VALENTINA: A FRIEND IN NEED

I am a friend of Valentina Leon's. By the end of this post, I'm hoping you'll have become one, too.

She is an elegant Latina with waves of dark hair and fingers that fly over the keyboard. She's a sucker for the Russian and German Romantics, with a soft spot for Gabriel Faure. (You might recognize his Sicilienne). We first bonded over a shared passion for that French composer, at least I think we did, since she speaks not a word of English and I'm still faking espanol.

A stunner, huh? Let us say she cleans up real good. Though indeed a Professor of Music at one of Ecuador's leading conservatories, she is also a down-and-dirty animal advocate, a woman who spends every free moment and all of her salary feeding, tending and worrying over 130 dogs.

This is the Valentina Leon I know in a rare moment of repose, eating a few chips amidst the bucket loads of kibble that feed her immense gang of rescued strays. The dogs live in a sprawling refuge created by ARCA (Activism, Rescue and Conscience for Animals), the foundation launched by Valentina and friends in 2003 to protect and defend animals.

I visited the refuge back in March. You can't begin to imagine the chaos, the howling, the wagging tails! The motherless puppies nestled in the bellies of older strays, the dogs missing this leg or that paw careening in the open without the threat of buses, trucks and cars.

The ARCA refuge is about an hour outside of Valentina's home town, Ecuador's celebrated cultural capital, Cuenca. Alas, cultural sophistication does not equate the humane treatment of animals, and however culturally sophisticated Cuencanos may be, they have a typically dismal Latin American attitude towards dogs.

Yes, I generalize. But in this World Heritage Site city, just rated the #1 retirement haven by International Living magazine, vendors sell "purebred" puppies at busy intersections while starving, pregnant animals cruise for kindness and crumbs.

All of this makes Valentina's story all the more remarkable. She was six when she understood the helplessness of strays and began escorting them cross busy streets. Her mother helped her back then; it's friends, family and animal lovers now.

I am a friend of Valentina Leon's and have just received a troubling email. ARCA, she writes, is under extreme duress. Its city clinic, opened a few months back to spay, neuter and mend homeless animals, has been forced to close. Evicted. It's a complicated story full of drama and revenge -- gossip for a later post -- but right now, ARCA needs to boost its coffers to relocate and reopen the clinic. For the time being, the injured and post-surgical animals that were in the clinic have been scattered among friends.

Money goes a long way in Ecuador. Valentina tells me it takes @$80/month to spay/neuter, provide veterinary care plus food and shelter for a little pipsqueak like Nina (above). I'm in for half a calendar year; I wonder if you can pitch in for weeks or months. I'm about to arrange for tax-deductible donations and payment will be online. It'll take me another day to make it all kosher, then I'll re-post. Feel free to ask me questions, share wisdom or give me the thumbs up by posting here or writing to ketzel.levine@gmail.com

I realize there are thousands of animal rescue groups in need. Because of Valentina Leon, I'm in for the long haul with ARCA.