more dog stories??

One of the things our house has too many of is DOGS.
We have the “family” dog, Kona, a retriever.
We have Chava, a rottweiler mixed with something, Tani’s dog that doesn’t really live with her b/c she doesn’t have a yard, and it get’s lonely with no other dogs around.
We have the Chihuahua named Bonhomme, that Johanne’s family gave her to help with her asthma.
One of the daughters was given a toy dog, maybe poodle? By her boyfriend, it’s name is Tita.
AND There is Tyson, an old boxer that is only with us until Taba moves into the house they are fixing up.
Unfortunately, all these dogs are nice. In Mexico people value guard dogs. Tyson barks at men and strangers, but even he just wants to cuddle.

When Taba got her at midnight a few weeks ago, I didn’t stay up to say hi to her. I knew I’d see her in the morning. I was up before anyone else, and while in the kitchen there was a doggie nose trying to open the door. The dog was breathing heavy, and wagging it’s butt like it was excited to come inside, but I had never seen it before. We gets strays at our house every once in a while, but they usually leave pretty quickly, so seeing a strange dog wasn’t shocking to me.
I noticed it was a boxer and I immediately pulled the door closed, not wanting to be mincemeat. Then it occurred to me, maybe this is Taba’s dog? I opened the door again and said “Sit.” Noticing how nicely he followed instructions I figured it was safe to grab his collar, and sure enough it had Missouri tags. I let him in the house and he bounded over to the water bowl, lapped it up like he hadn’t drank since prohibition and then charged up the steps to where his owner was sleeping.

Since he’s been here, I’ve noted that he’s really good with kids, even when one of them puts the Chihuahua’s leash on him. It looks pretty funny, such a big dog, with a delicate leash. And he never looks at you straight, he always tilts his head.

Last night one of the little girls was feeding the dogs, and she had a bowl of food high above her head and was walking to where she would put it down, but then somebody talked to her and so she walked back into the kitchen and three of the dogs were following her, eyes on the prize, it was HILARIOUS. Back and forth and back again. The three of them could barely fit side by side in the hallway.

Luckily people think they are guard dogs and generally stay away from our house if they are outside. They shout to us from across the road, but that’s a pretty normal way of alerting someone who doesn’t have a fence that you’re at their house. Most other people have fences/walls/barriers in this town, but I think it represents what we do, that we are open to people and gracious. Today I gave away 120 or MORE cans of green tea that had been donated to us. The kids don’t like it, and the rehabilitation center stopped by seeing if we had any thing to donate to them. I think of it as re-gifting, and boy does it feel good! I love that not only do we receive, but that we give as well.

(I didn’t just give them green tea, I’m not that stingy.)