You’ve got one guess what we named the dog. After much deliberation (not) and several false starts (Johnny, Jack, Persephone?) we’ve decided to stick with Sam. It fits his gentle nature, and we all agree on it so we have a winner.

Sam did finally bark. I’ve heard him bark now 3 times, once when he was lonely in the yard, and twice when he got stuck outside in the rain. He’s also getting comfortable with the cats, which is another way of saying that he thinks they are toys and that it’s just a matter of time before one of them gives him a good what-for scratching.

We’ve taken Sam to walk on the beach twice. Both times we’ve gone to the beach along the north side of Cancun, the one that runs along in front of where Puerto Cancun and Residencial La Playa are being built. The pictures below are from that beach.

Sam on the Beach

Sam hasn’t been interested in the water yet. But he’s very interested in the wildlife we’ve seen, the horse (and rider), the stray dogs, the pelicans, the frigate birds, and various other birds I can’t name. He’d better enjoy them all now because once those two developments are completed I don’t think he’ll see much besides people along in there. Well, the frigate birds will probably stick around, I’ve noticed that they seem to like to ride thermals above hotels. So they may take to all the concrete behemoths that are being built out there.

View from the beach at Puerto Cancun and Residencial La Playa

I’m actually impressed with how nice that beach is. Being kind of a beach snob I prefer the beaches out on the long side of Cancun’s 7, the east side. Those beaches are very exposed to the ocean and get bigger waves. And the color of the water there is magical. But this north beach is protected by Isla Mujeres, and so gets smaller waves. And there’s some sea weed there, which darkens the water. But there’s still something magical about the beach there. And the view is quite nice, you can get some perspective on Cancun’s Hotel Zone from there. I imagine we’ll keep walking there as long as we can find easy access with the dog. Once it’s all built up I’m sure the dog will be banished, just the way he is from the other beaches in Cancun which all have no dog rules.

Sam with his Frisbee

Sam also loves playing frisbee. He’s got that bring-it-back-and-usually-let-go instinct. He goes like a bat out of hell and races around, kicking sand up in a storm. And then suddenly he’s tired, and then you have to go pick the stupid frisbee up yourself.

The vet came by last night, made a house-call to help us catch up with cat shots. She had the results of a test on Sam’s skin problems. She says it’s an infection and he just needs a round of antibiotics. She also suggested that we may as well take off the huevos now, since he’ll need an antibiotic after that. This way he’ll only need the drugs once. And maybe losing his manhood will keep the little bugger from getting horny every time I pet him!

Cancun is full of street dogs. Anyone who comes here and doesn’t see homeless dogs didn’t see Cancun.

One issue which contributes to the problem is something that Mexico Way mentioned in her most recent post (about Diesel’s one remaining testicle), and that is that many people here do not spay or neuter their animals. If the animal is female they seem to want to let her have at least one litter before putting a stop to things. And if it’s a male they seem to feel it’s insulting to the dog to snip it’s huevos off. So the problem of homeless dogs is made worse because most of the dogs running around are fertile, whether they have an owner or not.

Ever since our Jasmin doggie died, a little more than a year ago, we’ve been thinking about when we might rescue a street dog. We’ve gone back and forth about it. Wanting it but not being ready to have to walk someone all the time. We’ve enjoyed the lack of barking, the lack of hair all over the house and the lack of responsibility. And we’ve also worried that our cats might not put up too well with a dog in the house again.

But lately we’ve been talking seriously about getting a dog. My husband has come home several times and has described seeing street dogs who wouldn’t give him the time of day, even though he called them. And each time my daughter and I have seen dogs in the street as we drive around we’ve commented, and have felt pulled.

But today school got out early. And I forgot all about it. And I left late to go get my daughter. And then the car failed; it blew one of it’s 4 ignition coils which means one of the spark plugs wasn’t working, so it was running on 3 cylinders. Basically I got halfway to the school and decided I couldn’t drive like that, it was too awful. So I called hubby who came and, guessing the problem, brought a spare ignition coil (this car has done this before).

While he was fixing my car I took his car and went to get the kid. And on the way back she and I saw the puppy. I’d seen it the other day. It’s black with a little brown on the head. It’s living near her school with mom and several other dogs. We kept driving, past the puppy, but decided to call hubby (who had fixed the car already) and ask him to come see it.

