Walk Down Memory Lane
by Syd Sullins
In August, I had the very special opportunity to transport five dogs to the Animal Protection Society of Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington. Our relationship with this rescue is very special to both Carolyn and I.
When The Ranch first began our odyssey of transporting dogs to the United States six years ago, Friday Harbor was our first partnership. We were blessed to have an agent on the ground, Janet Gray. Janet had lived in Ajijic for several years and volunteered at The Ranch. When she relocated to the beautiful San Juan Islands, she began volunteering at the APSFH. Those of us at The Ranch were pondering ideas on how to increase adoptions and began talking about working with shelters north of the border. About that same time, I received an email from Janet proposing a relationship. It all seemed too good to be true.
We started searching for a flight angel, which ended up being surprisingly easy, and we began talking about which dogs should go. For me, it was a no brainer. My very first Ranch crush was Hector. This dog was approximately five-years old and had been found tied to our fence in January of 2014. He might have been a dog that some people wouldn’t immediately appreciate (his left ear stood straight up, and his right ear had been nearly torn off and flopped down, and he had terrible scarring on his face from an earlier attack) but he was such a sweet, gentle dog that it was difficult not to love him. So my vote was for Hector. We also had a very sweet one year old girl named Luna. Luna had been rescued by Gladys and Elvis Stoyko who were living in the Lake Chapala area at the time. Gladys had found Luna as an emaciated little puppy in Guadalajara and took her home and nursed her back to health. Unfortunately, they were moving back to Canada and Luna needed a safe place, so she came to The Ranch. After careful consideration, we decided to only send these two dogs - we needed to make sure this crazy idea would really work!
I don’t know as any of our volunteers working on this project got any sleep the night of July 12, 2016. We were waiting anxiously to hear that the dogs made it off the plane, then the dogs had another two hour drive to get to the Friday Harbor ferry, and a night in the car until the first ferry ran at 4:00 a.m. But everyone survived - including Janet and Jan Murphy, then manager of the APSFH. And the best news of all, Hector and Luna were adopted within a week!
n the five years since then, we estimate we’ve sent approximately 100 dogs to Friday Harbor. While I was driving down the street and I’d see a dog that looked somewhat familiar, I was tempted to roll down the window and yell “where did you get that dog?”. But I was fortunate enough to be able to meet with the families of five of our lucky Ranch dogs, including Hector and Luna!
Here are their stories:
Hector’s adopted father, Paul, related to me that he had a very close connection to Ajijic. His parents, sister and one of his daughters had all lived here. All had passed away a few years before he adopted Hector. Paul and his wife were dealing with yet another loss about the time Hector flew up, they had lost their well loved family dog. He felt that a dog from Ajijic was meant to be in their home. Hector is now a senior citizen but is obviously one happy and well loved boy. He is very bonded to Paul, but I’m told he is just as much in love with his mom. In Paul’s words, Hector saved them. And needless to say, my Ranch crush had totally forgotten about me.
Luna found her forever home with Tracy and she is a well loved, healthy girl. Seems like many of the dogs on Friday Harbor are fortunately able to tag along with their parents to work and most people living their love to be outside whenever possible and appreciate the beautify of this island…and their dogs share this joy. Luna is no exception. She goes for a nice walk with Tracy every morning before work and then hangs out in Tracy’s office. She’s a beautiful girl and has come a long way from the scared, skinny puppy rescued from Guadalajara.
Besides these two special dogs, I was able to catch up with three dogs who had made their way to Friday Harbor more recently. Beautiful Zorro, formerly known as Indigo, flew up in 2017. He currently makes his home with Connie and Jose. I was fortunate enough to take this beautiful boy on a hike and he was such a joy. He is just a sweet, gentle boy and loves to be a best friend to other dogs and cats. Connie’s face just glows when she poses with him.
Another lucky dog that flew up in 2017 was our Bubbles, now known at Blue. She came to the Ranch on Valentines Day 2017 when she was only three weeks old along with her mother Valentina and six litter mates. There was not a lot of work that got done at The Ranch about that time as all the Ranch hands were busy spoiling that beautiful family. Valentina ended up with Janet Gray and little Bubbles was lucky enough to find herself in a home with Maude and Bill, who gave him a much more regal name. I met Maude with Blue to take him for a walk. Maude and Blue couldn’t resist showing off all his skills, including playing dead when she says “bang”
The most recent arrival that I met was our Abbie, now known as Pepita. This dog has THE life. Her property backs up to the bay and Pepita has proven to be quite the island dog. She loves kayaking and paddle boarding. When it’s low tide, she like to wade around in the muck of the bay. Often she will catch herring and take them to the neighbors. Needless to say, this dog receives frequent baths! She’s come a long way from when we found her last February in the middle of the busy carretera!
So that’s a summary of my trip to Friday Harbor. It really was a heart happy moment every time I reunited with one of our former Ranch dogs. One thing of which I’m certain - NONE of them wanted to catch the flight home with me.