Case no. 21 of the day was also case no. 28,000 for Amigos. This new celebrity is a mixed-breed female dog with huge ears named Bingo, about two years old, who was rescued in the village of Cienega a couple of months ago. She had been tied up and was nearly dead from starvation and injuries that were probably caused by being a bait dog used in dog flights. Today she’s a playful and friendly addition to her human family. We celebrated her new status with a certificate of recognition, some guitar music, and a round of applause. The dog treats she received will be shared with other dogs.

Beth Kaiser, one of our clients on the 31st, who pitched in to help our team, made the following comments afterward: “I cannot get over what pros all the vets and techs were and how organized the entire group is. I have to say I’m really impressed. One standout aspect was the zero judgement atmosphere: Here to help anybody willing to take the help. I loved that there wasn’t so much as a sideways glance at the cats who arrived in plastic potato sacks.”

Our hosts, Marion Pritchard and Mick Connelly, donated used but freshly washed collars, halters, and leashes for pets who did not have them. We welcome such pet supplies, especially now that tariffs have made new ones more expensive or just unavailable at less expensive stores.

Our thanks to the sterilization team for their hard work on the 31st. Team members were Julia Salido, campaign manager; veterinarians Sandy Hernández, Abril Herrera, and Ricardo Montes de Oca; and volunteers Karla Ahumada, Julie Boyles, Mary Beth Canavan, Rosemarie Conde, Paulina García, Mia del Ángel Gutiérrez Rangel, Beth Kaiser, Tony López, Beth Lozano, Vero Mares, Adhán Mata López, Dulce Sandoval, and Sandra Ward. Our thanks too to Marion Pritchard and Mick Connelly for providing not only a perfect space for the campaign but also snacks and lunch for the volunteers.

During her successful career in sales, sales management, and marketing in the U.S., Terri was vice president of sales and marketing with Giftware Holdings. Previously she had been director of sales for the Dakin Company and director of marketing for Applause Inc. 

In Guanajuato, after spending several years helping in the recovery area at our sterilization campaigns, Terri created an annual bazaar that became a successful source of funding.  During Covid, she turned her attention to creating Terri’s Tiny Tiendita.  Her shop, whether set up in her home or as a pop-up at one of our events, is packed with a colorful array of gifts, crafts and decorative accessories. Best of all, the profits go to support our sterilization and education efforts.

Terri loves all animals, but she’s especially partial to cats and currently has two feline rescues. She also has a cute rescued Chihuahua mix named Millie.

As a board member and a member of our Fundraising Committee, Terri will continue supporting our fundraising efforts with her Tiny Tiendita and by sharing her management and marketing expertise.

If you are interested in volunteering at, or just observing, a campaign, you are welcome to attend. We can put you to work doing something useful but not too challenging. If you just want to observe, we think you’ll find the work we do fascinating and inspiring.

Today, May 31, we are having another sterilization campaign, this one at a private home in the village of Molineros. We expect to have something to celebrate at the campaign and will report it in our June newsletter. Stay tuned!

Our thanks to the sterilization team for all their hard work on the 17th. Team members were Julia Salido, campaign manager; veterinarians Verónica Almaguer, Sandy Hernández, Abril Herrera, Ricardo Montes de Oca, and Arturo Rocha; and volunteers Karla Ahumada, Julie Boyles, Mary Beth Canavan, Fran Espinosa, Adhán Mata López, Tony López, Juana Mondragón, Fran Méndez Montiel, Mia del Ángel Gutiérrez Range, Bianca Lizbeth Rico Vásquez, Estefan Lira Rodríguez, and Dulce Sandoval.

Except for her two dogs, Genie lives on her own. Being a pragmatic person, she decided even before they died that she would not allow her grief over their loss to deprive her of the companionship and pleasure that another dog would give her. Part of that pleasure would be providing a home to a critter who badly needed one.

When Lucy died, Genie contacted Julia Salido, an Amigos board member who has rescued many dogs and cats. Julia introduced her to Luly, a small (3.5 kilos) adult wire-haired terrier mix with enormous ears. Luly is spayed and housebroken and has had all her vaccinations. Julia agreed to start training her to walk on a leash. “She’s a quiet little girl and a little on the timid side,” Genie observed upon their first meeting.

Julia had rescued Luly from the city’s Animal Control Center (CECAA) six months earlier and was looking for the right person to adopt her. Genie fit the bill, given her experience with raising dogs and her availability as a constant companion to this one.

By her third day with Genie, Luly was scampering around her apartment, greeting a visitor, making herself comfortable in both beds Genie had provided, and luxuriating on the sofa while Genie petted her gently. And she knew just what to do when walking on a leash outdoors.

At 90, Genie was concerned about the possibility of Luly’s outliving her. But Julia assured her that if that were to happen, she would find another home for Luly. She even offered to go with Genie and Luly to the veterinarian whenever that was needed.

So, both Luly and Genie have lucked out, thanks to Julia.

