Pablo 

Amanda was on vacation in Havana when she spotted a black dog in Central Park who really looked terrible.  He was thin and listless and not very interested in eating.  She was alarmed, as the reason street dogs hang around the park is to get handouts from the tourists.  If he didn't want to eat, he might be very sick. 

Like lots of animal lovers, Amanda bonded instantly with the dog, and she began to think that it's not right an animal should be anonymous, so she gave him a name.  Pablo was her choice.  She called her vet back home and asked him if there was anything she could do for Pablo, given his circumstances and the fact that she soon had to fly back home to California.  She had a Cipro tablet with her, and the vet counseled her to give half of it to the dog, so she did.

Next, she talked to the concierge in the hotel, the Park Central, about finding a local vet to help the dog.  He told her the carriage horse drivers usually knew vets, and he was right.  Reynaldo, one of the drivers took her and the dog to a state run vet clinic where the vet examined Pablo and gave him more medicine.  All of this took place on a Saturday.  Amanda, who had to leave soon, tried to pay the vet to care for the dog, but he wouldn't take more than a small payment for the medicine.  He did promise to take him home and care for him and bring him back on Tuesday, so she agreed. 

Here the story gets a little confused—the vet said the understanding was that he was going to bring the dog to the clinic at 8:00 am on Monday, and Amanda understood Tuesday was the day.  It didn't help that Reynaldo was the only one who spoke a little English besides Amanda. 

Back at her hotel, she did a search for animal protection in Cuba and came up with a couple of possibilities.  The Aniplant Project (TAP) was one such contact, and we relayed the situation to Nora Garcia, Aniplant's President. 

Here's where it gets crazy.  The vet brought Pablo to the clinic on Monday morning, and, with no one there to pick up the dog, gave him to a person he did not even know.  Nora showed up on Tuesday morning, and all she got was the vet's story.

From a dog lover's standpoint, the vet was irresponsible in trusting the dog to someone he didn't even know and leaving Amanda and Nora with no path to trace his whereabouts.  From the vet's perspective, he was at the clinic at the right time and this was just some other tourist who may already have even left the country.  He had a clinic full of sick dogs to run.  From the dog's standpoint, the chances of his new custodian being a dog lover able to give Pablo a new home were slim to none.  He had a better chance of being abandoned again. 

I was injected into the middle of this polemic translating Amanda's questions to Nora and Nora's answers to Amanda.  Our best hope was that the stranger who received the dog really wanted him and that we could somehow find out who he was to resolve Amanda's anguish. 

If the dog was to be abandoned again, I was hoping it would be again near Central Park.  Dogs in that area know where to search for food and have many more tourists from whom to beg.  That seemed not too likely since abandonment is usually done without regard to the dog's needs.  Amanda had some photos which Nora reproduced and posted in likely spots, hoping someone had seen Pablo recently. 

Meanwhile the emails and phone calls continued.  I really felt sorry for Amanda not knowing how this animal could so completely be lost to her.  But it all came to a happy conclusion when on Sunday, eight days after being taken to the vet; an email arrived from Nora which said: 

We just found Pablo.  He's again in the same park in front of Amanda's hoetl where she found him.  Today I fed him as he is extremely thin.  Tomorrow we start treatment, and we are looking for a foster home.  I'm sending pictures. 

Nora 

All's well that ends well.  In later correspondence, Amanda decided that she wants to adopt Pablo and bring him to her home in California.  That's a long and very complicated procedure, but it has been done before with the help of friends at APAC Varadero, Air Transat and Candi International.  We'll cover that activity as it develops in these blogs. 

Les Inglis