One Less Street Dog
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”.
