ohmidog!

In a poor shanty town in Lima, Peru, a deaf and mute boy is helping dogs, and proving actions speak louder than words ever will.

According to this report, posted on Care2 by Rosemary Underhay, who works with Vida Digna, a Peruvian animal welfare association, they first noticed the boy in a line of people waiting to get medical care for their animals.

“In the line there was a small boy, deaf and unable to speak, who used sign language to tell us we needed to see something urgently,” she writes.

“He disappeared for a while and then returned with a small, cold, miserable puppy covered in an angry, itchy mange and with a nasty, festering wound caused by scalding water, probably thrown at him to scare him away from market stands.”

A veterinarian dressed the dog’s burns and treated his mange, and another resident volunteered to take the dog in until he recovered from his wounds.

Every week, the neighbor and the deaf boy were back in the line with the dog, named Milo, so his progress could be checked.

Two months later, as the program came to an end, Milo had completely recovered. By then, many were interested in adopting him. He now lives in a happy home, not far from the boy who helped him.

The boy, meanwhile, continued to bring in other strays in need of help, Vida Digna says.

“We always see him on our programs because he brings us strays. He wants us to give him an injection along with the dogs (the anti-mange injection), and the vet pretends to get ready an enormous syringe.”

Underhay said they don’t know if the boy is in school. Half of all school-age children there are not, because their parents cannot afford it.

“… We always try to make it clear to him that he is changing his world, by turning suffering into happiness,” Underhay wrote.

“We feel that the message is very strong, that people who are living permanently with those terrible constraints still want their animals to be well-cared for. People love their animals. The animals of the poor are often ill-cared for simply for lack of information and money. We teach above all, but provide services at prices most can pay for, even if only bit by bit. That is our work.”

Click this link to  make a donation to help provide care for the animals in Peru’s shanty towns.

(Photos: Care2.com)