La Historia de Hermosa

Oh life.  It's really funny how sometimes life puts you in the right place at the right time for a specific reason. That's how we felt on our most recent trip to Mexico anyways.  This is Hermosa's story, as you probably figured out from the title if you speak a little Spanish. And this is the story of a puppy who got a second chance.

Jeff (my husband) and I decided back in the Fall that we wanted to spend our first anniversary somewhere tropical and warm, per the usual.  Jeff had always wanted to go to Yelapa and Sayulita on the West coast of Mexico and once I found out that it was a 4 hour direct flight on Alaska from our house, I was in! We had a hectic last week before we left, arranging for our bathroom to be remodeled during our absence, packing last minute and planning out different tourist activities as one normally does. Then leaving my phone at my bedside and our dog Rita with our friend
Mikey we eagerly hopped on the plane and never looked back.

We spent our first 4 days in Yelapa, which is just South of Puerto Vallarta. It's a really neat little town that you can only get to by boat and where you need to use flashlights to get around on the cobble stone streets at night (they just got electricity only 5 years ago, so lighting is very limited).  We ate at some really amazing restaurants, soaked up some sunshine and visited the Marietas Islands to see dolphins and manta rays.

After that we traveled North to the surf mecca town of Sayulita. And we fell in love with it.  Sayulita is a hippie paradise with live music, dance and art all around.  The food was outstanding and the vibe was surreal. We had decided to spend our first 5 nights at an Airbnb on the North Shore, where we celebrated our anniversary overlooking the ocean, eating and drinking to our hearts content and simply unwinding & relaxing.

Then we switched it up a bit and moved to the South end of town for our last 5 nights in Sayulita, where we would be in a more rural, jungle area. The Airbnb was a beautiful, clean and private, but after a day or so there we couldn't help but notice the neighbors below us. From our front windows/balcony we could see two dogs in the yard below and one seemed extremely malnourished. That made me really sad, so being the crazy dog lady that I am I bought some bones from the local vet in town and decided to head across the street to give the dogs a treat.

The view into Hermosa's yard from our Airbnb.  You can see her on the right, standing next to the bucket & white lawn chair.

That's when I first saw the dogs up close. The older, bigger dog was a dark brown male who was very fit and strong. As I turned my attention to the younger gray pup, I gasped. One of her eyes looked to be missing and bloody.  She was thin as rails. After I got the dogs' attention and saw wagging tails, I gave the bones a good throw under the fence in opposite directions towards both of the dogs.  Immediately the larger dog leapt on top of the small dog, snarling and growling, putting her in check.  She was terrified and I was heartbroken (and I learned to never hand out food like that ever again).  It was now clear that there was not only negligence occurring on the owner's behalf, but that the other dog was food aggressive and that was most likely the cause of her lost eye and undernourishment.

I felt empty and devastated.  I rushed back to our Airbnb and promptly burst into tears. Jeff comforted me and almost immediately said "so, what do you want to do about it?  Do you want to go back into town right now and see if we can get some help?" The tears stopped.  I honestly hadn't even THOUGHT about what we could do - I was just feeling bad for that poor little pup. Of course, action is way more valuable than just wallowing in your sorrows. "Yes" I said, without hesitation.

Ironically we had just come across a booth in town earlier that day that was an animal rescue called "Sayulita Animals".  We went back to the booth but it was closed for the day.  After a visit to the local vet, who told us they could do nothing to help, and a drive by Sayulita Animals headquarters, which was also closed for the day, we headed home feeling defeated, but determined.  I wrote an email to Sayulita Animals that night and we headed to their office first thing the next day.  Antonio, the volunteer we had met the day before at the booth in town hopped onto our golf cart and up to the house to see the pup. He agreed that it was a situation she shouldn't be in. After returning to the rescue, Sara, the owner of Sayulita Animals, told us that there was little she could do.  Since the puppy had owners and wasn't a street dog, she couldn't really get directly involved with a rescue.  She had a reputation to uphold in the community, which we understood completely.  We left the rescue feeling once again defeated and helpless.

A day or so went by and we had more or less come to terms with the fact that there was little or nothing we could do for this pup. As a consolation we agreed to take 2 other rescue dogs back to Portland on our flight to meet their forever families (Sayulita Animals had already cleaned them up and found them homes - they just needed someone to transport them and carry them through customs). We agreed to do so only on the condition that Sara would continue to do everything within her power to try to help this little puppy.

On our last day in Sayulita we received an email from Sara. She said that she had stopped by the house to see the puppy, as she promised she would, and agreed that it would be best to get her out of there. She suggested that there was probably one way and one way only to rescue her: go up to the family, tell them that we'd fallen in love with their pup and ask them if we could adopt her. We couldn't believe what we were reading!  Just go up to somebody's house and ask them if we could HAVE their dog?  We thought "yeah right, like that's gonna work".  If someone came up to our house and asked if they could have or buy our dog, we'd tell them to fuck off, straight up.  We didn't know these people - what would they think about a couple of gringos going up to them and asking to take their dog back to the states?!

