Give Nala and Her Puppies a Brighter Future

Meet Nala and her 8 puppies.

For those of you who don't know Nala's story, she first appeared in our yard as soon as we moved into our house in Puerto Rico. Soon we learned that she belonged to our neighbors and lives only on their small balcony with another big dog. We had no idea how she was getting into our fully enclosed yard, but eventually caught her jumping off the balcony and falling down the trees to get to us.

Later we got chickens and regularly lost some to Nala including the great Thanksgiving Day massacre of 2023. Its hard to be too mad at her since she is otherwise very sweet and clearly very hungry. This was an example of an occasion the dogs were left alone while the family was gone for several days. We've tried many times to help the neighbors and to build barriers to keep Nala out of our yard and off the streets, but their culture is just different from ours and Nala was determined to get to our yard. At one point they asked if we want her and if it weren't for the chickens we would have taken her.

Recently we noticed that Nala was pregnant. The owners were none too happy about this. Wednesday morning I heard whimpering and went to check the balcony. I did not see Nala and that was because she had come to our yard to give birth. She was in her safe space with her babies.

Our neighbors were not home and when they arrived we let them know that she was here with what was first 6 babies, then became 8! They said they would come get them out of our yard, but Joe and I and Nala know they will be much better staying here. The neighbors are perfectly happy with that plan.

So here we are with 8 babies, one very sweet mama and a lot of work ahead of us to ween them, vet them and fly them to the states to happy homes. Someone suggested a Go Fund Me page. I started adding up the costs and decided to create this for anyone who wants to help AND anyone who wants to adopt a teeny pup (sato as the street dogs are referred to here) or a very sweet blue and brown eyed momma who really deserves her very own home to officially get off that balcony for good.

Here are some expected expenses for this sweet dog family. I imagine there will be other medicine and miscellaneous expenses as well, so I rounded up to $5000.

Puppy food $25 x 3 = $75

Plane ticket $150 x 8 = $1200

Pet carriers $40 x 8 = $320

Vet Visit 1 $125 x 9 = $1125

Vet visit 2 $125 x 9 = $1125

Spay $100 = $100

Fly big dog $500 = $500

Big Dog Plane Carrier $175 = $175

Nala thanks you.