dogs, dogs, dogs!

so there are a lot of dogs here. packs of them in fact. i had heard about the stray dog problem but wasn't quite expecting them at the airport. but when i walked out of the airport in punta arenas to wait for the bus, around the corner runs the biggest damn german shepard i have ever seen in my life!!! he ran down the sidewalk, across the street, and into the parking lot. i'm starting to hyperventilate, thinking i'm about to be eaten, and no one else even batted an eye. can't really see that happening back home - 150 pound stray attack dog runs by and no one even tries to get their kids out of the way..... where i'm from, there was a lady at work that wet herself when someone's pet dog escaped out of the elevator onto the sewing floor and ran around. no joke. so anyway, here it's a bit different. there are dogs everywhere. i can look out the window of the hostel and see anywhere between one and five dogs. at all times. and they're not (for the most part) grungy looking dogs. there's a lot of purebred looking dogs running around. i keep thinking "oh someone's pet got out" until they run by me and dart away if i look like i might come near them. i'm hearing a lot of horror stories about the condition that some of them get in and i have a feeling that i'm going to struggle a lot because there isn't a whole lot that i can do to help them. we put out a little dish of food each night to help some of them eat, but there are so many that you really can't help them all. and you know what the problem is???? in chile, it's considered terrible to get a male dog fixed. getting a female dog/cat/whatever fixed is no problem and the local vet will do the surgery for only like $20 (the government pays the rest). **side story, we were walking through town and there was a little tin house looking like it was about to fall over and there was a piece of paper taped to the window and Bill says "oh that sign says that the guy that lives there will fix animals". um.....i think i understand why vets here only charge $10 to treat an animal but in the states it costs $300 just to look in their ear......okay back to the story** but no one will get their male animals fixed. the reasoning goes something like "well i don't have to get my male dog fixed because he can't have puppies". for reals. so now there are dogs running around all over the place, sleeping on the sidewalks, barely making it across the road, etc. cats too. and travelers find stray puppies and kittens all the time and bring them into the hostel saying "look we found this poor little kitten and it's starving and can you take care of it" and what they don't realize is that if we took them all in we would have 38 cats and 29 dogs. so we have to tell them no. can any of you picture someone coming to me with a starting kitten and me telling them that they have to put it back on the street??? yea, me neither. i think i'll start looking for a solution now......anyway until next time take care of you and i'll see ya on the flipside! :)