It was a night in March. It was already late, but he was happy. That day she had re-released La Misgracia, a musical that had a very successful season the previous year. She got off the bus at Scalabrini Ortiz, in the Palermo neighborhood, in the city of Buenos Aires, and walked to the corner of Aráoz and Paraguay. There she saw him. The dog looked to the side, as if he were looking for someone. “I thought he was waiting for the owner of him, but when he got to the corner I realized that he was alone, without a necklace and quite skinny”, recalls Patricio Witis, musical actor, singer, dancer, theater director, coach of the Cantando 2020 edition and who this year put himself in the shoes of the most beloved ogre on the big screen in Shrek… the musical.“If you walk with me home, I’ll let you in” They exchanged glances. And the dog sought a caress. When he saw that he could move forward, he threw himself on Patrick’s legs for a full pampering session. “That’s where I melted. I imagined that I had a family and was lost. Such a good puppy could not be abandoned. I told myself at that moment that I had to find his family, then I had to take him home. I remember I spoke to him out loud: if you walk with me home, I’ll enter you. I kept walking and he continued at my side, until the door of the building. I opened it, and he came in like someone who had lived there all his life”.When Cacho arrived at Patricio’s house, he was very skinny and exhausted from life on the streets. Although Patricio assures that he comes from a bichera family, he had never rescued an animal before. “My grandmother, my old lady and my old man always had dogs and many of them were rescued, found on some route or in the neighborhood, but it was the first time for me. And today I understand that connection that comes with changing the life of a four-legged man.” That first night, Cacho was stressed. As soon as he entered his new place, he immediately ate all the food from Rocco -the cat that lives with Patricio-, He drank water, collapsed on the floor and hardly moved anymore. “It was a shock for Rocco to see an animal of almost 40 kilos enter. That night he ran away from her. But he is also rescued (from the roofs of a house in Constitución) and I want to believe that he understood what was happening, that another four-legged person needed help. On day two he was already approaching him, he was smelling him”.Rocco, Patricio’s cat, is also rescued and seemed to understand what was happening: another four-legged cat needed help. Clearly, Cacho needed to rest and so he did. “Anyway, I was impressed with how well behaved he was in the days that followed. He never peed or pooped inside, and was very obedient on his outings.” When the time came for a veterinary consultation, Mariano Díaz, Patricio’s trusted specialist, examined the dog and, despite the fact that it was evident that he was very skinny and he had lost the sight of one of his eyesfound it in good condition. He determined that Cacho was castrated and approximately three years old. He gave him vaccines, dewormed him and gave him a little plate of food that Cacho keeps to this day. “Every time we pass through his door, Cacho still wants to come in and say hello.”At first, Patricio’s idea was to look for Cacho’s family. He put up posters on public roads, entered all the lost and found pages and was impressed by the community he had crossed paths with to help the four-legged. to live in an apartment. But as usually happens in these cases, I became attached. A small effort on my part returned me an unconditional and immeasurable love. She has such a good character. He made friends with all the dogs in the square, he knows the neighbors and his dogs. In addition, he enters all the businesses on the block (the delicatessen is his favorite). We could say that Cacho connected me a lot with the neighborhood and its people”.Cacho and Patricio And with a smile Patricio confesses that the relationship he managed to create with Cacho is beautiful. They go for a walk three times a day to the square and the dog accompanies him to do all the errands. If the human does not have to go to work, they are always together. “My friends already know him all, since comes from bars with us. He likes to sit or lie down next to the table. At home, he follows me wherever I am: the kitchen, the living room, and he sleeps on his blanket next to my bed. He became a hug machine, if I’m on the computer, he comes up for me to hug him. He is very agile when he goes out and loves to run, my dream is to take him to see the sea. Watch him run on the beach and chase the waves from the shore.”“Cacho is doing very well, he is grayer, a little older and more affectionate than ever. He has the ailments of age – these days we were visiting the vet to check his joints. I love him very much and he is a great companion.” Rarely does he bark. At night, when they go out for the last walk of the day, Patricio lets him off the leash and Cacho walks by his side, as if an invisible thread united them. But, when they arrive at the plaza, Cacho begins with his show of skills: he runs nonstop, jumps the fences like an Olympic athlete and looks for fresh grass to throw himself full body to rest. He is simply a happy dog that shows his smile wherever he goes. If you have a story of adoption, rescue, rehabilitation or helped an animal in a situation of risk and want to tell their story, write to bestiariolanacion@gmail.com