Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - One of the risks of living in Puerto Vallarta is that if you are an animal lover you are at high risk of increasing the size of your pack! The large number of street animals and the Facebook posts of those needing help all make you think that maybe there's room for just one more family member.

And so it was with our family.

When we moved from Canada we brought our one dog, Toby, with us. We had committed to being a one dog family (having had multiple animals in the past, and now having kids, we thought this the sane thing to do). We got Toby when Justin was 4 and Tianna was 3.

As it turned out Toby and Justin bonded and Toby soon became "Justin's dog." After a short while in Puerto Vallarta Tianna let us know that she would like to have a dog of her own to care for. As all good and not so rational parents eventually do, and after months of negotiation, we gave in.

I called our friend Lynette, who works with many of the animal organizations here in Puerto Vallarta, and started the process. Our requests were pretty specific and we expected the process to take awhile. It turned out that we were very naive. The following morning Lynette called to tell us that the Colina Spay and Neuter clinic had an abandoned and abused little poodle mix in need of a home. We picked up Estrella that day and with time and love she has become a great, albeit pampered, part of our family.

Fast forward 2 years ... as we returned one evening from taking Toby and Estrella for a walk we came across an abandoned puppy at the door of our condo building. Clearly cold and scared we couldn't leave him there for the night and took him in until we could find someone to adopt him. This may not have been the best plan, as the kids (okay and me), quickly became attached to Mikey (naming him was the kiss of death).

And so Mikey, nicknamed 'Diablo' (lovingly, and for good reason) by those who knew him, became part of our family. We all convinced ourselves that this was it. No more animals. If only there was a procedure or drug that would make it so you can't or don't even think of taking more animals into your home.

Unfortunately when we recently found Bruno (or more accurately, when he found us), a neglected and sick dog eating out of the garbage on the street, we knew we couldn't leave him there. We would just take him in, clean him up, feed him and take him to the vet. Then we would find him a good home. Well, and I know this is a shocker, Bruno is now part of our family.

And so you don't think that I am the only one that has gone loco, I have friends in Puerto Vallarta with many more animal family members than us - some as many as 13 or 14.

So a warning to those animal lovers out there: It is almost impossible to not grow your family here!

Maybe we need to start an Animal Lovers Anonymous chapter, or maybe we just need to get over it and love our animal friends unconditionally as they do us, and realize that we wouldn't have it any other way.

If you are interested in adopting a pet in Puerto Vallarta, or supporting the local organizations that do such great work here, these are just a few of the many:

• Colina Spay and Neuter Clinic
• SPCA PV
• Mex Pup
• PuRR Project

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Warren Brander is an expert real estate agent working with Remax in Puerto Vallarta. He can be reached at 322-200-2253, or by email at warren(at)remaxinpv.com. You can also check out his website for a great selection of Puerto Vallarta condos and homes for sale at WarrenBrander.com. To learn more about Warren Brander Real Estate, click HERE.