FRIENDS OF ANIMALS - Amigos y amigas de los animales

Roxy is Mullets Girlfriend, to Steff and Tanya with LOVE

2009-12-25T20:05:00.000-08:00

250 animals sterilized in Cancun!

2008-11-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

From September 28th to October 5th, we had the opportunity to volunteer for the
free spay and neuter clinic in a neighbourhood of Cancun Mexico.
250 animals were sterelized! Thank you VIDAS (www.vidas.org) and the wonderful
team for the great work, and everybody who participated!
Here's a link to this wonderful story, please check it!

http://rapanimalrescue.org/wordpress/2008/10/sterilized-250-animals/

Cancun is in desperate need of an animal shelter

2008-09-13T06:56:00.000-07:00

Cancun animal shelter

2008-09-09T05:12:00.000-07:00

Cancun is in desperate need of an animal shelter. Please see how you can help. Visit
www.candiinternational.org.

2008-06-26T20:26:00.000-07:00

Please visit www.candiinternational.org
We are going to be in Cancun in July to prepare for the opening of the September 29th first spay/neuter clinic, filming a documentary.
GREAT NEWS!!!
the radio interview went really well and we won the Grand Prize !!! One year worth of IAMS dog food! Thank you The Pet Hour all the food will be donated to the Cancun Shelter to help feeding the 80 + dogs!
Thank you everybody who is joining CANDi facebook, soon 100 members !

2008-05-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

We are happy to announce that the story of Mullet our rescued dog will be part of a radio show on XM radio. The show is called "The Pet Hour".
Mullet's story is featured on this blog and you can watch the video for more info. Stay tuned for details with the dates and times of the show!

The beautiful story of "Kayman" and "Ky"

2008-05-25T05:42:00.000-07:00

While on vacation on the Island of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean, we came across two dogs. A mother and one of her puppies. They lived on the side of a busy road, under an abandoned trailer and were using a paint can for water that would only fill when it rained and was always tainted blue…
Mother dog was in need of food as she was suffering from malnutrition from nursing her litter, heartworm (which is eventually fatal) and had a gaping wound on one of her hind legs. The puppy seemed fine but was hungry and her stomach was swollen with intestinal worms. After a few days of feeding them and watering them, we inquired about the whereabouts of the rest of her litter. Some local residents at the end of the road casually told us that the rest of the puppies were hit by the traffic on the busy main road.
We decided then that these very gentle dogs needed some help, and that no matter what, we were not going to leave them there to starve or to get hit by another car or truck. The problem was … we already had two dogs at home ourselves…

It was then that we called Candi international for help (www.candiinternational.org).
Darci Galati, President and founder of the non profit organization right away contacted some people that she knew in the Caribbean that could have possibly helped and then later told us that the dogs would have the best chance if they were brought to her to Kelowna Canada.

After a whole day of re- organizing our flights, bringing the dogs to the vet for the necessary paperwork, and getting their passports ready, we were ready!
Mother and puppy were on an Airbus bound for Toronto Canada! (Obtaining a dog or cat’s travel documents for entering Canada is a lot easier than you would think).

After clearing customs and becoming new Canadian citizens in Toronto, Mother and Puppy spent the night with us in a pet friendly hotel and enjoyed room service followed by a well deserved rest.
Bright and early the next morning, we were all back at the airport for a four and a half hour flight to Kelowna to meet Darci with the dogs. We were attracting attention from everyone along our way. It seemed that everyone was curious to hear the story of these two beautiful rescued dogs!

Darci met us at the Kelowna airport, along with her three daughters and we spent a couple of days together with her family watching the kids play and care for the new dogs.
Darci (already a dog owner) assumed the task of putting notices in the local newspaper to find potential families to adopt the new dogs and also arranged vet appointments for them.
Puppy has since been adopted to a nice couple in the Kelowna area and mother dog is personally taken care of by Darci and her family. The dogs have been named “Kayman” and “Ky”.
Thanks go out to the many people who helped us in any way save these two dogs from certain death and endless litters of unwanted puppies.
For up to date news and progress of the two saved dogs and more stories, please visit
the “Candi international” group in facebook.

Congratulations Candi international!

2008-05-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

The first (of many!) cover story! Read about it in Facebook!

Find it under Candi international in groups!

The Story of "Desert"

2008-05-13T07:16:00.000-07:00

While on a rented camper vacation we spent the night in Kingman Arizona.

Bright and early the next morning as we pulled out of the campground, right across the street were some row houses and in front of one was a dog with a long chain dragging behind it.

The dog appeared to be wandering aimlessly. We drove over so we could take a closer look at what was happening with this dog. It was a large white dog weighing about 60 Lbs. At closer look, we noticed that she had a wound on the top of her head. We got out of the camper, cautiously at first and offered the dog some water considering the heat was already extreme. She swallowed it all down and asked for more. It was obvious that she had not had a drink for some time and we found it strange that there was no water bowl anywhere. One thing that did surprise us is that no one came out to see what we were doing. A few gallons of water later, we decided to knock on a few doors and see if anyone knew anything about this dog. To our surprise people literally slammed their doors on us when we inquired! Eventually an older lady told us that the owners had moved out about a week ago and left the dog tied up at the door and that the dog had been beaten.
It was ridiculous to think that no one watered or fed the poor thing during that time or did anything to help her. We put the dog into the camper, fed her and petted her. She was very gentle and loved the attention. Our 7 year old niece was with us and both were playing in the camper as we drove away. We stopped at a gas station and asked if there was a local shelter in town. When we got to the shelter, the staff told us that they would keep her a few days however because of her size and breed her chances were slim of being adopted and that she would be put down after a week. The thing is that this dog, despite of her size and breed was the most fun loving and gentle dog, considering her situation and the wound on her head that for sure came from a hit with a 2X4..
We could not take the dog with us (even though we really all wanted to) so we had to come up with a solution! We decided to stand at the entrance of the shelter and ask everyone that walked in if they wanted a dog! It was a long shot at best!