But when we all arrived at the last known location of the puppy he was nowhere in sight. I think he was in the bushes. Mom and the rest of the gang were there, but puppy was gone. But as we were driving away another dog came along and got itself attacked by the little gang of dogs. And my husband, who was ahead of me, put on the flashers and pulled over to go see this new dog.

It took all of about 30 seconds for the three of us to decide this was the dog. He’s just a Mexican street dog, and is kind of nondescript. But he’s got the sweetest personality I’ve ever seen in a dog. He’s just a total love.

So we had to bicker for a few minutes about who would take how much responsibility for him. And then it was decided and he was in the car with us.

Nameless Doggie Sleeping

The first thing we did for him was to feed him a proper meal of cat food mixed with a can of tuna fish (that’s what we’ve got, want some?). And the second thing was to give him a bath because he was one stinky dog; fortunately we still had a big bottle of flea and tick shampoo. After that he got walked over to the vet who gave him a shot and fretted over him a bit. And then he came home to hang around appreciating our fawning over him.

He is showing his nature to be entirely loving, though sometimes nervous. And he has yet to bark, I mean it, he has not barked ONCE since noon today when we found him. We even checked to make sure he had a tongue in there. I’ve never seen a dog who was so quiet.

Our next adventure will be trying to find a name we can all agree on. Hubby is calling him “Johnny” which does not come close to representing this dog’s nature imho. My daughter’s been calling him Jed, and Zeus and Persephone (!). I’ve looked up the various names of Greek, Roman, Aztec, Mayan and Egyptian gods but have yet to find the right one. I like the name Jupiter, but it doesn’t shorten well (“hey Jupe, come here”, ick). I also like Seth (Egyptian god of wind). And the name Jake seems to fit too. But in this family I think it will take something like a miracle for all of us to agree on just one name. We’ll see and I’ll keep you posted.

For now I’m calling him “Doggie”.

Busy, busy. Well I started the New Year SWEARING right and left I would take weekends off. Well, except for the first one, and the second one, and here I am working the weekend again. But I am finally catching up on all the work that’s been outstanding, so that’s a very good thing. And I am planning to take a day off during the week, so that will help me keep my balance.

The other thing I swore I would do when the year started was to eat more green vegetables, and I am managing that. Today I had spinach and tortellini for lunch and chased it with fresh carrot juice. So at least I’m getting the nutrition side of things right, for now, so far…

As I’ve mentioned previously I lucked out and got given both Lost season 1 and season 2 for Christmas. And I polished off season 1 in about 10 days. But season 2 is taking a little longer. And unfortunately my husband is now getting addicted to them also. Which means that I can’t watch any more episodes unless he’s present (huff, huff).

The last episode we watched was the one in which Michael killed Ana Lucia and shot Libby and wounded himself to make it look like not-Henry Gale did it during his escape. Oh the drama, all those buff people running through the jungle all the time, chased by polar bears and Others wearing fake beards, gambling for mangoes, pushing that stupid button all the time…what a great show.

Oh and I’ve been having these little pangs of guilt lately. I keep seeing things that are really beautiful and not having my camera there to capture them. The not having the camera part is where the guilt comes from.

The other day I was stretching before my morning run and I saw a whole series of perfectly round spider webs in a bamboo tree, they were all right next to each other, touching each other. The flies didn’t stand a chance. But the way the light hit the webs was simply magical, they just sparkled.

Then I looked up and the air was filled with butterflies. And these weren’t our normal little yellow flitty butterflies. They were huge butterflies, each as big as my hand (with fingers outstretched). And they were a soft blue color on top with a soft yellow underneath. I was just dying from camera deprivation. But it was captivating and so precious. Like a little fluttering gift of beauty from the universe.

But I am proud to say that I did manage to capture a few nice pix today. These first two are the reason I couldn’t make my bed when I got out of it this morning.

Moopie being Moopie

My Lilah

And this last one was shot while I was meeting a client in the hotel zone today…and yes, I did notice that I work in paradise.

The beach in front of the Bay View Grand, Cancun

Well there’s not much more to say. I’ve been doing some painting around the house and should go do some now before I lose all my daylight.

Oh, I’m a bad girl, blogging in the middle of the day, morning, whatever. I never let myself do it, but I’m edgy and need to vent before I can focus on work.

