LivingInPatagonia.com

Three Points for Humankind

Written by Shanie

It has been a bewildering and sad last few days…but in some ways it has been a time of renewed faith in humanity.

Suerte, our three year old German Shepard, has become ill and we can’t figure out why. Our super strong, always-ready-to-get-some pup went from Wednesday having one of his best hikes to Sunday being melancholy, chatontanic at times.

We called the vet that we worked with recently on dealing with Bergen’s tumor. He met us at his clinic at 10 p.m., Sunday night. Although he was as dumbfounded as us, he gave Suerte a supplement to assist his fever and overall feeling of being ill. He said he didn’t want any money and we can pay when we figured out what was going on.

Suerte had a hard night and we were back to the vet the following day. With x-rays the doctor discovered he had congested lungs and put him on an anti-biotic, although Dr. Spoturno wasn’t convinced that it was caused by a bacteria or viral infection. He felt that at this stage in the game it blood work wasn’t needed. Although my gut was saying we should my head was reeling from the long last few days and no sleep. I agreed with the doctor and we left. We decided to venture across the street and discuss the situation with the herbalist we had chanced upon meeting when doing our treasure hunt for Bergen’s new anti-cancer diet.

Martin, the herbalist guru, was incredibly helpful. He and his son created worthwhile herbal tinctures that I feel, from past experience, will really help Suerte. While in the shop I brought up with the final issue we were having with Bergen’s new diet plan — a product that cost $600 dollars for a four month supply (not to mention shipping costs and the fact that there was a chance it would never make it to Argentina). I told him the base ingredients of the product. Martin disappeared into his back room. Fifteen minutes later he returned with a smile and glisten in his eye. He could reproduce the product and, in his opinion, make it better.

“Dale, entonces!”

Suerte and Bergen’s elixirs came to a whopping 25 pesos.

The following day Suerte seemed a little more with it but was having periods of laying motionless with his jaw slack and tongue sticking out. In response to my Facebook status comment a friend gave us a call. Her intelligence and forwardness helped bring me out of my grief to realize we should go get another opinion. Or at least blood and urine work.

Those three acts of kindness — our first vets ability to help late on a Sunday night with a kind and loving demeanor, our herbalist helping us find an equivalent to a drug at a fraction of the cost, and a friend that doesn’t know our canine kids but took the time to help us see the light — help me know that there are good people in the world.

Suerte enjoying himself last summer, deep in the Andes.