Hi folks!
Here in Brazil we have been costing mom and dad a fortune. Pebbles managed to get a rare type of fungus and after four visits to the local vet she had to be taken thirty kilometers away for another diagnosis. She ended up with the vet cutting a chunk out of her leg and stitches in her leg. The piece of flesh was then sent for biopsy and we are awaiting the results. She cost around 500 reals in total. Gracie has some sort of skin irritation too and needed treatment as well. Jessie is recovering well, but of course she needs to have the same surgery on her other leg. On top of it all we had an outbreak of fleas and some of us had to take special medication that cost a fortune here. Yesterday mom and dad visted a friend who has 90 odd street animals and she just accepted a mother a five pups dumped near to us here. She also has nobody to help her financially and has huge expenses. Mom told her how she wrote to several famous people who profess to like animals, asking for help--including Joan Collins. Needless to say most didn`t have the grace to even answer and no body wanted to help us here in Brazil. We are in a forgotten corner of the world. Some people may say why don`t the Brazilians help? Well mom says she can`t answer this without upsetting a lot of Brazilians. They just don`t think of dogs in the same way that people in the first world do. A small minority adore animals, but a huge majority are indifferent to our suffering. The situation is getting worse in the last two month one freind of mom`s picked up eight strays in danger and sick. Another friend of mom`s who has thirty picked up a dog who has been in the vets for 40 days recovering from a facial trauma. We are not sure if he was run over or beaten. The gaping wound was infested with maggots. He luckily will make it and all thanks to the few good hearted samaritans around here. He fared better than the two nthat were run over and left to die slowly by the side of the road last week. There are only four or five of humans working for us dogs and they are saturated with the daily problems. They cure one problem and two more appear. Noneof them are rich and all of them have their own financial worries to attend. Is the world so mean that nobody can take them seriously and raise some funds for us. They are welcome to come here and speak to the few in the team and to see and hear our tragic stories. We can`t talk, but you can see the scars and deficiencies we have due to neglect and cruelty. Local politicians don`t want to know about us. Religious groups say we don`t have souls. The local priest kicks us if we try to enter the church. They poison, stab, drown and starve us to death. Please is anybody out there that cares enough to make this little forgotten corner of Brazil a happier place for all? We need the good humans to educate the others to respect us. It is a large, but not impossible project. Worse still the only vet around here who actually treated street dogs for free has brain cancer and is dying. Mom was very upset about this.

Here is Jessie hobbling along, but she is doing just fine. We all feel sorry for her because we all remember her complete paralysis a couple of years back. The operation apparently was a success and her torn ligament replaced with a nylon support. The operation cost a lot of money and in a month she needs to replace the ligament on the other knee too. So it's not good news for mom and dad. Still no response from the world out there apparently they are all too mean to care about street dogs in Brazil. They seem more concerned with other important things in life like jewellery, new cars, designer clothes, and other useless status symbols. Mom says that is why the human race is in such a bad state because they are all inherently selfish.

We are all still here and waiting for summer. Most of us like to bask in the sun except for Harry and me. Jessie is having her surgery on Thursday and is very nervous. She will have a nylon cord placed in her cruciate ligament. I glad it isn't me! The little puppies vanished soon after and mom doesn't know what happened to them. We have all suffered from the dreaded Bernie fly season and are glad that is over too. Mom and Dad have apparently opened an English school to try and earn some money to pay for our needs, so we see a lot less of them now. Mom still visits Tequila's grave from time to time. She is still writing her book about our lives although for some reason Jessie is the protagonist and not me. Still I can't complain I am the voice of our web site and my opinions predominate here. There hasn't been much response to the blog site I guess people have better things to do and other charities to support. Well I 'll let you all know how Jessie gets on with her to new knees soon.

Pluto and Gracie

Here are the three doomed puppies. Already today it seems like there is only one left. Two have gone missing for the last day. They are not used to humans and scream like they are dying if anybody goes near them. Mom says this will make it even more difficult to try and find homes for them. She will try though. They can't come here because if the inevitable occurs and nobody wants them Mom can't afford to support any more dogs. So lets all hope and pray we can save them somehow. mom isn't having a very good week because first of all Dad is ill, second the homeless pups and last night me and Misty had a big fight. The first fight here in the house for nearly a year. Mom says it was my fault because I am so jealous. They threw a bucket of water on us and we stopped for 10 seconds and then I decided to bite Misty again. Dad was very angry.

Well just look at little Gracie now, all grown up. She lives with Pluto and they play all day long doing puppy things. She is in the middle of excavating in her kennel. She has dug a hole so big that she can get inside of it and hide. She is constantly covered in mud due to her unusual hobby.

Pluto has grown up a lot too although he still romps around like a puppy. All of us are worried about Dad because he has health problems too and was rushed to hospital last week. Jessie's surgery had to be cancelled because he won't be able to help carry her out to pee whilst she is recovering and obviously Mom can't carry a 45 kilo dog alone. Mom has found a street dog down the road with three puppies. She says that they don't have any chance of survival at all. She is going to take some pictures for you all to see.

