Puppies!!!

I

miss my puppies. I miss them very very much. And I miss them more because of all the sweet dogs here. Vira-latas, as street dogs and ‘SPCA specials’ are called here, abound. And contrary to popular belief, they’re actually not very dangerous at all. Most of them just wander around the city looking for food and shade. If they come up to you it’s quite alright to pet them. Unless they’re rabid of course, but if you can’t tell they’re rabid from all the twitching and foam coming from their mouths then you probably shouldn’t be petting any dogs at all.

My enlightenment with regards to these screatures came via a wonderful woman named Renatta who runs a rescue/help organization out of Embu (outside of Sao Paulo). She rescues a ton of them and adopts them out – I’d say close to the thousands so far. She helps people to get them spayed and neutered. And she tries to give medical care to the vira-latas that are homeless. And boy does she put her money where her mouth is: she has 26 dogs!!!

Yes, yes, I know you’re probably all thinking she’s like one of those crazy cat ladies who lives in a pile of kitty litter and garbage. But I was shocked at her normality and general funkiness. Indeed, she and her husband have the most amazing house that was featured in an architectural magazine here. And I saw photos of all the dogs living happily together, really amazing! And we were fretting about 3 dogs.

Of course, to keep things running she has to do a ton of fundraising. Part of this is done by selling t-shirts. Thanks to everyone so far who ordered one through me. And if anyone else would like one, just let me know within the next week or so!

The dogs in that one photo must have lunatic owners who would dress them up like that. Yes...they're mine...

The other photos are some of the ones I’ve encountered in my wanderings…so cute!!!