If you knew Bobby, you’d wonder why he has anything to smile about!

Bobby was badly injured – a damaged vertebrae when beaten with a stick by his previous owner. For a while, he lived a lonesome, sad life with paralyzed legs, unable to stand or walk.

A neighbor finally brought him to Casa Lupita , our animal health care clinic, about 3 months ago. We immediately began a search for help for an outside chance of recovery.

Bobby’s life turned around when a veterinarian read a Facebook post about Bobby’s plight. An invitation to bring Bobby to the North Florida neurology vet clinic in Jacksonville came to me by email.

Then another invitation --- an adoption by a woman in Stillwater, Oklahoma, who has a dog with the same injury as Bobby’s.

And so, our plan is to send Bobby to Florida with a hope for a better quality of life than we are able to provide here in Nicaragua. It won’t be the same here without Bobby,especially for Nestor, a young man who lives next door to our clinic. He has been Bobby’s “best buddy’ since day one.

Visit this link (chipin.com) to read the rest of the story, and to make a contribution if you'd like to help.

This appeal was also published at Nicaraguadispatch.com

Nicaragua is a somewhat off-beat travel destination, and Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast even more so. But it was only a century ago that the Caribbean bustled with energy. Eric Timar takes us there.

Contributed by Josue Stephens

The third running of Ultramaratón Fuego y Agua, which includes 100 km, 50 km, and 25 km trail races, will take place February 18, 2012 after a one-year hiatus. Fuego Y Agua is a not-for-profit race and, as in previous years, the proceeds will benefit the mission of Natural Doctors International, a NGO dedicated to providing medical care for the residents of La Isla de Ometepe. A portion of the proceeds will also finance the Calzado 5k race, held the day after the race for the children of Ometepe, to promote health and fitness.

English-language rags have come and gone in Nicaragua. I used to write a column for the Nica News in the late 1990s, a monthly lifestyle paper out of Managua. Then there was the Tico Times's Nicaragua edition, edited by Granada-based correspondent Tim Rogers (in between his hard-hitting political pieces in TIME, Christian Science Monitor, and other major publications). Now Tim and friends have launched The Nicaragua Dispatch "to expand readers’ understanding of Nicaragua with original reporting, while stimulating online discussion and debate with a free exchange of opinions and ideas from those who live here and know the country best." They promise to cover breaking news, politics, human-interest features, business & travel, and exclusive interviews with leading newsmakers. Here's the newest link on my bookmark bar, a must for any Nicaphile: The Nicaragua Dispatch.