The universe does have its ways! The first lady that walked into the shelter stopped and started petting the dog. We told her the story and she said that she was coming to the shelter to find a dog that could keep her other dog company and that this seemed to be exactly the kind of dog she was looking for! She played with her for a while and then said that she would like to take her home. To make it official we told her that we would like to go through the adoption process at the shelter and that we would pay for half of the adoption costs. The lady agreed and it was done!The dog that we had called "Desert" for a few hours in the hot Arizona heat had found a new home and new friends.
To this day when we think of this story we cannot believe just how fast the Universe conspired and helped us all out to help this dog in need.

Wonderful news

2008-05-13T07:01:00.000-07:00

The date for the opening of the clinic in Cancun Mexico has be set! September 29th Candi international will start helping, spay and neuter for stray cats and dogs! We will be there and make a documentary of the event. It will be added to this blog! For more info, visit the Candi international website!

NEW MEMBERS

2008-05-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

We are happy to announce 12 new members on the Facebook group candi international!
Join us!

The awaited Story......of "Mama Dog" and Puppy

2008-05-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

New members on CANDI international

2008-05-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

We are proud to announce 16 new members on the CANDI international group of Facebook!
Spread the word!

GREAT NEWS! THIS IS EXCITING!

2008-05-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

You like this blog? You want to help animals? BE FIRST! You are invited to join a really cool group on Facebook where you can share your stories! We want to hear them, whether it is a rescue story or just sharing what you have seen on your travels! copy and paste this link when you are logged in or look for CANDI international on Facebook UNDER GROUPS!
Please join!

The week we met "Mother and Puppy"

2008-05-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

This is filmed the week we found them. "Mama Dog" as we started calling her, is a very gentle female. She had an infected wound on one of her hind legs and the little puppy had a swollen belly from the worms. Mama dog was malnourished and obviously shows signs of many litters...
After a few days of visiting the dogs, we inquired and some of the locals told us the rest of her puppies had all been hit by cars and trucks. They were drinking out of an old blue paint bucket that would fill up depending on rain. "Mama Dog" tested positive for heartworm but is being treated as we write this, and today they are both safe and live in British Columbia, Canada, thanks to a dear friend of ours.

It's cool to rescue animals!

2008-05-01T06:24:00.000-07:00

Did you know?
Simon Cowell Lends a Hand to Help Rescue Dogs

Simon Cowell and Fearne Cotton star as voiceovers on a powerful new RSPCA television advert which aims to raise more funds to help the charity carry out its vital work rescuing and rehoming needy animals.
.

2008-04-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

I'm sometimes asked, 'Why do you spend so much of your time and money talking about kindness to animals when there is so much cruelty to men?'

I answer, 'I am working at the roots.'

T. Angell,reformer (1823-1909)

2008-04-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

Immanuel Kant

Two very happy doggies

2008-04-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! This is a very cute video with sound! Please watch and see the mother and her puppy after a long flight from Grand Cayman to Canada finally unwind in the hotel room in Toronto... (Thank you Novotel for offering the pets welcome service!)

It was wonderful to see the little puppy playing with the mirror! Enjoy!

Rescue a dog!

2008-04-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

Rescue a dog today...have a friend for life!

Bringing them home...

2008-04-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

Talking about saving dogs ad cats...We found that on our way home from Grand Cayman with the dogs that people constantly stopped us to have a look inside the cage! When we told them that we were saving the dogs, bringing them back to Canada the people could not believe that we were doing that!
I guess most people think that its impossible and or that customs will stop them or whatever worst case senerio could be!
On the contrary! I remember with Mullet, in customs at Toronto Pearson, The officer asked if we could take Mullet out of his cage so that he could have a look at hime and pet him!
So the days of quarantine are long gone! Remember however that you must complete a little bit of paper work before you leave and that the pet needs a "passport" before leaving the Island. But you will find that most vets when they know that you are bringing the animal back that you are really saving them from misery and death so they usually do all that they can to get the animal ready for travel!
When we arrived at Kelowna B.C. while waiting for the dogs to arrive at baggage I was talking with a gentleman who wanting so badly to bring a puppy home with him and his wife and had to leave the little puppy there because they were sure that it was an impossible mission!
All this to say that...yes there are a few steps to follow if you are bringing back an animal from an Island but it is possible!
The first step is to go to a local vet and they will gladly help you and your new friend (s) and tell you everything you need to know. One very interesting point is that many of the Caribbean Islands are rabbies free! Yes! rabbies free! and Canada Customs know that!
We'll keep you posted for more info and please don't hesitate to contact us for more info!
Rob and Lydia

We did it again...

2008-04-25T18:08:00.000-07:00

Well yes, we did it again, we brought back two sweet friends from a vacation this time from the island of Grand Cayman. "Mama Dog" as we call her and "Puppy" took the airplane home with us and became Canadian Citizen! They are the sweetest doggies and deserve the good home they are in now...
We will tell you more about these beautiful dogs and more stories soon!