Hope came in the strangest of places: A Venezuelan restaurant that has come to be known as "Hospital McDonald's." Gabriela Alves found herself embracing her 6-year-old dog Buddy on Thursday in the fast-food outlet after a week of searching for the white pup that went missing when two earthquakes devastated the South American nation on June 24. The restaurant, next to the ruins of collapsed state housing complexes, has become a de facto hospital for earthquake victims, reports the AP. It's also serving as a center for locating and treating missing pets in the seaside city of Caraballeda, which was devastated by the natural disaster. "This is a miracle," Alves said, arms wrapped around the dog with an IV in one of his legs on a table next to restaurant workers selling soft-serve ice cream. "We've lost everything material, but at least we're both alive."
The makeshift hospital was born one day after the back-to-back earthquakes killed at least 2,295 people and wounded 11,000. Many more families were left scrambling to find their missing loved ones, including cats and dogs lost in the rubble. Angel Matute and 70 other veterinarians, students, doctors, and civilian volunteers traveled from the western city of Barquisimeto. The team was looking for a place to sleep, store equipment, and shelter from heavy tropical rain when they found one of the only operational facilities within the chaos: The Golden Arches. They set up shop in the restaurant, which still had air-conditioning, and began distributing medical supplies and treating human patients while also becoming a place for treating injured pets and seeking dogs and cats that were still missing.
"For us, a pet is one more human life," said Matute, who coordinates rescue efforts. "There are animals that are more human than humans themselves." Matute was among dozens of bustling volunteers on Thursday treating dogs and cats alongside search teams ordering hamburgers and french fries. His group, which has rescued 140 animals and treated 60 more, plans to continue reuniting owners with missing pets until their assistance is no longer needed.
Alves was at a family member's house when the quakes hit. Hours later, she frantically rushed home to save Buddy, but all she found were ruins. The 36-year-old began making daily laps to McDonald's to see if volunteers had found any white dogs before returning home to search. For more than a week, she was met with silence. "We're all living one day at a time," she said Thursday. "Today, I returned and I truly can tell you I had lost all hope." She persisted, though, and eventually heard a distant bark and saw Buddy's white ear through a crack in concrete. Rescuers broke a hole in the wall and pulled the dog from the debris. Hours later, vets at Hospital McDonald's checked Buddy for injuries. "With all the tragedy of the earthquake, it's one positive thing in all the bad," Alves said, still embracing her dog. "He's like my doggie Band-Aid."
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