La Perra de San Antonio

I saw her four days ago on San Jacinto and Martin, here on the westside. She was crossing a tiendita filled with men drinking outside. I followed La Perra as she crossed the street to the creek below where a couple of homeless men have their mattresses. She let me touch her, and ate just a little wet food, wagged her tail, and left.

If I take her to the Dog Pound she will be put down because there are 100,000 stray dogs already in San Antonio.

Today, Sunday, she ate a little barbacoa. She could barely walk. Neither the Alamo nor the Riverwalk is the true symbol of San Antonio, it's dogs like this that roam the city.
So many of the people in my neighborhood are working-class, and they don't believe in taking
care of animals when they are hurting to take care of themselves.

Son criaturas de Dios, my father told me. Animals are divine, my father taught me. They are angels, and they carry messages from God to us.
San Antonio is a beautiful city, but equally poor and struggling. This is San Antonio. Take a good look. Because it's gonna get worse.
A mile from the Riverwalk.

Comments

Unknown said…

So sad an the new ordinance make s pet registrtion $50.00 per pet.

9:38 PM

Unknown said…

Mi Santa Barbarita! Aquí, allá, en todo lugar. Cómo me enseñaste: Qué Chingaos hacemos? Por qué es tan dificil encontrar el equilibrio?

10:12 PM

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