Open letter to our Snow Birds

Glad you could come and hope you'll join us again next year.

One request. If you acquired a dog or cat during your stay, PLEASE take it home with you. If you absolutely cannot take it, find it a good home with one of your friends. If you don't find a forever home, please care enough to have it put to sleep.

We ask you to keep the following things in mind:

• Don't expect to just dump your pet off with one of the local shelters - the shelters are full and bursting at the seams. If one of them is able to take your pet, give a generous donation. I'd suggest at least $100 USD for a small dog or cat, more for a bigger dog.
  

• Don't tie the pet to the gate at one of the shelters, leave it in a box, or drop it off in front of the shelter. It is more likely to get hit by a car or attacked by a wild animal than get taken in. Does your faithful companion deserve to die that way?
  

• Domesticated dogs and cats are just that – domesticated. Please don't just shove your pet out the door when you leave and expect it to survive.
  

• Please do not leave your pet in the empty house for the landlord to deal with. Remember it will likely be found dead or starving.
  

• Please don't give it to your maid or gardener and expect that someone making $500 dollars a month will be able to afford to care for your pet, no matter how much they like it. At the very least, leave enough money for food and Veterinary care until your return.
  

• Please don't ask your maid or gardener to come by your house every few days to feed your pets while you are gone. Dogs and cats deserve better care than that and there is too great a risk that the caregiver will come upon a problem too big for them to solve.
  

If you're one of the many people who are horrified that I would even suggest any of these “solutions”, thank you for your kind heart. Every one of these instances, and more, has resulted in at least one of our Ranch dogs. I am sure Anita's and Lucky Dog volunteers could tell you horror stories as well.

So Bon Voyage and take your pets home with you.

Thanks

Bravo, Flamingo!

Amen to that! We do not have any disposable or recyclable animals at this house, they all have their "permanente".

Thank you, Flamingo! Very well said.

Lady Otter Latté wrote:Thank you, Flamingo! Very well said.

Agree.
Just wondering: I've heard that some snowbirds "adopt" a pet for the season and then abandon them as pointed out when they leave. When non-permanent residents go to the shelters, are they especially screened re being temporary visitors before being allowed to adopt an animal?

At least at the Ranch, we do try to screen, but aren't always told the truth. We don't have the staff or the ability to verify everything that is said. <very big sigh>

Bravo Flamingo, very well stated

Those mentioned are not snowbirds,but snowturds.
gm

I like that!

Any way to start a list of names of folks that do this, so at least the shelters can know who to avoid next Fall?

Excellent post, Flamingo. I hope all snowbirds try to be the sort of person their dog thinks they are.

This goes around every winter season. It blows my mind. It's as though people (hardly people) treat these animals/mammals (just like you and I) as bling. Sad.

The shelters do maintain a shared DNA (Do Not Adopt) list but it is unfortunately limited. If you know any snow birds with pets you know or suspect were acquired here, ask them what they are planning to do.

I am pleased to say that I have so far received incredulous looks and been told the pet is going back NOB. I guess I know nice people.

I agree wholeheartedly

CanuckBob wrote:I have heard this for many years but is this actually true or an "urban legend"? Does anyone on here have a first hand account of somebody doing this? If so, I would love to post the details with names, etc. Send me a PM.

Bob, I don't have names, however, last year someone dropped off a dog at Chapala Haciendas. She was obviously well taken care of by the looks of her. Since we only have cats I put some food out and that poor thing ate like there was no tomorrow. We took care of her for a few weeks and did find someone who took her in permanently.

Last year a guy called one of the shelters that will remain nameless and told them he was at the airport heading back north and had left his three small dogs in the yard at the place he had rented and someone needed to go get them. Friend of mine was in the group that tracked down the landlord, got access to the property, and picked up the dogs. My neighbor who is Mexican and loves his dogs always ends up with three or four well cared for strays in April. He cares for them until he can place them. They appear in the morning, some with collars, and hand out at the intersection where his home is and just fall in with his dogs when he walks them. Folks here help him with food and vet costs until he finds homes for them.

That's it in a nutshell.

CanuckBob wrote:I have heard this for many years but is this actually true or an "urban legend"? Does anyone on here have a first hand account of somebody doing this? If so, I would love to post the details with names, etc. Send me a PM.

Not an urban legend. Actual Ranch dogs:

Tommy & Lester left in an empty rental
Dog, whose name I don't remember, left tied to the bumper of Gudrun's car
Hector & Susie tied to the gate of the Ranch - well cared for and already neutered
Mono dropped off near the old animal shelter, found running back and forth across the Careterra looking up at cars, shaking her head and then running to another car. Understood English.
and on and on...

We don't often have the names

Open letter to dog owners who allow their dogs to bark incessantly or at any person or animal who passes by.

Your dog's noise pollution is not appreciated by your neighbors,have some courtesy,por favor.

After having been a foster home for several years and having confidently placed over 30 dogs in good homes NOB, my wife and I think that any one caught abandoning an animal should be spayed or neutered and then never be allowed to have an animal again. But that is only a hope that will never happen.
Also, the barking dog situation has been going on for a few months now outside Villa Formosa as a construction crew across the road has two dogs that are there and constantly barking. We go over and give them some attention and sneak them some food. But it has gotten to the point that we would rather hear the barking than wonder what has happened to them if it was silent. We will actually miss them and the barking soon.
The peacocks are louder sometimes.

viajero wrote:Open letter to dog owners who allow their dogs to bark incessantly or at any person or animal who passes by.

Your dog's noise pollution is not appreciated by your neighbors,have some courtesy,por favor.

Yes, thanks, that was very helpful.

ltollefs wrote:

viajero wrote:Open letter to dog owners who allow their dogs to bark incessantly or at any person or animal who passes by.

Your dog's noise pollution is not appreciated by your neighbors,have some courtesy,por favor.

Yes, thanks, that was very helpful.

You're welcome.
A person three houses  down the street from us decided to start collecting stray dogs,she's up to 14 by my neighbors count,and has no yard for them,just a one car cochera,she's a pendeja,across the street from us another pendeja has 2 roof dogs who do nothing but bark at anyone who passes by.My neighbors and I are fed up,this is in Guadalajara and all the neighbors are Mexicans.

Are you renting?

Trailrunner wrote:Are you renting?

Who are you asking?
I'm not renting,we bought our house 8 years ago,these are recent developments,one way or another it'll get sorted out.
Mis vecinos y yo (estamos hasta la madre)...