Lots positive to tell you about this month, a fresh start on a new year, with a new municipal government promising to make much-needed improvements to the town - including eliminating the thousand-plus times buses batter our historic heart every day. We’ve heard this promise many times from many others. But, hey, if there is ever a time to be optimistic, it’s at the beginning of a new year, right?

The long-awaited and much-contested pedestrian bridge over the mouth of the Rio Cuale is finally operational. And people say they’re enjoying the views from it and the ease with which they can now stroll from the Malecon to the Los Muertos promenade.

The whimsical Colunga installation once again enlivens the Malecon with magical realism after being swept away by Hurricane Kenna in the fall of 2002. It’s heartwarming to see it back and watch everyone acting like kids when interacting with these one-of-a-kind sculptures, including chairs with big ears and long noses.

And the majority of the laterals along Fco. Medina Ascencio, the road into town from the airport, have been newly paved, so you get less rock and roll.

Have you ever told a joke that backfired on you? An April Fool’s-type gag put in print by a local English-language paper December 28, Mexico’s Day of the Innocents, did just that. Tradition permits pulling people’s legs and laughing about it that day. But most gringos, having no real clue about this culture, get “taken” ­ and don’t always like it. Under a byline hinting this was not to be taken seriously, “Paloma Innocent” or something similar, an article announced our international airport was going to be closed and leveled because it was built on contaminated soil. The fallout was incredible! More Canadians and Americans than you would imagine, some of whom have lived here for decades, were wandering around in a confused and concerned daze, asking everyone in sight how people were supposed to get in and out of the city from now on. Those working in real estate were particularly thrown, thinking, “How on earth am I going to be able to sell a million dollar house to someone who won’t be able to fly in or out of here? When learning it was “just a joke,” you should have seen the looks of relief on their faces!

Anyway, the Vallarta Tribune, with egg all over its visage, issued an apology. There are many morals to this story, including not writing “above” what your audience can comprehend and clearly separating what’s in jest from what isn’t. Another is never assuming anything.

For me, it was just another wacky and wonderful Vallarta incident. But a red star on my December 27, 2004, Daytimer page is there to remind me to take with a grain of salt everything I hear or read the following day. I’m still laughing over the rickshaw story that appeared in The Times the year before, saying they were going to be replacing taxis on our narrow, cobblestone streets...

Observing Roie and Rosie this week, the primary movers and shakers of the Friends of the Animals association, I have newfound respect for them. I always knew they were devoted to protecting animals and worked very hard doing it, but I had no idea they were so tenacious and creative.

They arranged, as they have many times before, for vets from outside the country to come here and volunteer their spaying and neutering skills to fix as many cats and dogs as possible ­ vitally important in a place where street animals are condemned to lives that are “nasty, brutal and short,” as Hobbes would say.

The pair blanketed the town with advance notice in both the English and Spanish media and everything was set, including an operating theater in the office of a local kindhearted vet. The night before they were to begin, that local vet was told in no uncertain terms by the powers that be that he was not to allow these free operations in his clinic or he would be blacklisted. So, another sympathetic vet was quickly found who was able to offer her space for one day only. Then they had to find another location for the rest of the week, which they did. Again, that vet was intimidated and said they had to go elsewhere.

Undaunted, they rented a locale that used to be a fish market for the balance of the week, vets Karen Hill and Dave Szentimrey from Calgary carrying on in less than ideal circumstances. Keep in mind that, while all this shifting of location was going on, Roie and Rosie had to keep spreading the word of where they were every day so people could find them!

All I can say is thank God for people who are bound and determined to do the right thing and alleviate suffering ­ whatever it takes. And my question is: How can the local veterinary association honestly believe that the kind of people who benefit from these free clinics could actually afford the $25 - $45 USD it costs to have this done? That’s a week’s pay for many of them.

My hat goes off to the visiting vets, who have probably never worked so hard in their lives. They could have been on chaises drinking pina coladas instead. Those of us who care about our fellow creatures thank you.

If you'd like to know how you can help the animals, contact Roie Griego, president, Friends of the Animals, at mexicoanimals@yahoo.com or check out www.petfinder.org/shelters/MX01.html or www.surfnetusa.com/AmigosdelosAnimales/home.html

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about what you’re reading, you’re encouraged to let me know at heather@mexmags.com.