Rico

❗️Our Omar was already on his way back from the last desert campaign. That’s when he saw Rico, who couldn’t leave the street on his own❗️

Omar was coming back from the desert after another feeding run. The car was already lighter by the bags of food handed out, the bowls had been emptied, and another day of help was just coming to an end.

That’s when Rico appeared on the road.

A very young dog. Practically still a puppy. Too young to know the world in any way other than through dust, cars, being chased away and a daily fight for something to eat. He was lying on the street and couldn’t simply get up, shake himself off and walk away when a person stopped beside him.

His spine is damaged.

Maybe Rico was hit by accident. Maybe someone deliberately drove into him, because on Jordan’s streets dogs are often treated as an obstacle to be removed from the road. We have seen too many such cases to pretend it doesn’t happen.

The car drives on.

The person goes back to their business.

And left on the street is a dog that from that moment bears all the consequences.

Rico did nothing to deserve this.

He didn’t run into someone’s life intending to cause a problem. He didn’t choose the street, Jordan, or a place where an animal very often has to cope with pain alone. He didn’t decide that his young body would be so seriously damaged. And yet he is the one left on the ground with a spine that won’t let him move the way a young dog should.

Omar could have ended the campaign a few kilometres earlier.

He could have decided that he had done enough that day. He had fed the dogs living in the desert, reached places that help almost never reaches, handed out what he had, and was heading back after many hours of work.

But help doesn’t end when the last portion of food is gone.

Sometimes it is precisely on the way back that you come across an animal for whom everything has to start from the beginning.

Rico was taken off the street.

Now the full extent of the damage to his spine has to be assessed, the necessary tests carried out and it must be established what help he will need in the coming weeks. Ahead of him are treatment, veterinary care and probably long work to regain as much mobility as possible.

Today we don’t want to make promises no one can guarantee.

We want to do everything so that Rico gets a chance.

Because that is what our presence in Jordan is about. We don’t go there for one photo and one story. We reach animals in the desert, feed them, support the people working on the ground, and when a dog like Rico appears, we don’t leave him just because his treatment will be difficult, long and expensive.

Thanks to you we can tell Omar: take him. Go to the vet. Do the tests. Don’t wonder whether there will be enough for the first visit, the medicines or the next days of care.

Behind every such sentence are donations from people who are thousands of kilometres from Jordan but won’t accept distance as a reason to look away.

Look at Rico.

At his big paws, young muzzle and the eyes of a dog that doesn’t understand why his body has stopped obeying him. He doesn’t know what happened to his spine. He doesn’t know whether the car that hit him stopped even for a moment. Nor does he know that people in Poland will see his photos and be able to decide what happens next.

He only knows that for the first time someone didn’t drive past.

Please stay with Rico today. Help us pay for diagnostics, treatment, care and everything he will need so that he doesn’t go back to the street as yet another invisible victim of Jordan’s roads.

The desert campaign was supposed to be over.

For Rico, that is exactly when the most important journey of his life began.