Until Are Are Adopted? Kinship Circle's Sister Michael Marie, with local volunteer Stephanie, assists Teresopolis shelter manager Bebete Filipi on daily med rounds. Bebete goes through a 50 ml bottle of antibiotics daily! An old warehouse, with a labyrinth of narrow corridors that connect variously sized rooms, doubles as an animal crisis shelter. Discarded office items are put to use. Dismantled file drawers serve as animal beds. Dogs are tethered on outdoor patios with canvas sheet roofs. Donated pens and cages align in rows to fill large concrete rooms. Cinder blocks are topped with veterinary supplies in a makeshift sick ward. Kibble, bowls and leashes are everywhere the eyes can see.

A pit bull mix Dennis helped rescue yesterday in Teresopolis has mammary tumors that seep blood. The dog is weak, dehydrated and underweight. A vet examines the dog and agrees to perform surgery if shelter director Bebete Filipi can furnish medicines. Another pit bull rescue is frail and fading. After bathing the dog, we know why: Bicheira, flesh-eating maggots that hatch larvae in an animal's wounds. The horrific condition shows up over and over in animal disaster victims. Dennis spends one-on-one time with the pits, tending to a specific dog area daily. He dotes on the animals that some people fear. Dennis notes that one pittie, in particular, is sweet and mild-tempered. In another section of the shelter, Kinship Circle officer Sister Michael Marie, a vet tech, assists in treatment for a severely dehydrated dog, too weak to raise his head. After the shaggy terrier mix undergoes hours of electrolyte-enchanced IV fluids and antibiotic injection, he brightens considerbly. Support remains critical, as we continue to treat struggling animals. Today a middle-age woman leaves three dogs at the shelter. She bursts into tears and lingers with her dogs for a half hour before she departs, still crying. Her home destroyed, she has no means to care for her dogs. Bebete hopes the disaster shelter does not evolve into a dump site for unwanted animals. Puppy and kitten litters are left here. Bebete cannot turn any away. She'll stay here until all are adopted or fostered. Three, four months? Bebete shrugs. She doesn't know.