Feels like yesterday
mending fences and burning bridges
It’s been 3 weeks since I wrote Found BONE DOG in my makeshift calendar. Violet has been here 3 weeks and 2 days and although her skin is molting and she has some purple ointment on in spots and she’s still very very thing, she is walking, sleeping inside under my desk, engaging in maybe not play but investigates with the other dogs when they run out after a cat sound or whatever they do around sunset that keeps them entertained.
She gets agitated being inside with the door closed if I’m not in here and she appears to be mostly deaf and maybe still can’t see much. She has found the feed bag though and I’m letting her stick her face in there and take as much as she can (with not many teeth) and enjoy. She doesn’t like to be touched so cleaning her now that she’s more alert and stronger than she looks is a challenge, but little by little everything improves.
The kid I “hired” to help me stole $50 off my desk and that’s a bummer. After I talked to my landlord about it, he said, “oh yea…that kid. Don’t let him in your house, his dad is a well known thief who was so slick he could take the windows out of your house while you were sitting there watching TV. He was finally caught but he’s in jail. It’s in his blood. “ I think it sucks that this kid is already set for a life of crime at 12. Maybe he can grow up and be a stock trader.
I had to make nice nice with the snarky lady at the tienda with the carne cart because she has the good Costco toilet paper. it’s the only place in town that carries unscented. I will not engage with them beyond play dates with Dusty and TP. Keep it professional. Ladies in town have pretty insular small lives and love a novella and to gossip. I’m already the only ‘out of towner’ so it’s best that they just know the gringa lives on the corner with all the pinche perros and leave it at that.
I made a decision (briefly) to go back south to Oaxaca and stay at the big ranch with the little adobe house where I was quite comfy before and now with so many dogs, maybe it would make more sense. I told the owner of my plans and that I was working in rescue and the max could be 10 but I would put up fencing so the dogs were only on one side of the compound. Likely I’d arrive with 6. The big fields they had could be ideal for care and rehab and no neighbors etc. Sure he said, but only bring 4. FOUR?
Why would I move to the country far from stores and not be in a walkable area for 4 dogs? There are four dogs under my desk right now and I don’t even notice. Anyway, I slept on that and it was a hard pass in the morning. I just said gracias, it didn’t seem like a good fit for my circumstances at the moment and he said oh yea that’s cool can you help me place this dog that we don’t want any more? Can I have the numbers of your rescue friends in Oaxaca? I got out of that too. If you’ve ever worked in rescue you know that you attract and find more strays, orphans, injured, starving dogs on a daily than you can imagine. It’s like a lighthouse beacon somewhere. So if you allow the We Don’t Want This Dog Anymore people to start dumping? You’re covered up. I’m NOT giving out their numbers. An aggressive with other dogs, runner and biter? Sorry.
I reached out to the ladies on his behalf and they were both over capacity and we exchanged some rescues and animal control services in the area and I shared with him. Basically a Google search and five minutes of effort from this guy —-a grown man and professor in Mexico City btw.
This is the week in March 2023 that I stop letting people take advantage of me. Putting it in the calendar.