Spying The Good

I have a habit of scanning the front page of MSNBC on the internet to see if any upbeat news is being reported.  Rarely do I find any, so I was pleasantly surprised today when I saw this headline that made it into their top stories under World News, Hero Dog Risks Life To Save Kittens From Fire.  

The article talks about Leo the Hero dog and how his actions dispel the ‘fight like cats and dogs’ image. I have some experience that also disproves that the animal kingdom was programed to fight.  But, first some backstory:

Los Cabos  is characteristic of most Latin American countries with their attitudes about dogs and cats. For example, many are aghast at the idea of neutering, male dogs are preferred to females and puppies are given to children like toys and discarded when they grow out of their small cuddly stage. Emancipated, diseased dogs wander the streets, most of them females their visible sagging tits a sign of too many litters, too young.

The good news is Los Cabos has evolved and we now have two Humane Societies,  one in San Jose and one in San Lucas.  Fewer animals are living on the streets.  But before these organizations, our plant nursery was one of the drop off centers for abandoned pets. It wasn’t unusual to find an anonymous box at our front gate filled with puppies or have someone bring us a litter of kitties hoping we could employee them as mousers.  We did our best to find good homes but some of them remained with us.  None of them had a choice about getting along and we learned that when put together on equal terms they took it in stride to be friends not enemies.  

If the human population could come to the same terms that we are all equal, maybe we could all be friends too

The photos show Suerte Dos with Kitty Uno and Frida with Kitty Dos. We never expected to keep any of the animals so all dogs got named Suerte, meaning lucky and all cats Kitty. Frida has a different name because, we had found her a home but when she grew they didn’t want her anymore and they brought her back.