By Alberto Fajardo
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Running around on his new prosthetic legs, a Mexican pup once tortured by criminal groups is now living the dog dream, adored by his adopted caretakers and even a finalist for the title of America’s favorite pet.
Rescued as a one-year-old with his front limbs destroyed, Pay de Limon (Lemon Pie) found much-needed love at the Milagros Caninos sanctuary, a shelter south of Mexico City, which says he is thriving 12 years later.
“He is a survivor of human cruelty and organized crime groups,” Patricia Ruiz, founder of Milagros Caninos, told Reuters. “He doesn’t hold a grudge against anyone. Humans hold grudges. Dogs don’t.”
Found abandoned in a dumpster in Mexico’s central Zacatecas state, a hotbed for cartels and organized crime, Lemon Pie was later transported to the safety of the shelter in the capital.
Now, he is ready to take a shot in the online contest for Americans’ most dashing dog, albeit a non-native contestant. The contest, America’s Favorite Pet, is open to pets on the American continent and runs as part of a charity fundraiser.
The contest’s winner, to be announced in March, will secure a $5,000 cash prize and get the chance to model in a two-page spread in Dogster magazine.
Ruiz says the dog’s journey teaches “all of us to say ‘yes you can’, to say ‘yes to life’, despite everything. No matter what happens to you.”
(Reporting by Alberto Fajardo, Writing by Isabel Woodford and Raúl Cortés Fernández, Editing by Ana Isabel Martinez and Sandra Maler)
