Meet Sheriff Bobby: Guardian of our Wellness Center

If you’ve ever been to San Juan de Lurigancho, Peru, you probably noticed the huge issue that we have with stray dogs and cats roaming the streets. As someone who lives here and as an animal lover, it’s hard to not bring every single one back to my two bedroom apartment. This was particularly true for a dog I met while building our Wellness Center in San Antonio de Padua.

This incredibly sweet and loving dog started showing up whenever we held building days in his community. He greeted all of our students with a wagging tail and hung around our group while we worked. He followed me around anytime I was walking through his community, looking out for me, like a four-legged bodyguard. One of our scholarship students talked about taking him home but we were told that he belonged to one of the neighbors.

For more than a year I continued to see him consistently, that was until I came back from an extended stay in the states and noticed that he seemed to have lost a lot of weight. I investigated and discovered that the family taking care of this dog had to leave the area and couldn’t take him with them. They also told me that he spent his nights sleeping on one of the tarps outside of our building. My heart broke and I immediately left to buy him some dog food. He followed me (as if he knew) and when I got there he hopped up into the window of the store wagging his tail excitedly (photos above). When he saw the food he began to jump and skip around.

As director of our animal outreach I decided to bring this precious dog on as our official Wellness Center mascot. We bought him a supply of food, bowls, a sweater, tick and flea medicine, treats, and we even plan to put a little dog house up! Our Marketing Director, Enessa, heard about him and couldn't resist but sponsor this adorable pup, paying for his food and medical care going forward. She even got to meet him last week and go shopping for him.

How did he get his name? Some of our students had been calling him Bobby, but I wanted to give him a title that spoke to how he took care of us. Thus I came up with this sweet little guard dog's name: Sheriff Bobby. Welcome to the Make a Miracle family! We love you mucho!

Make a Miracle believes animal care is a part of community wellness. For more information or to donate to our "Paws of Lima" program visit makeamiracle.net.