And then we realized that we had no other option.  And we thought of the pup and the mistreatment we'd seen over the past couple of days - her eating garbage in the yard, being scared with a shovel by one of the owners.  And we realized that we were in a completely different culture where dogs are looked at and valued differently, and we thought...you know what?  We've got nothing to lose. We might as well give it a shot. IF we could get Marianne at Street Dog Hero in Bend, Oregon (Sayulita Animals' sister rescue) to agree to be our "back up" adoption option if we brought Hermosa home and Rita (our dog) wasn't getting along with her, and IF we could find a Spanish translator to help us negotiate the rescue, then we would do it. We would give this crazy idea a shot and see if there was a one in a million chance that we could potentially pull it off.

At this time it was about 4pm and we gave Marianne a call and she agreed wholeheartedly to help us in any way. Then we walked downtown to see if Antonio (the volunteer from Sayulita Animals) HAPPENED to still be at the booth site, painting a mural we had seen him working on for the past couple of days.  He was.  We ask him if he would help and be our Spanish translator and he responded immediately with "absolutely".  He agreed to meet us at our rental at 7:30pm that night.

Antonio arrived right on time and after having a beer and hatching a plan, Jeff & Antonio headed down the hill to the big orange gates where the dogs lived.  We had decided that it would be too much to bombard them with 3 people, so I stayed behind.  It was so painful to wait. I couldn't watch.  I kept myself busy by packing and cleaning, as we were leaving Sayulita for Puerto Vallarta the next day. 10 minutes went by - then 15, then 20.  What was going on down there?!  At this point, I decided that things were either going really, really well, or REALLY bad.  I got worried.  I had to look.  I walked across the living room to the panel of windows that faced the street and looked out.  At that very moment I saw Jeff & Antonio walking away from the gated home and it LOOKED like Jeff was holding something.  I immediately rushed to the opposite end of the condo to open the door to watch them come up the stairs.

Low and behold, Jeff had Hermosa held tight in his arms.  I couldn't believe it. As he walked up to the door he reached out his arms to give her to me. I started crying uncontrollably.  She was so scared and nervous and you could see every bone in her sweet little body.  But she was safe. And she was with us.  Apparently after 10 minutes of negotiations and the daughter/owner of Hermosa saying "no" several times, they just handed her over.  Jeff & Antonio had offered to give them money for her and they refused.  They simply said "we know she'll have a better life".

Hermosa hours after her rescue

So thin :(

 We all went back into the condo and celebrated the momentous occasion.  Everyone had HUGE smiles on their faces.  We were all still in shock that she was REALLY there with us. We fed her lots of yummy things that she had never tasted before and snuggled her endlessly. After Antonio left, we nestled her into bed with us. She was really shy and nervous about being inside, as I'm sure she had been strictly forbidden to enter a home before.  She had fleas & ticks all over her and she smelled so horrible that I was honestly gagging all night.  But that didn't matter.  We wanted her to feel secure and loved and for her to know that she would never be in harm's way again.

Fast forward to today: It's been almost three months now since that trip and life changing experience. I am happy to say that we were able to get all three rescue dogs from Sayulita through customs and safely to Portland to meet their "furever families". And after a week of gradual introduction, Rita and Hermosa got along great and are now best friends.  Hermosa is actually HELPING Rita with some of her anxiety, fear and proximity issues. Hermosa has gained over 15 lbs., has been spayed and after a visit to the doggy ophthalmologist has been cleared to keep her bad eye in (no surgery or removal needed - such a relief!). She loves every person and dog she meets and is FEARLESS, enjoying hiking, swimming and exploring the Pacific Northwest. She really completes our family in more ways than we could have imagined and it is a pure joy to watch her grow into the dog that she was always meant to be.

Hermosa's first week in our house.  So tiny!

Her first toys :)

Hermosa, Rita & my husband Jeff - week 1

This rescue wouldn't have been possible without the great help from Sayulita Animals in Mexico and Street Dog Hero in Bend, Oregon.  Both Sara & Marianne are doing incredible things to help animals in need.  Please help these amazing humans continue their good work! Visit their websites, donate to them if you can or become a dog transport if you're flying their way!  It's so easy to do and it really does save lives:

Sayulita Animals: https://sayulitanimals.org/
Street Dog Hero: https://streetdoghero.org/

The biggest lesson we learned from this experience is that there IS a chance.  There's always a chance, no matter how small it might be.  So put your doubts aside and if you think there's even a remote possibility that you could achieve what you're hoping to accomplish, go for it. You could change your situation or someone else's for the better, or better yet, save a life. We are forever grateful for this experience, and for our new family member, Hermosa.

Hermosa & Rita, soaking up the sun in our backyard

Hermosa "koala-ing" her Dad.  She has no space bubble!

Good girls - can we have a treat please?

Hermosa & Rita (and me) enjoying the sand and water at Sauvie Island, just a few weeks ago

Hermosa & Rita today - snuggled up, best friends :)