Human Entrant's First Name
Emily

City
Asheville

My Pet Came From:
Other

Pet's Story
Sisa was born on the streets of Ecuador in a tiny village. When I adopted her, I was 8 months into my 27-month Peace Corps service in an Indigenous village of 200 people in the jungle. Sisa's mom was an extremely sickly street dog, and while I'm not sure how many puppies were in Sisa’s litter, only Sisa and her brother survived. My friend, another Peace Corps volunteer who lived 3 hours from me in the village where Sisa was born, noticed that Sisa, who was the runt, was wasting away and slowly dying. She begged me to take her in. Although I wasn't prepared for a dog, I agreed. At around 4 months old, Sisa was severely emaciated and weighed only 2.5 pounds. She had a badly infected wound on her head, tapeworms, roundworms, fleas, hundreds of ticks, mange, and bones that were so soft from malnutrition that she broke her leg not long after I took her in. I named her "Sacha Sisa", two traditional Kichwa (the language of my Indigenous community) girls' names, which means "Jungle Flower".

It was a long journey to healing for Sisa. We spent many hours on the hot public buses going into the city for vet care. Sometimes I'd get kicked off the bus in the middle of the jungle when I would refuse to put Sisa under the bus, and other times we'd have to pay a motorcyclist to take us. After her casted broken leg became infected due to the humidity in the jungle, she almost lost her leg when the vet had to cut out pieces while Sisa was sedated (there was no anesthesia available). She suffered with tapeworms for many months and was infected so severely that tapeworms would crawl out while we were sitting on the bus as well as in my bed. When I finally got Sisa spayed, she lost so much blood that she almost died, and I spent weeks buying fresh chicken liver from the market for her to cook into soup in the hopes of nursing her back to health. She was also allergic to the sutures used and had open sores on her stomach for months. It was during this time that Sisa's brother, who my friend had adopted, was poisoned and died. As I watched my community periodically put out poison to kill the many street dogs, I prayed that Sisa would survive to leave Ecuador.

For anyone not familiar with the Peace Corps - I served as a Natural Resource Conservation volunteer for 27 months. I was the first foreigner in my community and integrating into a conservative culture where a very difficult Indigenous language (Kichwa) was the primary language spoken proved tremendously difficult. I was extremely ill for at least the first 6 months and I struggled with how to handle the severe animal abuse and domestic violence around me as well as a level of poverty I had never before experienced. To say that Sisa coming into my life was "meant to be" is an understatement - I truly believe she is the reason I survived (and excelled) during my Peace Corps service as she provided comic relief and love (in the way that only a dog can) every day. Sisa also taught the children and youth of my community about kindness to animals – and by the time I left, my young host niece, who had previously stomped on Sisa and laughed when Sisa first came to live with me, was petting Sisa gently and feeding her treats.

The time finally came to return to the US, and Sisa traveled on my lap wearing an Ecuador soccer jersey (as it was World Cup season). After hundreds of hot, noisy bus rides through the Andes mountains, Sisa was accustomed to riding quietly on my lap. Back in the US, Sisa struggled at first with meeting new people, as she was accustomed to being kicked and sometimes hit by strangers on the street. However, she adjusted well, and we soon traveled south for a job at Asheville Humane Society.

Since that move almost 4.5 years ago, Sisa has brought laughter to coworkers and volunteers at AHS alike as our office dog. She is notorious for stealing food off desks, opening cabinets in search of treats, and begging in the break room. Even more importantly, Sisa has helped me foster many animals, several of which would not have been adoptable without Sisa’s help in teaching them how to be dogs again.

There are so many animals who, like Sisa, need a second chance at a happy life. There are so many people who, just like me, have a pet who means the world to them and yet who struggle with poverty or crisis that make accessing care for that pet difficult at times. By voting for Sisa, you can ensure that homeless animals like Sisa get a chance at a happy ending and that people who love their pets have the opportunity to keep those pets with them through hard times when they need that pet's support the most.