Three Puppies and the Garden of Eden

Nicole and I were in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica for about three weeks in the summer.  We stayed at a rustic little house nestled in the jungle near Lake Arenal.

Our days were spent immersed in the jungle setting.  Each morning, we would sit outside on the patio taking in the incredible sights and sounds of the forest surrounding us. Dozens of species of birds would come to the feeder to partake in the leftovers from our breakfast—bits of mango, papaya and banana that we shared with our newly-found feathered friends. One morning we even caught a glimpse of some white-faced monkeys high above us making their way across the treetops.

The rainforest embraces your senses; smells, sights, sounds and textures are all infused with life-sustaining moisture. It was rare to have three hours pass without either a gentle mist or a powerful downpour.

Foliage shines, colours punch out. The competing shapes and shimmers are like neon signs on Kabukichō street in Tokyo – each flower doing its best to compete for the attention of pollinators that are passing through.

The rainforest exhaled a warm, velvety fragrance of moss, orchids and wet bark that enveloping the senses. But above all, there was the music of the jungle.  When the sun would assert itself, the cicadas would announce its presence, humming as if the jungle were breathing.

Each evening, as dusk settled into the trees, the daytime orchestra would lay down its instruments. While the birds slept, the frogs and insects that rule the night would take the stage filling the air with sounds of ancient wisdom.

Over those weeks, the extraordinary balance of nature became increasingly apparent to us. There are many thousands of species of plants, insects, birds, mammals and lizards—and all are in competition. Night and day. Even the plants jostle each other to be the one to experience a rare shaft of light that makes its way to the forest floor.

Despite millions of years, none have managed to completely dominate the landscape. The system is so finely balanced that when one species over-succeeds, another can keep it in check. We all know this, but when you really pause to let it sink in, it becomes something akin to a religious experience.

Walking through the forest naturally invites one to speak in whispers as you would do in a great cathedral of Europe. One morning, walking in silence, I was struck with a question regarding a passage in Genesis that I must have read dozens of times over the years.

וַיִּקַּח יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאָדָם וַיַּנִּחֵהוּ בְגַן־עֵדֶן לְעָבְדָהּ וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ

“The Lord God placed the human being in the Garden of Eden

 to cultivate it and to care for it.”

At that point, surrounded by perfect timeless balance, I asked Nicole, ‘Why does God need us to care for this? It seems to be doing perfectly well without us.’

We discussed this for some time but could not find an answer and continued in silence.  Our jungle path ended and we found ourselves on a gravel side road that winds through the forest toward Lake Cote near our place.

A car that had passed us earlier stopped in the middle of the road and the driver had stepped out and was standing in front of her car.  As we came by, we saw three beautiful black puppies at her feet. She had stopped the car to not run them over.

A conversation ensued between her and Nicole entirely in Spanish, so I had no idea what was going on. Turns out that Helen was on her way to work at a home with large aggressive dogs so taking them with her was out of the question.

Helen made a few calls to get the ball rolling and left us at the side of the road holding the puppies just as the rain started to come down in earnest. It became clear that only a short time before we all appeared, someone had come along the same road and abandoned the puppies.

We walked them home in a light drizzle and with a flurry of activity, we began to find a home for them. We were fighting the clock as well because we had a flight to catch the next day.  A local saviour, Doris, quickly provided us with formula, puppy food and invaluable advice since we had no clue what to do with this rambunctious knot of puppydom.

Steve, a local animal lover, offered to help but he was already at capacity, caring for eleven abandoned dogs in his own home.  And then Grant, who had heard of our predicament, reached out to tell us of a rescue place that he had heard of run by a bunch of young Israelis. A few more WhatsApp exchanges and all was settled —we were to bring the puppies to them on our way to San Jose.

There was no way to prepare ourselves for what we learned and saw at the ‘Animal Love Rescue Center.’ It was founded by a group of about 15 lifelong friends, most of them vegan Israelis, who moved to Costa Rica around 2005. They built both the rescue and the adjacent Lands in Love vegan eco-hotel, with much of the hotel’s income helping to support the rescue.

We handed our precious basket of puppies to Hava. She suggested that we head for lunch at the vegan hotel and then come back for a tour of the facility. We had a nice chat with the Israeli chef, Naama, and enjoyed our delicious vegan meal before heading back to meet with Hava.

The rescue center follows a no-kill policy. Any animal that is not adopted is kept for life. The center now home to 600 dogs, 500 cats and another 100 assorted animals including everything from ducks to horses.  Animals that require surgery, physiotherapy, and medications are given everything they need. We visited one area exclusively for dogs who had lame or amputated limbs. I suppose that by being together they could commiserate and swap survival tips among themselves.

In the physiotherapy center, there was one volunteer working with a particularly uncooperative cat. ‘She’s really just very lazy and won’t do what she needs to do to improve,’ he shared with us. The room housed a small obstacle course and a water therapy tank where dogs could walk a treadmill partially immersed to improve their muscle tone. These items were donated to the center and shipped to Costa Rica.

We walked through several rooms that housed about 15 cats each. Each cat had its own shelter within the room if it wanted to have alone time, but generally they all seemed to like hanging out together and swapping gossip about the dogs. They were very loving and would come up to us for a snuggle.

The center is well known in Costa Rica and almost every week there are new arrivals. Fortunately, it is also a place where families come to adopt pets. Hava told us that our puppies would be dewormed, given shots, treated for fleas and ticks and then made available for some very fortunate kids to adopt them and shower them with love.

As we drove away and were talking about how we were totally blown away by the kindness we had just witnessed, it suddenly struck me that the Torah question we had asked each other that on that rainy hike was answered moments after it was asked.

Why does God need us to care for this? It is because Hashem did not place us here merely to be passive observers of nature or as owners free to use it however we wish. Instead, we are entrusted with both creative responsibility and careful guardianship.  The cats of this world have not yet managed to set up a physiotherapy clinic for themselves.  Nor have the dogs set up for themselves any retirement homes.

When we get things right, humans demonstrate the gift of perfecting this beautiful world that we find ourselves in.