Canine Compassion

Mojave Animal Protection

We now proudly support this initiative, which creates education & advocacy programs that inspire & empower people to protect the flora & fauna of the Mojave Desert ecoregion. Click HERE for more information.

Just One Dog at a Time

“It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.” – John Grogan (Author, Marley & Me)

One Story at a Time includes dog food with our shelter deliveries ⏤ for dogs living both inside and outside the shelters at the Mexican border.

Most people might say that humans need help more than dogs. So, why focus a story on dogs? Why campaign to help feed them?

It’s the interaction between human and dog. What happens as a result of that is of tremendous benefit to all creatures great and small.

What we’re really doing: providing companionship, comfort, and inexpensive stress relief for humans. Yet, there’s much more involved.

“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.” – Mark Twain

There’s a heart-rending irony involved. People who’ve been displaced by violence and severe economic hardship are gathered at a border, seeking a better life, surrounded by homeless dogs, all of them seeking food and shelter.

We know that nurturing a stray brings comfort, companionship, and dignity: to the person and the dog.

In a remarkable essay for World Footprints, journalist Jessica Barrett described her visit to Mexico’s Pacific coast and the challenge and reward of rescuing strays.

She writes that Mexico “has the largest number of street dogs in Latin America. The National Institute of Statistics and Geography estimates that about 70 percent of the 18 million dogs in Mexico live on the street, born as strays or simply abandoned. It’s a statistic that becomes overwhelmingly evident as you walk around.”

In this house-that-Jack-built situation: when we ask for your contribution to help feed a dog, what you’re doing is setting into motion so much more than providing dog food.

With the political situation ⏤ and now the pandemic ⏤ having shut down virtually all non-freight movement across the border, one migrant child embracing and nurturing one dog seems, feels, looks, and is an act of grace.

Letter from Linda to a 12 year-old boy who donated $10 to help feed the dogs:

That was so generous of you, WOW. I can’t tell you how much of a difference that will make in the life of the street dogs.

Before the pandemic there was lots more food for them because sometimes families would give them leftovers. Now people are quarantined so much and they don’t have enough food for themselves so the dogs are a lot more hungry.

Here is a story: Nestor is a friend of mine who is a Mexican man and lives in Tecate, Mexico. About three years ago we were talking, and he said he didn’t like dogs. I made a deal with him that he would be open to getting to know a few dogs on his street and he laughed and then he said he would.

When I saw him again the next year, he said, “You won’t believe what’s happened. I got to know my neighbor’s dog, and then my neighbor moved and now I have his dog. I love him!”

Nestor delivers lots of food to the people in the shelters in Tijuana, Mexico, where many poor migrants live. We always have him bring food for the dogs.

Here is where the story gets REALLY amazing: One day, when they finished eating, one dog went off to find his friends and the other stayed and started to play with Nestor. Guess what? Nestor now has TWO dogs. Nestor brought him home, and the street dog has a forever home where he will not just get food all the time but lots of love, too.

Thank you again for your kind and generous help to bringing food and happiness to these brave street dogs.

With love and respect right back to you, Linda