hand them out, I’m going to get them. Which I did. There were five left.
We gave them all baths, picked off the ticks and fleas and then of course they got new clothes. ha ha This is what dog rescue people do when they have time on their hands.
STILL TIME FOR A TAX DEDUCTION
Remember we are a 501C3. So you can still give a donation before midnight and get a tax deduction. Here is a rundown on some of the things that a donation would pay for.
$4.00 will deworm 4 puppies, what a difference that can make
$8.00 a vaccine, saves puppies every day
$20.00 pays for one spay or neuter, the math is incredible on how many puppies or kittens one sterilization can prevent from being born
$25.00 buys a bottle of doxycycline with 500 – 100 mg. tabs. This cures ehrlichia which affects almost every dog in Mexico, and it’s also good for respiratory infections. When one pup gets one of those and there are 45 other pups in the rescue, it spreads like crazy.
$25.00 pays for someone to work for seven hours cleaning up after and feeding our pups
$25.00 pays for one soft carrier that one of our pups can ride in to fly to a forever, loving home
$50.00 pays for one medium crate
$100.00 pays for one large crate
Other items that we use every day like:
Vitamin B12
Wound gel
Metronidazole for Giardia
Ear cleaner
Creams for skin problems – these are all $20 to $40 a container and we go through them fast. There are many more things of course but I just thought that it would be nice to know where the money goes. Thanks in advance to everyone who helps us help them. Happy New Year.
On the left is Franklin, he’s new, he was hit by a car but is doing much better now, Jeff has even let him sit on the couch. And on the right is Momma Elsa, who was used for breeding, she is so pleased to be here and even gets to sleep on the bed sometimes.
STILL STOMPIMG TOWELS
There are only a few pieces of equipment more important than a washing machine, if you run a dog rescue. We use a ton of towels everyday. Two or three days without doing the laundry, our machine is broken, and we have a stack half the size of a Volkswagen. Plus they don’t have “do it yourself” laundry mats here, you take you dirty laundry in, they weigh it, charge by the kilo, and you pick it up four hours later. But that doesn’t apply to us because they would never, never accept our smelly towels. Not a chance. So I spend the last part of everyday stomping towels.
And then we got a mom and four more pups in, which means more dirty towels. It has been incredible this fall. We can’t seem to get ahead of things. I was feeling so great about the four pups that we sent out last week and then we got four more in and the momma. But are these puppies ever cute. Jeff says I always say that. Ha ha 
FINALLY GOT THE PUPS
If you read my last blog you know the story of the family that came to my door with two puppies stuffed in a tiny crate. They wanted me to take them but they had another dog as well and she was pregnant. As much as I wanted to get those puppies out of that box I told the family that they could drop the puppies off at the vet clinic when they took the momma in to be spayed. I would pick the pups up from there. Well we didn’t hear anything for a week, we went to their house, no one home, finally we tracked the son down at his work and he promised to take them to the clinic. I met them there. What a mess, you should see the mother. The picture really doesn’t give an idea of what bad shape she is in.
The amazing thing about the puppies was that I thought they were 2-3 months old but it turns our they are 5 or 6 months old, unbelievable.
Little Chupa is the one sitting up and she has a long way to go.
WHAT POTTERY STUDIO
Most people may think that my life is animal rescue but I am actually a potter. If you look closely at the pictures of the vet doing spays and neuters in my studio you can see that it’s actually a pottery studio. Not that I have time to make pots or any room between operating tables and drawers of supplies.
Arturo, a wonderful vet from Cancun, was here from 9am to 6pm and we spayed 6 females and neutered 6 males. The pups were great and we had a recovery team taking care of every one of them as they woke up.
We always use what ever we have, creating spay hooks out of knitting needles and making our own suture with needles and reels. It works.
“REALLY”
Yesterday was one of those days that every animal rescue hates. Sorry to be mean but “stupid people with dogs” break my heart . I had three visit yesterday and each one got more ridiculous. First a very nice woman came to the house to ask me to rescue a eight month old lab that was in a bad situation. Her boss was taking care of it and his landlord said he couldn’t have dogs. This is a pretty average situation except for the fact that the boss sent his employee so that he wouldn’t have to give a donation to the rescue that was going to solve his problem. Okay that one isn’t so monumental.
