A thousand pages would not be enough to recount all the experiences we have had with these incredible animals. Dogs we have rescued from places including rubbish tips, fires, floods, motorways and balconies (that were prisons). Animals that have been thrown out of their homes at the first sign of illness, torn away from everyone and everything they know and love…
We are going to share the story of Marifló here. Sadly, this is not an unusual case, but rather another example of what humans can do to other beings.
One day, we received a call from the local police. While attending a small fire in a neighbourhood, they had come across an animal in a very bad way. Wanting to know what to take with us, we asked them what the animal was. “We don’t know.” They responded. The mystery animal was covered in matted fur. Indeed, it was impossible to know what was hiding under all the fur, urine, faeces and teeth. We could not even see the animal’s eyes. We rescued it, with some difficultly as it was being aggressive, and went to a vet.
The vet sedated it and proceeded to clip its fur, and clean, stitch up and treat its wounds. After almost a whole day, a little female dog with bright eyes appeared. Her vision was very bad as she had been kept in the dark for so long, but she was grateful that we had removed her displaced teeth and cut her claws which had been digging into her flesh.
I would love to be able to say that she transformed into a completely healthy and happy dog over time. However, whenever it got dark (we imagine this was when her owner would come home) or in any stressful situation, Mrs Marifló Hyde would appear, biting anything and everything in her way.
Despite this, we loved her for who she was. She required a couple of operations as a result of the abuse she had suffered, but she lived a full and content life, on her own terms, with no judgement from us. And even though she passed away quite a long time ago, we still miss her.
If you sponsor this wonderful group, you will be sponsoring all the dogs that currently live happily at the shelter, and those that need our help elsewhere, dogs like Marifló.