Thursday, February 13, 2014

Another "Almost" Dog


Dogs of all types are everywhere in Sayulita. Big. Small. Wearing a collar. Strays. Playing with other dogs on the beach. Laying on the street. Almost getting hit by cars. You name it, I’ve probably seen it here.

Even though they’re everywhere, one still managed to creep up on me. The four of us were walking home from school last Thursday. We passed a few dogs and I didn’t think anything of it. But after a few blocks, it became apparent that we picked up a new friend—an older German Shepherd. He followed us along the cobblestone paths through town, up the giant mud hill, along Punta de Mita Highway, and finally to outside of our house.

Erin and Alyssa being followed 
home by a new friend.

Cynhia and I were giddy with excitement. After the Princess fiasco we had kind of given up on finding a dog. For those of you who don’t remember, we had gone out of our way to take a dog in, only to find out that she already had an owner. But now, a dog actually followed us home. He chose us!

I guess he's here to stay!

Erin and Alyssa were not thrilled, went inside, and slammed the door on poor Charlie’s face. He just looked up at Cynhia and I with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and won our hearts over. We ran inside and scrounged up a bowl of water and any human food we thought dogs could eat. When he rejected our tortillas, Cynhia tried feeding him the remains of an old block of cheese, which he LOVED. We later found out that dogs are not supposed to eat cheese. Oops! At least he enjoyed it in the moment…

The new dog enjoying water and
posing with his not-so-favorite tortillas.

He sure liked cheese...He sure 
would fit into Wisconsin!

After dinner Cynhia and I checked outside and he was STILL there. So we told Erin and Alyssa we were “taking “a walk into town,” but I think it was obvious that we really just wanted to play with our new dog.

The walk was perfect. We brainstormed names for him and finally settled on the perfect one: Juan Pablo Max Piper Charlie, AKA Carlos! He didn’t respond to it, but followed us nevertheless. During our walk we discovered that people LOVE Charlie. An American man started speaking to him in Spanish, saying things like “hola viejito” (hello oldie). When we stopped at Wa Ki Ka for ice cream a father and son started whistling at Charlie, trying to get his attention. Once they lured him over and started petting him the father asked Cynhia “Is this your dog.” The look on his face was priceess when she said no, and then he proceeded to look for a bathroom to wash his hands.

Charlie followed us to the beach, where we watched the sunset. Because he was being such a good companion, we stopped at the grocery store on our way home to pick up some dog food. He waited patiently outside for us, and walked home with us with his tail wagging. Along the way we kept stopping to try to teach him how to sit, and then would reward him with a handful of dog food.

Charlie enjoying the sunset in the sand.

Cynhia attempting to teach Charlie how to sit...

The next morning Cynhia and I were overjoyed to find that Charlie had stayed outside of our door all night long. Finally! We have a dog! He walked us to school, and we left him outside. We thought he would wait for us until the end of the day, since he had already done so the night before. But at the end of the school day, Charlie was nowhere to be found. So even though Charlie was more promising than Princesa, he ended up being another dog that didn’t quite pan out as a pet.

Over the next couple of days we thought every dog we saw was Charlie. Over the weekend though, Cynhia actually did see him. The way she talked about the interaction made it sound like she ran into an ex-boyfriend. “He wouldn’t even acknowledge me” and “I think there’s somebody else” were phrases she used to describe the Charlie sighting. We now know that Charlie does in fact have other “owners,” or rather, people that feed him. One man feeds him consistently and is seriously considering taking him back to the States.

So I guess Charlie is just another dog that wasn’t meant to be ours. But there is still hope! Two of my students have a dog that just had 4 puppies over the weekend…

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