Inspire

Dear Dr. Messer I have a wonderful little Boston Terrier/French Bulldog cross ... More

The loss of a dog

Two animal aid agencies combine forces to help dogs in a remote Canadian town

The veterinary team I joined here two days ago has almost completed the vaccine and neuter clinics for this visit and has just started spaying the females. My jaw drops as I enter our makeshift surgery room—it looks like something out of a war movie: tin-covered walls, a dusty floor, poor lighting, and no central heat. Benita, a local villager who has been hired to translate for us, takes patient histories and helps the villagers sign consent forms.

Editor-in-Chief Connie Wilson captures candid shots in this northern community

When a little boy named Leo came home from school, he couldn’t stop talking about the wonderful Border Collie that had visited his class that day. Despite being blind, Riddle could run and play and even fetch.

When Genevieve Montcombroux was growing up in Paris, she dreamed of living in Canada’s North. Some called it a childhood fantasy, but at the age of 10, Montcombroux knew it would happen the moment she picked up Boreal, a book by French ethnologist and explorer Paul-Emile Victor.

Michael had spent his entire life at the end of a chain. Now 16, the Spaniel-cross caught the eye of someone who felt sorry for him and took him home, but couldn’t manage his care. He had a massive tumour on his back-end; was totally crippled with arthritis; had end-stage cardiac disease and a grade 6 heart murmur.

Cape Town is a beautiful city. Ringed by a flat-topped rise called Table Mountain, Arcadian wine country, and a wide open sea that stretches to Antarctica, it’s a favourite of European vacationers and draws comparisons to San Francisco. The drive from the airport into town, however, isn’t pretty. The N2 highway runs along a length of one of the ugliest stretches of the city: the township or informal settlement called Khayelitsha.

Before my bags are unpacked, I have fallen in love with Jack. I’m not surprised, really. I knew as I was preparing for my trip to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, location of the National Geographic Channel’s DogTown, that I would want to scoop some new pals to add to my ever-expanding ark. Somewhat aloof, Jack only warms up to me after the second sweet potato snack. Admittedly larger than most animals I have approached in the “can-I-be-your-friend” crouch, he is nonetheless dainty as he takes the rumpled chew from my hand. The fact that people who eat with boorish abandon are called “pigs” strikes me as ironic when I look at Jack. For, though one of the sanctuary’s 21 pot-bellied residents, Jack’s polite manners exude all things gentleman. I quickly suspect similar epiphanies might end up being a theme over the next few days. After all, this place breathes transformative magic.