CASE HISTORIES

Here a few stories — with and without happy ending — about our “clients”. Please click on the links below for details:

Night Mare

When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the Sherlock Holmes classic Hound of the Baskervilles he portrayed a giant satanic canine creature with glowing eyes that would tear out the throats of innocent travelers who traveled across the English Moors at night.

In the hills above the Hermosa area, about 10 minutes from Jacó Beach, the local residents have been suffering a somewhat similar situation for 2 years (except for that tearing out the throat thing). Stories persisted that a huge man-eating dog, the size of a horse, had been seen coming down out of its mountain lair terrorizing residents in the middle of the night, ripping through trash bags searching for food.

There were also reports where residents noticed that the giant beast had a broken leg. These, at least, were the local legends when McKee Project veterans Doris and Dieter decided to brave possible horrible, bloody deaths being ripped apart by this terrible creature and attempted to capture it alive.

An ingenious wooden box-trap was constructed the size of a small 1 car garage. The key trigger mechanism, custom designed by Dieter, would slam shut when activated by the animal. They soon realized that the creature they were dealing with had a higher level of intelligence than expected, as various other animals were being trapped in the “Monster Box”, but not the “Evil Devil Dog”.

It wasn’t until 6 weeks of traveling up into the hills twice daily, releasing the innocent animals trapped by mistake, when they finally succeeded. The captured giant dog has been named “Night” and turns out to be a pony-sized Great Dane that was bravely trying to survive on his own for over 2 years.

— by Mike Williams

Night is not an easy companion animal — living for 2 years on his own made him a shy and cautious dog, which doesn’t trust anybody. He loves Doris and Dieter, but definitely distrusts and is afraid of all other humans. He doesn’t have problems with other animals, he even adopted two little kittens just few days after he came to Doris’s and Dieter’s house — they were not bigger than the top of his nose then. Because of his past he will probably never be like other dogs — there will be always some distrust to people other than his rescuers. This is probably the main reason why Doris and Dieter decided to add Night to their own family.

Did you have similar experiences? Please Tell us your story.

Ninja’s Story

Ninja’s eyes were clouded over with sadness and pain. Liana didn’t know where he came from, but he found his way to her house. He curled up under a bush, and he wouldn’t eat or drink anything. He was terribly skinny, and one of his back legs was swollen, oozing a smelly green liquid. There were ticks and fleas crawling all over him, and he was missing a lot of fur — so much fur that we thought he had mange. It seemed like he was on his way out; he was even missing half of a canine tooth. He whined, asking for help. It was the last day of the Billabong World Surf Championships in Hermosa, and nothing could be done until morning. The road between Hermosa and Jaco was like a parking lot.

In the morning there was a glimmer of hope; he took the food and water offered to him. At the vet’s office, we found out that he was only about a year old. An x-ray was taken of his leg, and the results were puzzling. The ‘ankle’ bones were fused, and the bone above the ‘ankle’ was porous; it looked like a sea sponge with a lot of holes. Not even the specialist knew if it was bone cancer or an infection. Everyone wanted to see him get better, and the decision was made to amputate. But before the amputation could be done, another problem arose. There were crystals in his urine making it difficult for him to pee normally. It knocked us back to square one; if special food couldn’t cure the problem, he would have to be put to sleep. Thankfully, it worked. After three long weeks at the vet’s office, the doctors were able to amputate and Ninja was cleared to leave.

Ninja quickly adjusted to life on three legs. He is a survivor in every sense of the word. Even after his wounds healed, he overcame Ehrlichia (a disease passed on by ticks) and kennel cough before achieving a clean bill of health. Luckily, he does not have cancer. Ninja, who is friendly and full of energy, now lives with Liana in Hermosa—in the house he chose for himself. He is thankful to Doris for believing in him, and he is thankful to the McKee Project for saving his life.

Did you have similar experiences? Please Tell us your story.

The cat came back

In August a mature white and tabby cat appeared at our hotel. We had complaints from guests telling us that it was getting into their rooms and eating food and garbage. He was definitely very timid and ran whenever anyone approached. Since we already have adopted and socialized three feral cats we really didn't want another. We tried to chase him away, hoping he would decide it would be better to live elsewhere. Even our Weimaraner, "Mika" would chase it off the property but the cat persevered and we relented when we saw he was thin and malnourished. We started feeding him, thinking if we socialized him we could find him a home. One of the guests named the cat “Baz” and slowly, over many weeks he allowed us to touch him, he started showing up regularly at meal times and eventually even let me pick him up. We had him neutered and immunized and in December we took out an ad in el Chunche (with a picture) as well as contacting the McKee Project to try to find him a home.

