The Animal Shelter is located at Hidalgo # 212 in Riberas del Pilar. Their phone # is 765-5514.

Geoffrey Kaye, longtime resident and owner of the shelter, is truly a pillar of the community. All proceeds from products sold at the shelter to back into food and caring for the many cats and dogs he gives homes to until they can be adopted.

The shelter is connected to the Ladron Veterinarian Clinic. Both Antonio and Hector Ladron are excellent vets and have looked after our animals with care and kindness for 16 years.

The shelter sells all makes and manner of animal food and supplies at very competitive prices and has a wonderful facility for cats and dogs with many caring volunteers to look after them. One of the great things that Geoffrey organizes is having the children from various orphanages in Ajijic, Lake Chapala come to the shelter to walk and play with the dogs and cats. This is an activity that is enjoyed by the kids and the animals alike.

You can imagine our surprise, then, when on Monday of this week, we received an email saying the shelter was in danger of being closed as one person had 8 signatures to protest the noise from the dog shelter.

Four government officials arrived at the door of the shelter and threatened to remove all dogs on the spot and euthanize them (more…)

Recently, Mickey Rourke won a Golden Globe for his role in The Wrestler. None of us have seen or heard of Rourke in a very long time. As it turns out he is a dog lover and although one might expect him to have a Rottweiler o pit bull the love of his life is his Chihuahua, Loki. Evidently, he says, he has made a significant role in his comeback, and seemingly, in his survival during some rather dark days. In an interview in November 2008 he said of Loki: “She is like a giant Xanax. Rourke truly believes God created dogs for a reason and that they are the greatest companions a man could have.

We too, here in Ajijic, Lake Chapala, are dog lovers. Of course, we had dogs growing up in Canada but somehow they were never the best friends and givers of unconditional love that they are to us now.

Our transition to Ajijic, Lake Chapala was difficult for our children who were 10 and 12.
The first house I found for us to rent in the village of Ajijic came with a mother dog who had just had 6 puppies. The owners of the house had let this stray Doberman/lab have her puppies in their garage and did not want her disturbed until the puppies were old enough to be farmed out to loving homes. (more…)