So it is me? Or are a lot of people grumpy lately? I went to the International Women’s Club of Cancun meeting on Saturday and what started as a very pleasant meeting degraded into pretty much a cat fight. Things “needed to be said”, whatever, there were “issues” that needed to be talked about, whatever, save it for a board meeting! That club does excellent work and I’ve made some of my best friends EVER EVER there, but this last meeting was tedious and I was not happy about how it went. I do hope that there can be some changes to how meetings are managed which will insure that everyone plays nice.

And then my favorite online place, the CancunCare.com Forum has been seeing its share of little spats lately. Steve and the mods there are handling it all beautifully, but I’m kind of stunned by how grumpy everyone is. I’m sure it will pass quickly since that crowd is usually quite tolerant but still I just want to tell everyone to lighten up.

And even the cats are jumpy, I’ve already broken up two fights today alone. It must be the stars, maybe we’re having some kind of massive Mars Transit? Or maybe it’s in the air? El Niño perhaps? Or is it the post Holiday blues? Perhaps? Likely? Everyone is probably grumpy because they just got their credit card bill with all their Holiday spending on it. That must be it, it’s credit card guilt grumpiness. Well, whatever it is I hope people get over it.

In spite of the grumpiness I must also say that several of my close friends have reached out to me recently with truly caring and deeply insightful things to say. And I really appreciate that. So even if the rest of the world is grumping around I know who my friends are!

Ok, enough, now…to work.

Since I moved here from the States I’ve lamented the lack of all kinds of things. Roads without potholes, peanut butter that doesn’t have lard in it, good coffee, Target, organic vegetables and yard sales.

And I mean real yard sales, rich people yard sales, yard sales with NICE things for sale, not the junky ones you get here once every blue moon where everything is overpriced crap.

Along the line of yard sales another thing that has been lacking here is some kind of decent classified advertising web site (you know I really MUST sell that Johnson Brothers tea set that I never use but keep dragging from house to house).

Well I was just reading the DroppedIn blog, way over there in Planet Merida, and it turns out that Malcolm and Jillian have just launched a sweet little free classified advertising site for the Yucatan peninsula, it’s called Yolisto.

There’s nothing much being advertised on Yolisto yet but it’s truly just a matter of time. It’s so pleasing to the eye and so user-friendly that I’m sure it will fill up with lots of tea sets I don’t need in no time at all.

It’s not the same as a real live American-style yard sale but it’s so close that I can almost smell the bargains…sniff, sniff.

• Yolisto: Yucatan Classified Advertising
• Malcolm & Jillian’s DroppedIn Blog

December hit me like a ton of bricks! An extra big, extra heavy ton of bricks. Just ask my clients, every one of them learned the word “patience” in December since I got next to nothing done for any of them. The first couple of weeks I TRIED full time to work. Which meant I sat in front of this infernal machine and stared at it for 10 hours a day, feeling guilty and useless. Finally around the 3rd week of December I decided to give up completely and retreat from the working world.

As soon as I gave up I felt better, and less useless. I touched up the paint job in the upstairs of my house, I painted one wall of my office a bright LIME green (if that doesn’t stave off despair nothing will). I performed sponge-paint magic on one wall in my kid’s room. I also did some cooking, helped organize a couple of parties, rearranged my office and watched the entire first season of the Lost series on DVD.

But the most rewarding thing I did in December was to make and strengthen friendships. Several close friends are now closer than ever and I made a new friend who ROCKS!

December was month of parties, I think attended a total of 12 of them and turned down a few others. Parties mean lots of schmoozing I guess, talking and talking and listening and listening and laughing and trying not to over-do it with all the booze and all the food that’s always around. I did pretty well avoiding the drink, I often get bored with drinking at parties after just a few drinks, so I usually leave parties pretty much sober, not always, but often. I did a little worse with food maybe, but that’s largely due to the fact that I cooked several cheesecakes and well you know how that is. Cheesecake is God’s chosen food after all.

But when there wasn’t a party going on I was morose much of the time. I think it’s due to all the crap that’s happened to me in December. Too many memories. First off I think that holidays are just hard, it’s hard when my kid leaves to spend Christmas in the States with her Dad. But it’s also hard when family comes here. When people come here I feel the weight of their expectations, they expect me to cook and clean and entertain and stay in a good mood. And when no one comes it feels empty and lonely and wrong.