Next, a woman comes to my house on a brand new motto and asked me if I will take her two pugs. She has had these two pugs, one 3 years old and one seven years old for three years. But now she is going to have a baby so she doesn’t want them anymore. I say, “you can have dogs and a baby at the same time,” and after much back and forth she confesses that they are not house trained. So rather than trying to find out how to house train them it’s much more convenient to dump the poor little things on me in a shelter with 50 other dogs.
Okay this last one takes the cake. A family shows up and rings the bell after I’ve gone to bed, which I admit is earlier than most. Jeff tells them I’ve gone to bed and to come back tomorrow. They ring the bell again. So I go down, worried that it might be an emergency. They have two, three month old puppies stuffed in a very small crate and they say that their landlord (oh those landlords) said they could only have one dog and their one dog had puppies and they can’t keep them. So I look at the mother, she’s filthy and really fat so I ask, “is she pregnant?” Yes they answer. I’m flabbergasted. So as much as I want to get those poor puppies out of that tiny box. I ask them what they are going to do with the new puppies, no answer.
So I look in the box, the puppies in there look like brown street dogs. My guess, they want poodle pups to sell and these two didn’t look like poodles so they were left over.
So I tell them that they can drop the puppies off at the island clinic when they take the mother into be spayed. I will pick them up there. They say, you can’t spay her, she’s pregnant. I say, what are you going to do with more puppies if you can’t keep the two you already have. We go back and forth for quite some time before they leave to go to the clinic to drop off the mother. We shall see, I go back to bed and lie there for hours, so frustrated that I can’t sleep.
I’m just going to add some cute pictures to break up this long frustrating story. As far as the momma dog, when I moved here I would have been opposed to spaying a pregnant dog but after seeing thousands of puppies abused and starving in the streets it hardly bothers me at all.
ISLAND SPAY AND NEUTER CLINIC
We just finished a spay and neuter clinic on the island. It was great. Our goal was sixty or seventy animals and we did one hundred and two. How cool is that.
Above is our check in crew and then Bonnie, the boss, multi-tasking. We had two operating tables, one for Delfino and one for Arturo, who has a clinic in Cancun and came to work all three days.
We had tons of volunteers, Umberto did the drugs, and lunches were donated by Lolo Valentino’s, Jax, and Barlitos. Needless to say, we ate very well.
Here are some of the cuties that were brought to the clinic. 
It was a great three days and there will be more to come soon. Many of the supplies that we used were left over from our Cancun clinic that was funded by Jennifer Pryor and George Lopez.
NOT OVER YET
Wow, I love the spay and neuter clinics. But the supplies I could do without. Before the clinic they fill up my house and then after the clinic they fill up my house but they smell bad. I just keep sorting and sorting and Jeff looks at me like, “are we a kennel or a house?” At the moment we look more like a kennel inside the house and outside the house.
Our final count on puppies is 41. One of them died of parvo and we’re doing the best we can to keep it from spreading. We’re watching everyone like a hawk. Then Pepe brought us this gorgeous poodle who had his eye removed after a big dog bit him. He was here one night before we found him the most wonderful home.And the puppy in the bowl, who can resist a puppy in a bowl.
YAHOO FOR SPAY AND NEUTER
What a magnificent week we’ve had. Bonfil, Cancun, near the airport where the street dog population is heartbreaking. Candi, Isla Animals and Planned Pethood did a 5 day clinic. We spayed and neutered 1,574 cats and dogs. I still can’t believe it. What a team. Everyone from Canada, the USA, different parts of Mexico, and Cuba came together to make this happen. The impact on this area will be incredible.
As usual, we don’t put puppies back in the street so Isla Animals brought home 29 pups. We only took the ones that needed help or were too young to adopt out. The rest were adopted out the last day of the clinic with the help of local animal rescue groups who helped with the clinic.
Do you know how long it takes to vaccinate and deworm that many puppies.
