Dear Barb,

I cannot agree more with you and Branka and Myrna on your love for innocent animals. They are the same as children in almost all respects. Not always have I felt like this, but since I became a vegetarian about thirty years ago, my love for them grew and my compassion for them too. I can perfectly understand your crusade against the cruelty with chickens. They are so cruelly raised and killed in my country too. 

I have also fed the pigeons in my neighborhood for the last fifteen years or so from my bedroom window. They belong to a house across the street where they have apparently never been fed at all or, at least, never have by the last and current neighbors there. I do it every Wednesday and Sunday at 6 am. Unfortunately I cannot do it every day. Those poor birds have to feed on their own all other days.

There are many stray dogs in my city too. Most of them have been abandoned by their owners after they got tired of them, I suppose. I cannot understand how those people could be so cruel with those poor things. They are like children to me. Two of my three doggies I rescued from the streets, one of them, my lovely Duna, near my house here. The two of them love us so dearly now. You can feel their love.  

Here is a photo of my Moses, whom I found lost and lonely one afternoon at the seafront of Miraflores, the district of Lima where I live. Now you would not recognize him from how he was like at that time. He would be six or seven months old then and almost had no hair. His skin was almost black from a plague, and hundreds and perhaps thousands of flees tortured him. His first night in the house with us was inenarrable. Now he is perhaps the most handsome and proud among the doggies that walk along the seafront every morning with their "dads."

"Moses"

All my life I have also had a canary or canaries in my home. There was a time when I even raised a lot of them; it was summer time, about ten years ago. They give so much joy to the house with their singing. But this is another story, and I am afraid you would get tired if I keep talking about it now.

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo