Luna rescued from the street.

By Ananda Villares

HAVANA TIMES – Luna suddenly appeared at the Zone 13 market in Alamar, East Havana. From the first time I saw her, I knew she was a special soul. I knew she had once had a home, an owner to whom she had devoted herself, and that loss lingered deep in her eyes. You could see it in the way she moved, in her inability to adapt to that inhospitable, sometimes brutal environment.

Caught up in my own struggle for survival, I couldn’t see any way to help her.

One day, as I was crossing the market on my way to the bus stop, I heard some heart-rending yelps and saw a large black dog mounting and dragging her, while a pack of dogs of all sizes and ages followed them, fighting among themselves.

I froze and began to cry. With no way to defend her, I left, but those cries stayed in my ears for the rest of the day.

I asked two women who lived in the area whether they could help, but neither could keep her at home while she was in heat.

I also had two male dogs. One was already neutered; the other was very timid, and I thought I could control him. I also have cats. I didn’t know whether she would attack them. But I took the risk.

I coordinated with an animal rescuer and, together with my husband, went to rescue her. I knew that one of the neighbors fed her whenever the black dog, who never left her side, fell asleep. She told me Luna would barely accept a few bites directly from her hand and always seemed exhausted and frightened.

The mating cycle for a female dog living on the street is cruel. If they are small, they can end up with uterine tears that cause them suffering for the rest of their lives. Sometimes they contract TVT (a sexually transmitted disease), and although these cases can usually be treated in our country, the medications are difficult to obtain and there is widespread lack of knowledge about the condition.

Fortunately, Luna was medium-sized and strongly built. Nevertheless, she was trapped in an abusive relationship: the black dog defended her from the pack following her, claiming her as his possession. She, meanwhile, was his slave, completely submissive. The fights among the dogs and the daily mating were scenes I saw men watching with morbid curiosity, as though they were watching a porn movie in which violence and force prevail over will and autonomy.

Who knows whether it was some instinctive form of revenge for their own misery and powerlessness in a society that ignores their rights as citizens.

The rescue was easy despite the presence of the black dog because he obviously didn’t trust humans and fled when he saw us. Luna looked at us fearfully and also tried to run away. My husband stopped her and lifted her off the ground, but she resisted going with us. Then a man appeared and began petting her and speaking affectionately to her. He said something like, “Go with them. They only want to help you. They’re not going to hurt you.” Although I didn’t know him, perhaps he knew that we were animal rescuers.

She calmed down and, finally, we were able to take her away from that scene of constant suffering.

The photo of Luna in my husband’s arms represents her second birth.

Luna

With no room in my apartment to accommodate her, I made her a little nest on the balcony, praying that it wouldn’t rain over the next few days.

Once she understood that she was no longer being harassed because she was in heat, she ate ravenously and surrendered to sleep.

Sometimes she had nightmares and whimpered, moving her paws in distress. I would wake her with caresses and tender words. Her first reaction was always to expect an attack, but once she realized where she was, she would fall asleep again. The tension in her body, the terror in her eyes each time she awoke, the traces of blood on her back mixed with semen, and the beginnings of mange were also the ravages of her time in heat.

Fortunately, a young woman in the El Cerro neighborhood responded to my request on Facebook and, although she lived in a rented apartment, offered it as a temporary foster home.

Luna’s trip there on a motorcycle, thanks to the help of an animal rescuer, was when she received that name—and another lasting love.

Leidy, her foster caregiver, treated her skin condition, and a genuine friendship developed between them. She told me that one day she threw a party and all her friends were fascinated by Luna and her gentle aura of goodness.

Another animal rescuer managed to get Luna included in a free spay-and-neuter campaign.

I was supposed to meet her at the house in Vedado where the event was being held. I remember getting out of the taxi and spotting Luna on the street, wearing a harness and leash and being led by my friend Gilda. How happy she was to see me, how she ran toward me showering me with affection! That memory of gratitude in which a canine heart makes room for every face that has been truly humane. A place that never becomes mixed up or confused with another because, to her soul, it is sacred.

The hysterectomy revealed that she was pregnant, carrying five fetuses whose development unfortunately could not be allowed to continue in a situation where there are too few adoptions and pets are constantly being abandoned. Because of the economic crisis and the relentless exodus, finding people willing to take responsible care of an animal is becoming increasingly difficult.

Good animal rescuers know this and suffer through it every day.

I posted Luna’s story on my Facebook profile, trusting that several adoption offers would emerge so I could choose the best one.

However, only one person wrote to me.

She was a woman living in Guanajay, a place far from central Havana, which would make it very difficult to properly follow up on the adoption process.

I had no references for her, only what she told me.

Nevertheless, her interest in Luna seemed sincere. She told me she had a male dog and didn’t want him to be alone during the hours when she was away. She sent me photos.

All I could do was trust my intuition. I was consumed by my concern for Luna, as was Leidy, her foster caregiver, who had grown very attached to her but didn’t even have an apartment of her own.

Several weeks had passed since the surgery, and I decided to take the final step. I asked a Cuban living abroad who supported independent animal rescuers for help paying for the trip. At the time, I found a private taxi driver willing to take us there and back for 4,000 pesos, including a brief wait. Today, the one-way trip alone would cost twice that much, or more.

I still remember that day with confused and conflicting emotions: Leidy, Luna, and I in that car, only half aware that we were saying goodbye.

Because you trust that love can sweep away every obstacle.

The driver told me that a few days earlier he had taken a little dog to be adopted, but it had escaped and gotten lost. My stomach lurched, but I quickly pulled myself together. That wouldn’t happen to Luna. I had strongly emphasized that risk to the adopter, and she had assured me that her home was secure.

When we arrived, Arabelly, the adopter, welcomed us enthusiastically. Her dog immediately accepted Luna as well, and within a few minutes they were already playing together.

Everything was going beautifully, and Leidy and I realized, with heavy hearts, that it was time to leave because every additional minute increased the cost of the trip.

We stroked Luna without telling her that we were going far away. Perhaps not far by the standards of the developed world, designed around freedom of movement, but far in the reality of this island, where getting from one place to another is extremely expensive.

We didn’t know that everything here would get worse, and we promised ourselves we would return very soon.

Fortunately, Luna became the queen of the only home fate offered her. She didn’t need another.

Everything worked out perfectly. She is at the center of Arabelly’s love, and over time Arabelly has adopted other pets because, as a sensitive person, she cannot remain indifferent to so many cases of abandonment and suffering.

Luna with her new friend.

In every video, Luna radiates complete happiness. And Leidy and I still hope to make that long-awaited visit and have her recognize us, searching through her faithful, precise memory, where every caress, every morsel of food she was given, every tender word lies protected by her angelic soul, whose loyalty surpasses that of human beings.

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