Do you remember one of our longest and most difficult rescues? The dog’s name was Night, short for nightmare, which is what this dog was for the people living in the Opera Salvaje area and for Doris and Dieter for almost 2 months. You can read Night’s story at http://mckee-jaco.com/case-histories/
After Night was rescued and cured from ehrlichiosis, the terminal disease if not treated on time, which he was diagnosed with, he was adopted by Doris and Dieter and their furry family, who gave him what he never had in his sad life – a home and a big family, consisting of both humans and doggie and kitty brothers and sisters.
After all the trouble so many people went through rescuing and saving this huge purebred Great Dane, Night is now helping to save other dogs. Due to both his big size and good health condition, Night is the first choice as a blood donor in our area. His blood has already saved more than 12 dogs, all of them treated in the Jaco and Herradura clinics with a transfusion containing his blood. Sometimes the calls come late at night, as the condition of a sick animal often doesn’t allow for waiting until the next day, and Night is always there to help his doggie friends. Sometimes there is blood needed just after Night has already donated, and in these cases Riley – another big rescue adopted by Doris and Dieter – becomes the donor, himself helping to save another life in peril. Even our famous rescue dog Page, one of our very first success stories, helped out once. Thank you to all of them, and especially to their “parents” Doris and Dieter who, no matter what time of a day or night, always bring them to the clinic so they can donate their so very needed blood.
EDUCATION NEWS
During the last two months, our education program “Sharing the world with the animals” has also been a huge success, as we concentrated our efforts on Escuela Central de Jaco with its 750 students with a daily presentation. Once a week we also work at two other smaller schools –Escuela Hacienda with 62 and Escuela Las Monas with 32 students.
Special Thanks to Angela Maria Lozano Lorza, who does an excellent job teaching our young people everything they need to know about animals – their needs and feelings, as well as how to be a responsible animal owner. Also a huge THANK YOU goes to the school principal Vera Virginia Alpizar and to all the other teachers for their support and cooperation.
MORE EDUCATION NEWS
Did you know that 80% of the dogs in our area don’t have their own food bowl? They get fed on a piece of newspaper, or on old plastic plates or simply just poured on the ground.
This is now changing, thanks to a donation from one of our electric companies — COMPAÑÍA NACIONAL DE FUERZA Y LUZ (CNFL), which gave to FUNDACIÓN MCKEE all the covers from the old electrical service meters, which just happen to be the perfect size and shape for a nifty food bowl. In our education program at the Jaco schools, after a discussion about how to be a responsible pet owner, the kids painted their own bowls for their dogs, and committed to maintain said bowls always full of water and food. Look at the pictures, and see how nice they are!
ANOTHER 69 ANIMALS BELONGING TO LOW INCOME FAMILIES OR STRAYS SPAYED/NEUTERED FROM APRIL 1st TO MAY 15th
Besides the regular weekly spay days with DR. JOSE MANUEL JIMÉNEZ, we also had a mini clinic in Esterillos Este, organized and sponsored byKaren Huss. During the last six weeks we were able to spay/neuter 69 animals! Like always our Thank You goes also to Elisabeth Lubbers, Leo Hogan and Doris Schluckebier, who assisted Dr. Jimenez with the surgeries, and also to Kristen Luke and Sarah Olmstead for being there and taking care of the patients before and after the surgery. And also thanks to Laleña Bennett for offering us her home to hold our clinics. Also in the Jaco clinic, DRA. WENDY VILLALOBOS provides to us low-cost castrations for our rescues, as well as for pets belonging to low income families who cannot afford the regular price.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS FROM APRIL 1ST TO MAY 15TH
A huge Thank You goes out again to the sponsors of all three programs in this month of April – Linda Look, Stuart Welch, Liz from Taco Bar, Leo Plumley, Hotel Mar de Luz, Cathi Brennan, Wishbone Restaurant, Paola Alvarado, Hotel Los Ranchos, and Gabriela Contreras Cordero for their regular monthly support, as well as to Henry & Eugenia Balke – USA, Karen Huss – Esterillos, Costa Rica, Sylvia van Baekel – Herradura, Costa Rica, Douglas Giampapa – Herradura, Costa Rica, Dennis Ward – Capitan of “Never say never”, Emma Cusack – USA, Annie Forget – Canada, Paul Grandy – Jaco, Costa Rica, Lisa & Hugo Camilieri – Jaco, Costa Rica, Julie Dean – Canada, Hella Ruetter – Austria, Karen Huss – Esterillos, Costa Rica, Dr. Yvette Maclean – Canada, The Bartholomew Family – USA and Crystal Curry – USA. And a very special thank you to Emma Cusack from the USA and to Dr. Yvette Maclean from Canada for donating to us so many different and so very needed meds.
Thank you for your time and support.
Katja Bader
McKee Jaco