It seems that no trip to Mexico is complete without at least one animal rescue story. We got our first the other day.
We’ve no shortage of animal lovers in our family. I warned them all explicitly before we crossed the border. Mexico is a great place to be a pet that has a family. But it’s one of the worst places on earth to be a pet without a home.
They’ve now seen it first hand. Dogs and cats roaming everywhere. Frequently sick, unfed and uncared for.
To date we’ve skirted most of the associated drama. There’s been a few sad goodbyes to some of Copper and Max’s friends… like this guy. But’s that’s pretty much been it.
Dogs and even puppies are one thing… but two-month old kittens are like Kryptonite to even the most cynical soul.
The “meowing” began at around sunset. Our resident animal whisperer Kaila’s ears perked up immediately. Apparently she speaks Mexican cat. “He’s in trouble!”
I’ve been down this road many times before. My early travels to Mexico were with an animal lover extraordinaire. She set up the first free spay and neuter clinics in Puerto Vallarta and personally rescued dozens of animals. We literally couldn’t go through a day in Mexico without encountering an animal in need. Her belief was that although she couldn’t help them all… she could certainly help the ones she crossed paths with. An admirable avocation to be sure… not my calling.
I assured Kaila… and Wyatt and Carson… whom she’d cleverly recruited with the promise of a trip up a rickety ladder to the second story rooftop… that it was just a new-ish litter of kittens calling for their mom. The meowing would stop when she came.
But… I was wrong. It never stopped. All that night and into the next day the cries continued. So Kaila mobilized her animal rescue force… and they quickly rounded up the crying culprit. A small black kitten caught in an empty pipe. They got him out. We checked him over… and then let him go. Off across the roof he bounded. Mission accomplished.
Those words must be cursed. The moment we started down the ladder… the crying resumed. There was more than one kitten in distress. Animal force re-commissioned…the kids tracked the noise to it’s source. Another one of the kittens had apparently fallen into the backyard of one of the neighboring, deserted apartments and couldn’t get out. It was huddled in the corner of a concrete patio, directly in the sunlight, crying… almost certainly… for help.
Getting into the backyard and nabbing the kitty was a bit of a logistical trick.
But fifteen minutes later Carson and Wyatt had extricated him, given him some food and water… and the crying was finally ended.