Sandra Estrada: "All Dogs Are Heroes"

by Sandy Lurins

From time to time, FETCH highlights a person who exemplifies what it means to "make a difference" in the lives of our pets. Get to know these inspiring individuals though their own words. Know someone who is making a difference in their own way? Tell FETCH, and we´ll consider them for a future issue. Send an email to editors@fetchthepaper.com.

I met Sandra Estrada, her husband Cesar, and their dog Chalupa in their San Francisco store on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Happy Pets is where Sandra and Cesar produce and distribute a line of organic, natural dog treats that they lovingly make by hand. Their line now includes a set of commemorative war dog hero cookies, from which the Estradas set aside $5 per box to fund supplies for war dogs.

Although I expected our meeting to center mostly around war dogs, I soon discovered that Sandra embodies a deep empathy and respect for all animals, not just those that perform heroic deeds in military work.

How did you start Happy Pets?

Years ago my dog Luna had puppies [Russian Wolfhound and Rhodesian Ridgeback mix]. I was with one of her puppies, Chuka, from the moment she was born until she died 13 years later. She was one of those dogs people just had to touch and pet and she let them. [She weighed] 100 pounds but [there was] not a mean bone in her body.

At age ten she got sick with diabetes. I started learning about natural [foods and health care]. I learned about things I was doing like her annual vaccines that probably contributed to her disease. We kept her alive three more years. Then we started this store to make natural products more available.

How did you first get involved in helping the war dogs?

Back in 2001 I read an incredible article in Parade magazine [Sandra pulls the yellowed article out of a file folder] where I first learned about military working dogs being left behind in Vietnam, and about the more famous war dogs–Chips, Stubby, Nemo. At that time I read the article and filed it away.

Next I came across a book that was very interesting to me: The Lost History of the Canine Race. [Author: Mary Elizabeth Thurston, ISBN 0836205480].

Then in November of 2004 I came across a posting on Craigslist asking for donations to send to the canine troops in Iraq. [As a result] I got in touch with the Space Coast War Dog Association (SCWDA) and offered to ship some of my dog treats to the canine troops.

I was told that because the dogs are on specialized diets, they don’t usually send treats to the dogs. I had made little packets of treats, with notes like "May you all be home and safe, with love and gratitude." They decided to make an exception and send my treats to the troops.

What was the inspiration for you making the war dog hero cookies?

I was watching the food channel on TV and they showed a company that made famous people cookies. I thought maybe I could do famous dog cookies for dogs, then that evolved to heroic dogs. So we picked six heroic dogs to start our series and decided to sell the sets as a way to raise funds.

I want to expand this beyond military dogs to service dogs and ideally all dogs. So many of my customers tell stories of their dogs and what they have done for them. I believe all dogs are heroes.

How are all dogs heroes?

[Years ago] I adopted Luna, a Russian Wolfhound that was supposed to be euthanized. I found out she’d been badly beaten around the head and maybe brain damaged. She was supposedly [spayed] but she got pregnant.

As her time came, she dug a big hole under the house. During a huge storm we heard her keening and crying. We crawled down under the house and found she had given birth to her pups in the storm, but her den was flooded. She didn’t know how to pick up her puppies and she wouldn’t leave them, so we got her and her puppies out.

I never forgot how courageous she was—she would not leave her puppies. I thought… her devotion to them was just amazing. Everyone who’s had dogs has stories like that. It would be great if there were a site where we could commemorate "Why my dog is a hero." We could make cookies to commemorate all [of the dogs]. Everything we make here is an act of gratitude [to dogs]… it’s a way to say "Thank you." That’s why we take such care with the shapes and colors. It can’t just be good nutritionally, it has to be worthy of the recipient.

Tell me more about the needs of the war dogs.

Right now [SCWDA] is raising money for "Chilly Dogs" cooling vests. Other things they need include "doggles" [to protect the dogs’ eyes in the sand and dust], and flak jackets. The flak jackets cost $1,700 each. The Chilly Dogs vests are about $150 each.

The dogs save so many lives, it’s important for them to be well equipped. The dogs are often targeted by the insurgents, because if you can eliminate the dog, it’s much easier to [attack the soldiers] that come after the dog.

Some of the soldiers write to me about how much it means to them to know they are being supported [by all of us]. They write with such purity and sincerity. How can we not support them, when they are over there doing that? Even though I wish there were no war.

And it’s not just dogs working in the military. There are horses, pigeons, even rats. Animals have just been there for us in so many ways.

Do you have a favorite war dog hero?

One amazing war dog is Smoky, a Yorkie who served in WWII. She was found in an abadonded foxhole. She went through a pipe with a string, from one end of an airfield to the other, to help get a phone line in without digging up the airstrip. This saved all the planes. Later she did therapy work in hospitals. She’s the smallest MWD (military working dog) I know of!

What lessons can we humans learn from dogs?

How can dogs survive untold abuse and still end up being friendly and functional? Why is it that dogs, no matter what you do to them, if you extend kindness and care to them, they seem to come back? Humans don’t. Humans get scarred for life.

One of my customers has a dog, Malachy, who was brutally, brutally abused. She has scars on her ankles from being hung on chains. There is no reason for this dog to trust anybody. But she loves kids, loves to be petted. She’s there for everybody. She’s amazing.

How do [dogs] do that? How do they refresh and have that open heart and go on? Why do we get so twisted and find it so hard to untwist?

I had to write a paper on anthropomorphism while in school. You know, human traits we attribute to dogs. I think we should think more about dog traits we can attribute to ourselves.