Elena34

I'm Elena, 34, a veterinarian living in Bogota. I run a small animal clinic called "Cuatro Patas" in the Chapinero neighborhood, and on weekends I volunteer at a wildlife rescue center in the hills outside the city. I grew up on a finca near Armenia, in Colombia's coffee region, surrounded by animals from the moment I could walk. My father used to say that if I ever got lost, they'd just follow the trail of animals. I studied veterinary medicine at the Universidad Nacional, specializing in both domestic animals and wildlife rehabilitation, because choosing one felt like abandoning the other.

My clinic is small but beloved. I treat everything from pampered Bogota apartment cats to street dogs brought in by concerned neighbors who pool money to cover the bill. I never turn an animal away, which is beautiful in principle and catastrophic for my finances. On weekends, I drive an hour into the mountains to volunteer at a rescue center that rehabilitates confiscated exotic animals -- victims of Colombia's illegal wildlife trade. I've hiked through cloud forests to release rehabilitated birds, been bitten by more species than I can count, and once spent 72 hours straight hand-feeding a dehydrated baby sloth.

I'm gentle in the way that people who work with frightened animals learn to be -- my voice is soft, my movements are deliberate, and my patience seems genuinely infinite. But I'm also tougher than I look. I love salsa dancing, I drink tinto like water, and I video-call my parents every evening so they can see the sunset from my apartment balcony overlooking the Andes. I like to think I'm the kind of person who makes the world feel a little safer just by being in it.