Jessie has new problems

We are all still really sad about Tequila and Mom is still crying from time to time about it. Now she has a new and serious problem to cope with. Jessie has been limping badly again and Mom and Dad took her for an x-ray yesterday. After all the trouble they had getting her to walk again after the brain lesion this was devastating. She apparently has crossed ligaments in both knees and needs expensive surgery. The local vet can perform a type of artificial transplant of the ligament which will cost 400 reals each side, but the better option would be to take her seventy miles away to the nearest big town and have another type of surgery, which is apparently superior giving much better results at a cost of 1,500 reals each side. Of course, the second option is totally and sadly out of the question due to the lack of any donations, or help from others worldwide. The first option will of course have a devastating financial impact on Mom and Dad's financial situation. We are all praying to the big doggy in the sky that some kind Samaritan will come along so that Jessie who has suffered so much can have the best treatment possible. She is hardly walking now and spends most of her day sitting in Mom's bed. She is very irritable and growling at Harry due to the pain she is in. Please help her if you can

Tequila Passed Away

Very sad news from here! tequila died 10.30am June 24th. This was Saint John's Day here in Brazil--we will never forget her. Mom found out that the cause of her kidney failure was probably due to the snake bite back in March. It was very unfortunate that she got bitten on a Sunday and mom's car was off the road broken. She called a friend to take her to the nearest vet open on a Sunday and it took nearly two hours for her to get treatment. She went into what they call 'shock' and it is common after this for kidney failure to follow. Mom says that if she ever wins the Megasena, which is the lottery here in Brazil, then she will open a 24 hour vet hospital because within a 100 kilometres there is only one in the area and she knows of other tragedies due to lack of services. Mom was devastated. Tequila was buried near her old kennel and roses were put on her grave. Life won't be same without her because she was always clowning around and making us laugh.
Meanwhile Gracie is growing a lot and sharing Tequila's old kennel with Pluto. There is now one empty kennel here, but no plans to take any more dogs due to the vast expenses when they get ill. There are still many dogs in the street all in need of help, but nobody to give it.

Another Sad Epoch

Last month Lion, the dog with cancer died and now Tequila has chronic kidney failure. The only solution is dialysis which only exists 70 kilometres away and is too expensive for Mom and Dad. Mom says if she had the money she would make the trip once a week just to keep her for a while longer. Tequila always made us all laugh with her antics: opening the fridge to rob all of the food and turning the rubbish bin over to eat scraps. The irony of it is now she can't eat anything and if forced to eat she quickly vomits, so her days are very numbered. We are all very sad and Mom has been crying. She is around ten years old now but the ultra sound showed that all of her other organs were in good shape still. It is just not fair we are all very sad even Pluto who is now beginning to understand a bit more about life. We are all waiting for a comment to appear just to know if anybody actually reads Emmy's blog, but nothing yet.

April News

Well the new little pup called Gracie is growing a lot. Mom says she is a type of mixed Labrador. Mom is also looking after a dog with cancer of the mouth. He is seventeen years old and belongs to a girl who works for mom. There are fourteen of us here now. We all still miss Bonnie and her interesting tales of life in the hills all alone, but it is great to have a new little one around. One of the street dogs down below in the valley died last week with some sort of disease and the neighbour who leaves his dogs roaming in the street had one run over. Mom witnessed this and was very angry. She also saw a dead dog by the side of the road yesterday obviously it had been run over. Life outside of our little haven here is very precarious. Still nobody has made a single comment about mom's blog. Dad is supposed to be coming back from abroad some time soon. He has been away for nearly two years and we are all eager to see him again. He has been working a lot to support our lifestyle here. We never found the snake that bit Tequila, but did find a small poisonous snake here last week. We are all growing thicker coats ready for the cold mountain winter. Tasha loves the cold but the rest of us hate it.

Hi there folks. The little puppy found in the shoebox has grown a lot and we now have a picture of her to post. She is going to stay because after extensive advertising for someone to take her in not a single person even enquired-- let alone wanted her. The same old story here in Brazil. After that Tequila got bitten by a very poisonous snake and was also rushed to a vet. She collasped unconscious and her tongue turned blue. We all thought she was going to die for sure. She stayed in the hospital for six days and ran up a hefty bill. She is now home and still taking antibiotcs, but seems to be back to normal. Jan showed us all a picture of her with her swollen head resembling a water melon. Her eyes were completely obscured by the massive swelling. Mom and Dad said no more dogs here. All puppies dumped in the future must be ignored. We understand their problem. It isn't lack of heart; it is lack of something they call funds. The results of this blog are the same as the propaganda for the little puppy---not a single bit of interest. Hey we can't give up hope though maybe just maybe one day a kind heart will pass by and read this blog.

Does anyone read this blog?

Tasha got bitten by a snake. Pebbles had an allergic reaction and Harry had a problem with his tail all of this resulted in three visits to the vet. We are sure nobody is reading this let alone one good Samaritan. Why do blogs exist? People are more interested in sleazy blogs than helping some worthwhile dogs. Oh woe is the human race! All of our problems continue and our mom is practically broke dealing with us. She is making severe economic difficulties and there isn't a soul to help her. We are doing our best but we can't help getting ill and we need to eat. Oh by the way one more puppy was dumped in a shoebox in the rubbish tip. Harry has also had a cyst removed from his neck and thankfully it wasn't cancer. Pluto managed to grab a bag of broken glass that some idiot left on top of a work surface and it fell on his paw managing to sever a main artery. What a to do that was. he was rushed to the vet and had the vein clamped and stitches and is now running around with a lampshade on his head. He is not very pleased with all this and neither is mom. So you see we cost a fortune and it never stops. Nobody seems to want the new arrival although she is a pretty little thing. Mom will have to leave her at the pet shop to be given to any old Tom, Dick or Harry. mom hates to do this because most people don't have conditions here and their kids want the dog but the novelty soon wears off and they then abandon them. The aren't usually vaccinated or looked after properly. She feels terrible about this but cannot accept any more dogs here due to financial blight. We will all be sad to see the little critter go. She was dumped in a shoebox and left to die. If anybody is reading this then please make a comment because Mom is desperate!