15/04/2026
Recently on an excursion to Peru, I as director of GeoVeterinary International, awarded four very special people - compatriots in the effort to bring veterinary care to communities in need - the Premio de Puma. (Photos with names to follow.)
Why is this award called “Premio de Puma”, or the “Puma Award”? The back story: Puma was a dog that was rescued from the streets of Cusco, Peru while I was involved in a spay/neuter clinic. I neutered him and amputated his left forelimb (due to paralysis and infection), only to be let back out on the streets the next day.
Instead, I called my wife in Baltimore, asked permission to bring him to our home (where we already had 3 dogs), and 3 flights later from one hemisphere to another, and for the next 13 of his 14 years of life he became and was a part of my life that epitomized the incredible bond we humans can have with a dog.
The experience of how he arrived that day to our clinic and the moments of decision making, the individuals involved, the efforts to get him from Cusco to Baltimore will live in me forever. I truly believe in the spirit of goodness and I did not want to let Inca gods down.
Puma became an important connection between 2 worlds. The nonprofit organization GeoVeterinary International was born from this link between the 2 Americas. I improved in my profession having discovered the incredible reward of volunteerism.
On Puma’s last day we fed him a steak, walked a final walk in the local state park along the river, and returned home to his bed where he gently, peacefully, passed from the struggles of not being able to stand anymore but in the arms of his “dad”.
I may have been his “4th” leg for his 13 years of life, yet he was to me, so much more. This beautiful award created in his name is indeed a tribute to what is good in life.
