The final chapter of Anita’s Animals has been written in a progress report submitted last week by Edelweiss Padilla Strehlow, the daughter of the shelter’s founder.
All of the cats and dogs once housed at the rescue facility in San Juan Cosalá have been adopted or placed elsewhere since its operation was closed at the end of July.
“These past five months have been pretty tough for everyone involved at Anita’s Animals,” Padilla says. “Being Anita’s daughter and having been directly involved with it all, I can now say that things just little by little started falling apart and then started falling back into place again.”
The shelter was created almost 20 years ago by German immigrant Anita Strehlow as a personal mission to rescue and encourage the adoption of homeless cats and dogs. The acceptance of animals was terminated in early June when Strehlow returned to her homeland to undergo treatment for a health condition. At that time she was caring for around 80 infant and adult animals.
A group of local animal lovers jumped in to form a transition team with the aim of taking over the shelter’s ownership and management. Unfortunately, the proposition never jelled. Padilla and a number of dedicated supporters henceforth began the arduous process of shutting down the project. Their prime task was to find permanent or temporary homes for each and every animal.
More than half of the canines and just over a dozen cats were taken in by adoptive human companions. The remaining 35 felines are now in the foster care of Anita Murray, a kindred soul who also shares both Strehlow’s given name and her nationality.
The last 12 homeless dogs were eventually placed at Proyecto Frida, a non-profit animal shelter located in Tlajomulco de Zuñiga outside Guadalajara, a deed accomplished with the aid of the Ladrón de Guevara Animal Hospital in Riberas del Pilar.
Padilla expressed deep gratitude to veterinarians Hector Ladrón de Guevara and Hugo Saavedra for their generosity in providing free sterilization, vaccination and parasite control services required for the dogs’ admission to Proyecto Frida. She is comforted to know that five of them have since found adoptive homes.
Although she has already thanked many of Anita’s steadfast supporters in person, Padilla adds bittersweet footnotes to publically acknowledge everyone who contributed to her mother’s life-long mission. Aside from the individuals mentioned above, she names close friend and advisor Doris Bitterci, saying, “Only with her administrative, operative, and intuitive skills were we able to make it through the toughest moments.”
The list continues with Toni Miller, Janice Raschko, Linda O’Brien and other Transition Team volunteers. “Even though in the end our collaboration plan did not work out, I do thank them a lot for their efforts and energies.”
Others include Lila Kawananakoa, Jackie Kellum, Jackie Becknell, Marilu (sic), Pepe Magaña, Dee Mistric, Robert Taylor, Rikardo and Fabiola of Proyecto Frida, her elder siblings and father Jesús.
“And, last but not least, I would like to say thank you to Anita herself for all she has achieved, for being the loving mother she is, and for her dedication to help the animals. She has passed her love for our four legged friends on to me and her granddaughter, even though it was and is at the moment impossible for us to continue with the shelter the way she had done it for so many years. Anita has been a wonderful guide and role model for me showing me that it is ok to follow our heart and that it is always essential to allow ourselves to find our very own mission in life.”