Mario - our dog friend

Living in the streets can't be easy. There are several issues to deal with in Santiago that make things challenging:

1. The elements - rain, cold, wind, snow (or the opposite, just not so much at this time of the year when we are all grateful for some sun in the southern hemisphere ;o))
2. The cars - Santiago is a car jungle. From an outsider's perspective, the quality of life of the Santiaginos/as would  dramatically increase if they dealt with reducing the amount of traffic in the city significantly (smog, noise, stress, commute times, asthma and other pulmonary diseases etc)
3. The others - human beings can be (but often are not) very caring. The same applies to dogs. 

So let me explain... Santiago's streets are full of street dogs.

Many people here (and no doubt elsewhere) are under the impression that street dogs are perfectly content and happy. They are free to roam. People feed them so they are not hungry and they live happily in packs alongside human society.

Period...

Street dogs have very short lifespans. This means they DIE young (not necessarily quickly either). Most street dogs we have found are fairly large young dogs. This is because they are the ones that can defend themselves better against other dogs and also against humans that want to "have fun" by inflicting pain on others (before we all say how wrong that is and how evil those people must be, it is worth examining our own habits first... for example using shampoo tested on rabbits is also "having fun" at the expense of others and most people do this)

Street dogs are also often run over by cars (I am not kidding, it is so easy to get run over in this place, even knowing the traffic rules (still not sure there are any!)). This results in tonnes of dogs limping, with torn or deformed legs or worst just left to die by the side of the road or if they are lucky rescued by a friend like in the linked video.

The food and the elements... Some street dogs eat ok (especially the large young ones that look "cute" and healthy) but mostly, they eat rubbish. If we take the average human being's diet as a measure of the quality of
food a street dog gets, I am guessing: way too much salt, way too much sugar and too much fat (though this last one may not be such an issue if you are spending your nights in the freezing cold).

In short, it is not a rosy life.

Mario is small, sweet and not terribly confident. He is also a little old for a street dog: about 5 years.

He was found 2 days ago in a park. A few people were mistreating him. Natalia, a colleague of Ismael (our vegan couch surfing buddy and officially first chilean friend ;o)) rescued him. They are both vets and they looked after him for a night and then gave him a haircut (because his hair was very knotted and dirty). He also had a few thorns inside his paws (that he could not take out because his hair was so knotted)... :o(

This is not the kind of dog that does ok in a "street" environment. We adopted him on Saturday and he was terrified all day. He is VERY sweet and quite needy at the moment but his confidence has already improved a lot in 2 days!

He has some socialisation issues right now which we are working on and may even go to dog lessons to sort out (for example... he wants to attack all big dogs that he finds, especially if they come towards him and he particularly likes white golden retrievers.... no idea why but I guess he has been bitten before!). He is also extremely nervous when going for walks (almost crying at times) and he does not respond well to any shouting or telling off... again, he has clearly been mistreated by humans so gentle nudging and persistence seem to work much better with him.

He is making great progress: today he learned to sit down and where his place in the kitchen (and in the office) are. He is also very good at fetching :o)

We are looking forward to seeing him become his best very soon. Thanks Natalia for saving him!