November Update: RIP Lolita, Gene and Rio

I want to start by acknowledging all of you who have supported us all this time for without you we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. Every single one of you has contributed to saving the lives of countless animals and for that we thank you. It has been a challenging month. We lost Gene in the early hours of Monday November 19, he crossed the rainbow bridge from complications from chemotherapy and his grave underlying health conditions.

On Tuesday November 20 also in the early hours Lolita followed him. She was to have surgery that day due to a severe pyometra infection, but her little body gave up before we could help her with the emergency surgery. We rescued her in August and we did the best we could to give her a quality life and care, but sometimes Creator has a different plan. We cherish the memory of both of these beautiful beings and we became better people for having known them.

A day later, on Wednesday November 21, we rescued Rio, We found him in front of the home that he used to live in. His owners abandoned him and moved. But the boy just stayed by his old house, in front of it, on the street, guarding it waiting for his humans to return. He took refuge in a motokar from the pouring rain. Which is quite a surprise considering the condition he was in - a shattered leg- most likely from a car accident- that has been amputated immediately after intake.

This warrior of a dog was able to jump up on that motokar and patiently wait for his old humans who would never come. But we did. We came and brought him the help he needed. Dr. Salazar did a great job at safely amputating Rio’s leg. There was no way around it. Rio fought hard after surgery and we didn’t give up on him, we did all we could. He crossed the rainbow bridge Saturday morning at 7:45 am from a heart attack. Thank you all who saw our call for help and responded, prayed and sent loving energy his way. In other news we closed our Facebook due to security reasons and as of now our organization’s Instagram page is private for the same reason. Many of you have probably received several defamatory messages – and it seems that the person(s) behind it all is committed to disrupt the work that we do. I have reached out to law enforcement, local and U.S. based for help and we are close to identifying the person(s) behind the fake accounts. Finally, we printed XS and S sizes in our White Unisex T-shirt, along with some amazing tote bags (two different kinds and sizes) that are available for purchase in our store.

You can support our organization by purchasing them. %100 of the proceeds go to the animals. Our rescues Ruby and Luna are thriving, Ruby in Los Angeles and Luna in Iquitos- for now. We have plans to bring her to the US next year, once she is fully recovered. Again, thank you for all your support and your kind messages and hopefully I get to meet more of you in the near future. Many blessings to you and your loved ones during this Holiday Season. Ursula Vari Founder and Director Amazon Alliance / Project Street Dog