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Enter Lizzie… into our hearts!
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Story by Dr. Grace (Celeste) Park
It was our first day in Nicte Ha at a local school where we were busy converting children’s classrooms into a surgery suite, a supply depot and a recovery station. Outside under the merciful shade provided by the school’s overhanging roof we began the daily routine of admitting our patients; dogs and cats, skinny and dirty, riddled with parasites, some pregnant, some ill, some injured, some half-wild, but all loved by someone!
The first day of a VIDAS clinic is always “challenging”. We admit patients, providing physical exams and information for owners while we struggle to set up our stations, digging through boxes to find supplies that were inventoried and packed away months ago. Then we must organize ourselves and develop an efficient strategy that will hopefully carry us through the entire clinic. Into this rush and confusion wandered Lizzie.
With a box of supplies in her arms, one of our volunteers turned and was startled to see an unattended dog coming towards her. Now this wouldn’t normally be enough to startle any VIDAS volunteer. During our clinics, many street dogs wander over to see what all the excitement is about. But this dog was different. What this volunteer saw approaching her was a skinny, no skinny isn’t quite right, she was beyond skinny… she was truly a skeletal version of a Pit Bull with head down and lips dramatically curled way up showing lots of teeth!
Now you might be thinking “Oh no! A snarling Mexican Pit Bull!!! RUN!!!”. But really, this dog wasn’t snarling… it was SMILING?!!! Yes, this dog really was smiling. What was the give away? Well, it was subtle but it was the submissive posture: lips curled is generally bad, and wagging tail can go both ways, but this dog had a relaxed posture and gait, her head was down, and her ears were down, not back, and relaxed, her tail wag was one of those genuine full-body wags. She was smiling! I’ve never seen anything quite like it!
So that’s how Lizzie first smiled her way into our hearts! But I’m getting ahead of the story… when we met her, we first called her Mama. This dog had a litter of puppies somewhere. This was clear because, as skinny as she was, her teats were heavy with milk. Mama The Smiling Pit Bull turned out to be just the sweetest thing and we were all instantly smitten with her charming personality and that winning smile. I think she kinda’ liked us too!
Mama was known in the neighborhood and that same day we found her human family. Her real name was Lizzie. She was a purebred Pit Bull. She had been purchased in the US and she had been given as a present to little Juan, Aurelia and Katia by their uncle. The kids adored their dog, and so did we. But as wonderful a dog as she was, Lizzie was a bad mother. She had 5 puppies at home that she wasn’t interested in caring for. We spayed Lizzie so that she wouldn’t bring any more puppies into the world. We fitted her with brand new collar supplied by your donations and especially chosen for her, with the hopeful motto “Life is Good!” and she got a new leash that her family could use to tether her to their home so that she wouldn’t run off and hurt herself. Lizzie’s puppies, out of necessity, had already learned to eat solid food but they were not old enough to undergo anesthesia and surgery.
So if Lizzie has such a loving home why is Lizzie so skinny?
It’s hard to imagine this if you are accustomed to American pet dogs. Most of our dogs stay indoors or confined to a yard during the day. They walk on a leash and they are spayed/neutered young or they are bred only after they have matured. In the pueblos of Mexico the indoors meld with the outdoors. In fact, in most pueblo homes there are no doors so the dogs wander in and out at will. Leashes and collars are expensive and a determined dog can easily chew through a leash. Even if your dog is tied up many others aren’t and these wandering dogs will come to visit. Spaying and neutering is extremely expensive for the average Mexican and most pets are left intact and have free access to the outdoors and to each other. As a result these pets begin reproducing before they are anywhere near full grown, and they never stop. Nature rules them, they don’t have a choice. For the females this takes a serious toll on their young bodies. What little nutrition they are able to find is immediately channeled to feed their developing pups and later to produce milk for those pups at the expense of their own bodies.
Many young, skinny female dogs were spayed this year in Nicte Ha. We hope they will have a chance to put on weight and begin to have a more relaxed and safe life with their loving families, with less hormonally induced wanderlust and safe from venereal diseases like Transmissible Venereal Tumors which are easily spread and are rampant in many parts of Mexico.
As for Lizzie… we sent her home that first night after surgery. It took her just hours to chew through her new leash! She showed up on day two of VIDAS’ Nicte Ha clinic with a smile on her face and half of her leash still attached to her new “Life is Good!” collar! She was duly reprimanded by all of the volunteers, then hugged and treated to a breakfast fit for doggie kings. Lizzie came back every morning until Hurricane Emily forced us to leave Nicte Ha. Some of our volunteers bought a big bag of dog food and gave it to Lizzie’s family before we left. Little Juan and his sisters Aurelia and Katia were star students in our educational classes and I’m confident that Lizzie and her last litter of puppies are getting the best possible care from their devoted family. But I can’t help wondering if she still stops by in the morning smiling and looking for her American friends...
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