PAWScostarica - The History

THE BEGINNING

They say love can move mountains, and it must be true, for I never in my life intended to write a blog... but my love for animals is so great, that I am being moved to do what I must do in order to make this project fly. If you are reading this you must know me and/or you must be interested in The Project (the animal welfare project here in Costa Rica). My goal is to connect with you, to let you know our progress, to get ideas, to give ideas if you are starting your own organization.

It really all started way before I got to Costa Rica. It started with the co-founder of PAWScostarica (Promotion of Animal Wellbeing Society), Andrea Mendez who, for many years before I arrived in Monteverde, had taken on the task of what is a community problem into her own hands. If a dog got run over, if someone dumped puppies, if a dog was starving or suffering, Andrea would get the call. This community is actually full of people who are doing amazing things for others, for conservation, education, etc. And many of these people have helped animals as well. But when as a newcomer I asked whom I should contact regarding the street animals, all hands pointed in Andrea's direction. So here I am, curious about this woman. Did she have unlimited time and resources to do this work?

I found Andrea working at La Pension Santa Elena, a safe haven for many dogs and cats. She was busy dealing with several tourists at one time, she looked up and smiled: "You must be Veronica", she uttered and motioned me to wait. I watched her. She was young, pretty, energetic, smart. Across the street was our meeting place, Chunches, the bookstore and only place in town where you can buy paper supplies, have lunch, use internet, and do laundry all in one! I learned she had a small baby, had no family around, was working part-time and her husband was in the United States. Her love for animals was tremendous. She COULD move mountains! I knew then, we had a partnership.

I went back to the States determined to come back. She said she could no longer do this alone.

My 5 year old son and I came back in August of 2008. By September there was our the first spay and neuter clinic (although there had been others in years past). We tried forming a Society or Foundation but the first took ten members' signatures and no matter how hard we tried, we could not come up with ten people to sign at the same time, the Foundation required a member from the government to be part, and we did not really know anyone in that position. Another animal welfare organization in Costa Rica recommended we form a Society (only required two people!), perfect! Andrea and I signed in November. We named it Sociedad para el Fomento del Bienestar Animal (we would have liked another name but some were taken already). In any case, the translation is great because my friend Jen Hiebert came up with the very catchy PAWScostarica acronym!

Later I will write about THE MIDDLE (and on a third blog I will tell you where we are now (building a website- here is where we could use your opinion).