How did we become puppy parents this weekend? Friday afternoon we rented a car, picked up Peter, and headed for the Pacific. The drive took longer than expected, and it was hot and humid when we arrived, and already dark, but we found a hotel and some delicious fish and called it a night.In the morning, after a walk down the beach we were having breakfast under the palapa on the beach outside our hotel when we saw some kids walk by and stop to play with what we at first thought was a little cat out in the sand. They left behind a tiny yowling puppy, flea-bitten, hot, and hungry, but otherwise in pretty okay shape.
The kids came back by and told us it wasn't theirs, and our waiter explained to us that local street dogs sometimes abandon runt puppies on the beach, maybe knowing that they can't feed them all. After weighing our options, we decided we there's was nothing to do but take her with us. She isn't more than a few weeks old, hadn't even managed to get herself to the shade, and the big vultures nearby looked ready for a puppy lunch. So we went into town, got her some water, some flea powder, some puppy food, gave her a bath, and little Tuxtla cleaned up pretty well. The hotel owners were very nice and helped us find a box for a temporary bed. She cried all night, but has made it with us back to San Cristóbal with us and is looking much better. Here is the castle Peter made for her:
So now what? We can't actually keep her, but figured if we clean her up we can probably find someone here who would like to have a puppy. Peter's roommates are good puppy-parent candidates, or we'll check with neighbors and the local hippies. She is really pretty adorable.
Our unplanned perrito occupied much of our beach time, but we also managed to eat a lot of fresh fish, lounge in hammocks, swim in the sea, and at night we walked down to a nearby turtle sanctuary and watched 600 or so day-old sea turtles get released into the ocean.
(They have to be released a little ways up on the beach because in about 15 years their tiny turtle brains need to remember where this beach is so they can come back to lay their eggs. Apparently just a few yards of walking on it will do. Not all of them caught on right away, so we got to help turn stray turtles toward the sea.)
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4 comments:
i was so excited in the beginning - i thought lewis and mr. k might have a new friend. but i was wondering how you would get the puppy back to boston, and what you would do with her in your apartment. oh well.
Yeah, bringing her back to Boston won't be an option, but we'll find her somewhere nice to be here. It will at least be nicer than the hot vulture beach.
But as I speak Jess and the puppy are outside falling in love with eachother.
"Tuxtla"?
"Tuxtla" is the name of the city in which we had to spend a long time with our puppy sitting unhappily in traffic. We never really settled on a name though. At first we thought she was a boy and called her mostly Taquito. Once we learned she was a girl we considered Playa, Lisa (after the fish on the dinner menu), and some others too. But now she probably has a new name... (see next post)
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