The man who cleans our pool decided to take Baz for his father who lives in Palmares. They came to pick him up and we put him in a cat carrier we had borrowed from the vet. After saying our goodbyes they drove off at 10:00 a.m., with the cat carrier safely strapped into the back of their pick-up truck. That very same afternoon at 4 p.m. Baz was back. When I called to find out what happened I learned that the cat had sprung the door on the box and jumped from the moving pick-up truck. They got him as far as Punta Leona (11 kms from here) when he escaped (they last saw him at 11:00 a.m.). We can't believe he made it all the way back to the hotel in just 5 hours.

We have decided that we are his for better or worse. Life rarely gives you such a clear sign of what to do.

He is having some trouble adjusting to our other 3 gatos but they will work it out with time. The dog and Baz get along really well and he has turned out to be the most social of all our cats and interacts well with the guests. So now we have 4 cats and we just hope no others find us up here on top of the hill !

— by Jan Tilston, Hotel Vista Pacifico

Did you have similar experiences? Please Tell us your story.

Buddy

Even in real life sometimes there is a happy ending. Just ask Buddy. Buddy is probably about 10 or 11 years old, looks like he has some Chow in him, and has way too much fur to be a beach dog. But beach dog he is. He loves the ocean and runs along the sand, in and out of the sea. Buddy has a problem — he is terrified of thunder and fireworks. So for 4 months of the year he is the perfect dog. Well mannered, obedient, stays at home to guard the house. Thunder, however, sends him into a panic — he chooses flight over fight and off he goes. Problem is, Buddy will go into any house with an open door and get under the first bed he finds. When the surprised owner of the home tries to oust him he does some aggressive posturing — never actually bites anyone, but makes it known that he is not about to move. You can imagine how disconcerting this can be for someone to have this hairy wolf-like beast move in.

Well, Buddy's former owner of many years left the country and left him behind. He somehow ended up in Esterillos Oeste and wandered around town looking for someone to love him. One day he ended up my rental house — the tenants called and said there was a dog there who wouldn't leave. I went to check it out and there was my introduction to Buddy. He had on a collar so I took him home with me thinking I could find out who he belonged to. No luck. A friend drove him around town in his golf cart hoping to find someone who knew or wanted Buddy.

Soon after I had to leave for Canada and Buddy was a wanderer once more. He became quite famous in Oeste — ejected from home after home with brooms and hoses — and all he wanted was to be loved! He ended up in a foster home through the McKee project (thank you McKee, for all the animals you save!) but somehow landed in Bejuco, once again looking for someone to love. A friend of mine found him — or I should say he found a friend of mine! — he had a badly infected foot and she had it treated. But she was moving in a short time and couldn't take Buddy, so back he went to McKee and a foster home.

I don't know how he got here, but one day there was Buddy walking up my driveway. I became his foster home while he was put up for adoption once again by McKee. It's not easy to find a home for an older dog and the longer he was with us the fonder we became of him. McKee provided us with some doggy tranquilizers that got us through Xmas and New Year’s fireworks. Thanks again McKee! The real life happy ending is that my daughter, who goes running every morning with Buddy, has said that she will co-own Buddy with me and we have decided to keep him. Buddy finally has a home. And we are waiting for the first clap of thunder…

— by Eleanor Rogers

Did you have similar experiences? Please Tell us your story.

Socks, the retired adventurer

Socks the cat is a tomboy who loves play time and mischief. She was taken in by Sylvia van Baekel as an abandoned kitten and quickly became a beloved part of the family. When Socks was a little less than two years old, she and her human family moved from Jacó to Herradura, which is about seven km by car. Socks enjoyed the move because she had more freedom. In Herradura there was more property to roam around at night and more things to hunt.

Feeling rambunctious one day, Socks played and played with the Christmas decorations that Sylvia was trying to put up. In fact, she had so much fun with the decorations that she was kicked out of the house. Sylvia expected Socks to find a quite place for a nap and come home in the evening, but Socks had a different plan—an epic journey. We’ll never know what caused Socks to begin her trek that day. There was some construction going on around the house, and perhaps she didn’t like all the extra noise. Maybe she wanted to explore the land farther from her house. Maybe she wanted to visit her old stomping grounds. Who knows? But that is exactly what she did. Socks traveled all the way back to her previous home in Jacó.

After Socks had been gone for about a month, Sylvia lost hope and finally gave all of Socks’ toys away. However, the very next day Sylvia received an important phone call. Socks had been found, and she was essentially unharmed. She had survived snakes, cars, power lines, dogs, and who knows what else! Her only wounds were minor scratches and a few small burn marks. She was skinny but alive and happy to see familiar faces. She was so happy that she didn’t even protest during the car ride back to Herradura, and car rides are not one of her favorite things.

Since her adventure, Socks has settled down a bit. She still loves to play, but now she stays close to home. Socks is content to keep Sylvia in sight and cat food in her belly.

Did you have similar experiences? Please Tell us your story.