In December there are the two anniversaries of my dad’s death, and the 10 days in between which I always spend remembering how we were just waiting for him to go. Every year it’s like I’m in suspended animation during that time. I don’t function, I float, I watch, I wait, I cringe. But I don’t function.

And then there’s another tragedy in December. Seven years ago I lost a pregnancy in December. It was ectopic, meaning the dividing egg was lodged in my fallopian tube. Two days before Christmas my tube ruptured, resulting in the worst pain I’ve ever had in my life (next to childbirth with no anesthetic which I highly recommend as a punishment for your worst enemies). After bleeding internally for 12 hours my [now ex-] husband took me to the doctor. They sent me in for surgery immediately. They got in there and decided to clean out the tube and sew it up. But they missed some of the cells, which kept on dividing. So 6 days later the same tube ruptured again and I was back under the knife for a second time. This time they took the tube out. [I now how an ovary that is not attached to anything and moves freely around in my belly…when I get an ultrasound they always have to go hunting for it…]

When I went in for that second surgery I was certain I was going to die. Certain I would never see my little girl again. Certain she was about to have her mama die. And my husband didn’t get it, or couldn’t face it or something. I told him and he laughed it off. I was so alone and so scared and he wasn’t there emotionally. He was vacant.

When I woke up in that recovery room I was truly amazed that I was alive. I could not believe it. And that was when I realized that life is too frickin’ short to spend with someone who can’t be present when you are scared shitless. Why the hell was I doing his laundry if he couldn’t even hold my hand when I was terrified? So I got out.

And then I found Arturo. And I never feel alone now. Never. Even when we’re a thousand miles apart we are connected. When I touch him I feel completed. When he hugs me I feel cherished and honored and loved. And when I get the slightest ache or pain he begs me “don’t die, I love you”. If that doesn’t fix what ails me nothing will.

And so now I kiss December goodbye. Month of so many memories and so much change for me. And I start January off with the realization that if December is always going to hit me that hard that I had better PLAN for it. So this year I’m vowing to take the WHOLE MONTH off!!

Last night at a New Year’s Eve party my friends were asking each other what their New Year’s resolutions were. For some reason I didn’t feel like I could boil it down to a one-liner so I just said “to each more green vegetables”. But later as I thought it over I realized that if there could be only one goal for 2007 that would be it.

I’m not one to actually make resolutions. If I need to change something I change it now, I don’t need a special date to do it. And I also don’t have a lot of interest in promising myself that I will change things that I think I might not actually change. What was it that Yoda said? “Try not. Do…or do not, there is no try.” And that’s it for me. I don’t want to “try” to change things, I just want to change them or skip the stress. Trying sucks.

But truly there are things I do want to change this coming year. And I wish they were all simple. But there are many, and they have layers of complexity and they are not all going to be easy to change. So I will pick a few of them as goals for the first few months of the year, and I will go from there. But the first thing I’m going to do is make sure that I go buy some broccoli, that’s green, right?

I have this cat who purrs when you kiss the top of her head. If you try petting with your hands her you risk blood and pain but if you kiss the top of her head she will purr every time.

This cat was hit by a car last summer, while I was off gallivanting around the great state of Oregon. Miraculously, she survived without a broken bone, but one of her rear leg’s tendons was not so lucky. She is now missing the tendon along the back of her right rear leg and that means she cannot walk normally, since she cannot get up on her rear paw the way a normal cat walks. Instead she effectively walks on her elbow, which has no paw pad, and so it’s always kind of raw. And I think that this cat is always in a bit of pain because of this.

We’ve tried various remedies and bandages to solve this cat’s problem but nothing, so far, has worked. We will keep trying. But in the mean time she has become the Alpha cat in our house, dominating all the other 8 cats; she dictates who eats from which plate, who can sit on her windowsills and who gets the most attention from the humans in this house.

I found this cat when she was scarcely 2 months old. She was starving and she was purring. Back then you could pet her all you wanted. But I think that constant pain makes one bitter, pain has a way of making life so hard that nothing but a kiss on the top of the head will fix you. My poor Lilah. It is my solemn wish that we find a way to help her live a pain-free life. Maybe then she won’t feel the need to be such a dominant bitch.