The Soul of an Animal Activist

“Hiiiiiiee!!” The welcoming call goes with outstretched arms and a big smile. A yard full of barking dogs echoes her excitement. She shuffles to the gate, takes a cha-cha step, opens the gate, does a twirl, her greeting completes with a rocking hug.

If you’re sensitive to the energy around you, you feel the love the dogs share with this woman. Dogs left in the street, starving and diseased wander her yard healthy with full bellies.

No matter how bad your day, and I’ve seen her on far too many personally bad days, you feel soothed by her hug. She loves in a way that’s more than mere words.She is love. You just want to take a deep breath, so you could breathe in love.

The Puerto Rican Island Dogs are her passion; rescuing them and improving their lives is the greatest work of her life. She wears her zeal like a coat of many colors giving her authority when dealing with government officials with whom she reasons to provide for a common good. Her efforts resulted in accredited education for Animal Control in Puerto Rico. In this effort she is not iron, but tempered steel.

The toll for this devotion comes constantly in the form of emails, text messages and phone calls. Coming home late night from a gig in another life’s passion, music, she has too often found a box of puppies in front of her gate. A penalty for people knowing of  her love for dogs she treats as a gift from God, but anger builds for people who don’t step up to do what’s right for the animals. People take advantage of her love and wash their hands like they've been responsible. That must seem at times impossible to bear.