At that moment I understood that that little thief from San Antonio wasn’t stealing breakfast, but trying to keep four babies alive with the only thing she knew how to take without risk.

My name is Julián Ortega and I have spent twenty years delivering  bread and  pastries in the same neighborhoods, seeing scenes that for many would be shocking but for me became routine.

Baked goods

I have seen children steal hot rolls, people begging for  food without money, and animals roaming among stalls, all driven by the same basic impulse that moves everyone: to survive.

I thought that none of that could surprise me anymore, that hunger on the street had clear, repeated, predictable patterns, until that morning that broke that perception with a different scene.

I had the back doors open, arranging trays, checking orders, when I saw her appear silently, a small, brown dog, her body marked by lack of food.

His ribs were visible under his skin, his fur was dirty, his legs trembled slightly, but his movement was not chaotic, it was precise, as if each step was calculated.

He didn’t act like a desperate animal or a scared one; he moved with a clear intention, like someone who had already made a decision before acting.

He sniffed the trays once, unhurriedly, without distraction, ignoring the variety of options that would normally attract any animal in his condition.