Matteo Garbelotto, who participated in the February Winter Olympics as a torchbearer, and his rescued service dog S’Abba can occasionally be seen in Guanajuato.

Matteo is a professor of forestry at the University of California, Berkeley. Having grown up in an Italian alpine village, he has always been passionate about skiing. In 2018 he had an accident and suffered a severe spinal injury while skiing in Mammouth, California. For a while he was wheelchair bound.

As Matteo was struggling to recover, he took in a homeless puppy, whom he named S’Abba, and began training her to be a service dog. With S’Abba’s help and encouragement, he regained his mobility. It’s hard to say whether Matteo rescued S’Abba, or S’Abba rescued him.  S’Abba is a Nova Scotia Duck Tulling Retriever mix and was born in the beautiful island of Sardenia, Italy.

In February of this year the 2026 Winter Olympics took place in Italy. Still keenly interested in skiing, Matteo applied to be a torchbearer for the snow events to be held around Cortina dÁmpezzo. He described his skiing accident and recovery to the Olympic organizers, who selected him—and S’Abba—for this honor. He and S’abba proudly carried the torch representing the U.S.  through the town of Campitello di Fassa near his native village, San Martino di Castrozza.

What is Matteo’s and S’Abba’s connection to Guanajuato and Amigos? The answer is Victor M. Márquez, a San Franciso attorney and Matteo’s husband, who grew up here. Being world travelers, Matteo and Victor live in Guanajuato part-time, and they have contributed to the community by supporting our work.

Matteo and Victor love animals. S’Abba has been an inspiration to both and travels with them wherever they go.

The other urges people to protect their pets from fatal diseases by treating them for parasites. These messages will be seen by thousands of Guanajuatenses over the course of three months. We have also been posting them on Amigos’s social media feeds.

We chose the message about parasite prevention because some of the dogs brought to our sterilization campaigns have shown symptoms of blood-borne diseases that are transmitted by tick and fleas. These diseases cause excessive bleeding during surgery.

Coincidentally, the Secretariat of Health for the state of Guanajuato has just mounted a billboard blitz to encourage people to vaccinate their pets against life-threatening diseases. Rabies has been largely controlled in recent decades through a national vaccination program. But other highly contagious and deadly diseases, such as canine parvovirus and distemper, are endemic here.

We are very pleased that the Secretariat of Health is drawing the public’s attention to the importance of vaccinating their pets. And we thank Joslyn Lewis and Andrea Martín de Coté for creating our bus messages and social media posts.

Everyone at the campaign remained calm, and the surgeries continued until all the 80 registered animals were sterilized. Our cases that day consisted of 21 female dogs, 11 male dogs, 30 female cats, and 18 male cats. After sharing a late lunch offered by our hosts, around 6 p.m. our surgeons, campaign manager, and volunteers packed up their equipment and headed home on nearly deserted streets. 

Early in the morning, I heard a persistent meow; it sounded like a kitten. We lived in an apartment, so I assumed the neighbors had adopted a new kitten. But as night fell, the meowing continued. I went outside and found the hungry little creature we would name Cochi (short for Biz-cochito, because he was cross-eyed and hygiene was a foreign concept to him). It makes sense in Spanish.

We didn’t have anything ready to receive him, so we fed him a can of tuna and let him go. The next day we got a litter box and some cat food and waited for him to return. Sure enough, he returned, and we remained together until the end of his days.

Almost immediately we developed a very strong bond, a special way of understanding each other, a trust that led him to knead and purr every time he saw us and to come meowing when we called him by the name we’d given him. His presence brought us the pleasure of petting him and the inherent calm of his company. Like any relationship, this one was also full of contradictions, conflicts, and misunderstandings linked to the fact that Cochi and I, despite being very close, belonged to different species. We lived, thought, perceived, and communicated about the world differently.

Cochi was one of the many nonhuman beings with whom I have had the privilege of sharing my days, and thinking of him and our shared intimacy reminds me of the notion of “companion species” proposed by Donna Haraway. For this author, “companion species” encompass the vast diversity of beings that make human and nonhuman life possible—that is, the fungi, yeasts, bacteria, and viruses with which we cohabit and that inhabit us; the animals and plants we feed on and that enable our subsistence; and, of course, the species we more traditionally tend to consider “companions.” 

The idea that we keep each other company and need one another challenges the usual way of thinking about nonhuman beings as resources or objects that exist for our service. In the example of our relationship with Cochi, this mutual dependence went far beyond the need for food and became an emotional interdependence that provided us with security, warmth, and calm.

By thinking of nonhuman beings as companions, we can strive to build different relationships with everything around us, stop viewing others as resources at our disposal, and begin to question the positioning of the human as the centre of existence. At a time like the present, when we face a climate crisis that has already led to mass extinctions and many other catastrophes, this shift in thinking could be of vital importance. For this reason, we invite you to ask yourself: How do you relate to the nonhuman beings around you? How can you transform these relationships?