This Almost Ended Very Differently

Sweetheart is one of nearly 200 dogs living at a university in Yangon.

For a time, there was a real possibility that these dogs would no longer be allowed to stay.

I’ve seen how these situations end.

In most places, the outcome is predictable.

But this time, it wasn’t.

Our Burmese team of women at Let’s Save The Strays International in Yangon stepped in.

These are the women I speak with regularly. The ones doing this work every day.

I wish you could meet them.

Veterinarians, project managers, and volunteers, working side by side with community animal guardians—the feeders and caretakers who know these dogs best.

They didn’t react with fear.

They responded with action.

They got to work.

Through spay and neuter, vaccination, and hands-on care, they began to stabilize the population.

And just as importantly, they documented everything.

Using post-treatment surveys and the Talea app, they were able to show something that changed the outcome:

About 90–95% of these dogs were vaccinated and sterilized.

They were healthy.

They were stable.

They were part of the community.

That mattered.

Because when you can show this—when you can prove that these dogs are not a threat, but a managed and cared-for population—people start to see them differently.

And here, they did.

The dogs remained.

Sweetheart remained.

I think about this moment a lot.

Because this is exactly why we do this work.

What could have ended very differently became something else—a model of what is possible when compassion is backed by action, data, and trust.

This is the work of our team in Myanmar.

And it is led by women.

Women who show up every day in a country where resources are limited and uncertainty is constant.

Women who are not waiting for change, but creating it.

And if you are reading this, you are part of that story too.

You are part of this partnership.

You are standing behind these women.

You are making this work possible.

You are helping create safer, healthier communities for both people and animals.

I wish they could thank you themselves.

Sweetheart is alive today because of them.

And because of you.