In the remote village of El Triunfo in the Western highlands of Guatemala, six baby puppies were abandoned on the side of the road without any food, water, or shelter. Our artisan partner, Juana, who lives there, told us about the abandoned puppies that cried all night long.
Where we found Merry in the remote community of El Triunfo, Guatemala
The puppies were left abandoned, without their mother - and without food or water. The locals who also survive on a dollar a day could not afford to give much more than scraps to the orphan pups. So, Hiptipico set out to find the puppies and bring them to the local clinic. But when we arrived to Juana’s house, after hours of searching - we were only able to locate and save one puppy.
Alyssa holding Merry at Juana's house in el Triunfo.
She was the only survivor. After looking at her teeth and eyes we estimated that she was only about 20 days old when we found her. Honestly, we didn’t think she was going to make it so we rushed her back home to Panajachel.
On the day of her rescue, she was light as a feather from eating next to nothing since birth.
When we brought her home to Panajachel, she barely had the strength to lift herself up the stairs.
There are many stray dogs and cats without homes here in Guatemala. We wish we could help all of them but we have to focus our efforts on the most desperate cases--like this one. For the ones we’re not able to foster, we support local organizations working to combat the huge number of stray animals.
When dog collars and pet accessories are purchased through our Collars for a Cause program, the proceeds go towards supporting one of those organizations, our local clinic, Ayuda. With their support we were also able to get her cleaned up and vaccinated! After some TLC from the clinic and just a few days of plenty of love and puppy food, she was acting more like a normal puppy--running around and playing with our other dogs. That's where her name comes from. Her rescue was the week of Christmas and once she was thriving we named her Merry because she truly was a Christmas miracle!
At the January clinic, Ayuda fixed over 30 other local cats and dogs, including our little Merry. This is an important step in keeping the population of stray animals under control. Fixing male dogs also makes them less aggressive, which in turn makes the streets of our town more safe.
Merry is now four months old and thriving. You wouldn’t even say she’s the same puppy that we found back in December! We were lucky to find her a loving forever home here in Panajachel. Our friendly neighbors and their two kids have been wanting a puppy for a long time and they immediately fell in love with Merry. We’re happy to be able to still have her close by!
Best Friends: Merry + our doberman Jamaica love to play together now that's she's grown up!
Merry + Ixil: Still getting used to each other.
Merry’s such a love bug--she craves snuggles and has gotten accustomed to being carried around like a baby. We think she’s part German Shepherd so we’re curious to see how big she grows up to be! She’s made such a miraculous recovery since we found her and we couldn’t have done it without your support.
Stay tuned for more cute puppy updates on our instagram story @alyssaya ♡
