RUFMITA organization for the protection of animals

I am constantly talking about dogs, street dogs, Winnie, my sister's dog, any dog. Everyone around me knows how much I love dogs, even my students. Well I don't know if you've traveled to a 3rd world country, but living in one I see about 100 street dogs a day. Seriously. Sitting in the taxi - on the way to school - walking to the store - anywhere I go - there are street dogs. I've told you before how much my heart breaks every time I see a skinny, starving dog, but reality is that there isn't much I can do except donate money to a couple of good organizations, bring scraps with me on my walks, and just stop to give some love to the pups. I've come to accept that my small actions do make a bit of a difference, but the ugly truth is that I cannot save all the street dogs. I've actually come to believe that the love, the pets, and talking to the dogs that I give are more valuable than a scrap of food, especially in Santa Cruz where the pups are getting lots of trash scraps, but they have mites, ticks, viruses that prevent them from putting on weight.

So, you know that I teach kids that are "well to do" in their community. They have drivers that bring them to school in a brand new Mercedes SUV, they live in huge complexes with a 10 bedroom house, in general they are a bit sheltered to the realities of their city. I'm not sure if their car windows are so tinted that they can't see the trash accumulating on their streets and in their water canals, or that they have just become so used to it that they no longer notice. I often wonder how they can go grocery shopping in the vomit smelling store, but then realize they send their maids shopping. Whatever, it doesn't matter, what matters is that they don't think of their city as 3rd world.

On Friday, a group of my students headed to a local hospital where the doctors without borders have come to do surgeries on kids with cleft palates, i.e. Operation Smile. I love that our school gives the students an opportunity to help with such causes. The students will go for a few hours to the hospital where there is NO a/c, and help translate for the doctors who travel from all over, but especially the US to help.

Right after school on Friday my phone rings, and since I get about 2 phone calls a month, I am surprised and pick it up to hear a student's voice.

"Hi miss, it's me. We are just leaving Operation Smile and we FOUND two street dogs. We need your help! Can we bring them to your house? We want to save them. Can you help us?"

Me: "Uh, wait, you do realize that there are 10,000 street dogs in your community, right?"

Student: "Come on miss, help us."

Me: "No, I can't take those dogs, I'm leaving for spring break in a few weeks!"

Student: "Oh, come on, miss, they are street dogs you can leave them for a week without food."