Beyond the Peace Corps and Through the Looking Glass: Reveling in that good old Unconditional Puppy Love

It's been a while since I've had a dog - maybe 8 years now - and I've missed the love that surrounds you when you return home - that wriggling bundle of tongue-licking, whining energy that wraps itself around you, without any criticism or performance review!

And I'm reveling in it now....as well as mopping up the occasional accident that accompanies those wriggling bundles.

I blame PCV Emily Palese for dalawang tuta ko (my two puppies). We all know what a sucker I am for any kind of animal - I'd take anything in (evidence the disastrous "Sparky" who marked our nice wooden furniture as his territory - Dave told me to "nuke" him....but did find him a home). Emily is worse than I am about pets, and reminds me of my college roommate, Janet Herbruck, who was incensed when the San Diego rescue took an oxygen resuscitation unit from a sea lion to use on a human who needed it (I think she actually wrote to the editor of the paper). (And how bizarre is this - before I posted this, she and I reconnected via Facebook and are making plans to travel SE Asia after I close service! Borneo orangutans, here we come!)

After Mid Service Training, many of us PC volunteers returned to Pension Natividad in Malate for several days to complete our medical and dental exams (mine was pestilence- and fungus-free - verified by 3 stool samples viewed under the microscope for parasites). In addition to visiting the weekend farmers' market in Makati, I finally got to visit Cartimar - the area of Manila where breeders sell their wares to pet stores throughout the country via the Cartimar middleman. There are perhaps 100 pet stores here - and I was looking for a hedgehog. My "daughter" Aja told me I must go there just to see the place, and encouraged me to get a hedgehog, as well as see the sharks (the salt water aquariums were unbelievable).

Emily is a pet lover, and although we had just met, we had that commonality binding us....so we set off from the market directly to find Cartimar.

Emily is a more extreme pet lover than me - she lectured the sellers of Rottweiler pups about the ills of docking puppies' tails rather than leaving them as god had intended. We looked at several puppies and I considered buying one (a Chocolate Lab for 7,000 pesos, with papers and shots) - but then said that I'd wait until the end of my service. Emily's response was, "But, think of all the love and bonding you would miss over the next year." Uh oh - definitely not the type of person I should have come here with.

Then we found these two 'hybrids' (Labrador and Japanese Spitz) and my heart melted - of course they were in an open cage so that we could pick them up.

The pups' first 'home'

When I said "Maybe", Emily thought "We'll take three" - we'll at least I limited that.

I mean, I had told people that I was going to take it easier this next year and travel more around Palawan and internationally - what was I thinking? I guess I was thinking that I wanted a special pal and someone to cuddle. And, although I never would have believed it, our last dogs - Bayley and Coast, were littermates and so easy as a pair - Two IS better than one. So - of course, I got 2 puppies! As they say, loca-loca...I doubt that I need to translate.

And this was BEFORE I left on the overnight bus to hike into Batad and go on to Sagada for Thanksgiving. Thankfully, Matt suggested that I find a kennel for them since they would be placed in the cold, dark cargo area of the bus and be traumatized. So, the day before we left for Batad, I found a kennel - not American standards as I found out when I picked them up coated with tics, but they were okay. Another PCV, Megan, also got a dog - a Rottweiler pup (she didn't have the problem that Emily did with the tail docking), and texted me that Cebu Pacific Airlines would not allow them on the plane if they weren't at least 2 months old and had their rabies shots. Oh Shit - they were only about a month old which is way too early for rabies shots - what was I going to do?

Succumb to national corruption of course. I'm sure that's how all corruption starts - thinking "Well....I just need to do or have x, y or z - and I will only do it this time". So, I asked a vet to give me a doctor's certificate stating that they were 2 months old and that I would give them rabies in Puerto at 4 months old and that I had a vet already in Puerto....all of this is true. What wasn't truthful was the document that he gave me (for 800 pesos) - he wrote that they were 4 months old and that he had given them their rabies vaccination on October 12th.....which is the date that they were born!!! (well, I don't know that for sure, but Ashley's birthday seemed the right approximation).

And things went as typical here - show the official looking papers and all is wonderful - they let me on the plane (for 700 pesos) - no questions asked. That was after spending a rather sleepless night with the pups at Pension Natividad (the home-away-from-home where PCVs stay when in Manila) in a room that could have doubled for a closet.

All the PCVs LOVED playing with the pups, and babysat them so that I could run out to Robinson's Mall and get dinner and pasalubong to bring home with me.

That night we had a contest as to their names - Ate and Kuya (Sister and Brother) were popular, but when I told someone this in the cab, the driver turned around when I said, "Kuya" - which is also a term of respect for a driver....so that might not work well when I called them at night to come in...I might have hundreds of sisters, brothers and trike drivers running to my door.

Possibilities were George or Phil (a possibility since it is the PHILippines - but would I need to name the girl Philippa?) Then we moved on to Philippine fruits - Pinya, Durian, Papaya, Buko, Dalandan, etc. The lalake (boy) is a sorrel or chestnut color - rather red - so I settled on

Rambutan

Rambutan (Rambi for short) - a red tropical fruit here that is weird and hairy on the outside but sweet and delicious inside!

Pinya (pineapple) was a close runner up for the babae (girl), but the name, Chika-Chika was my favorite - in Tagalog it means something close to "Gossip or Rumour". My neighbors stare at me when I call her, wondering what in the world I'm doing now.

It was a hot flight home and I rescued them as quickly as possible, giving them water and carting them outside of the airport so that I could pay for a cheaper trike ride home. We got home in one piece and they seemed to like it, especially the cool tile floors

As well as playing outdoors

They helped with the laundry

They liked eating together

Of course I took them to work with me for the first couple days - Ofel and Mon just shook their heads, while Bart asked me to clean up their pee in the middle of a Chamber meeting..... On the third day, I was in the Chamber office, doing paperwork and received a call from the Peace Corps - "We are having an emergency drill - please proceed to your consolidation point...check into the hotel and wait for all the others." What? Right now? Should I go home and get my passport? "No - proceed to your consolidation point immediately." Well, okay, it's only 11am, but, sure, I'll go. I was the first one there - me and the pups (who were with me at the time of the call). OMG - there is a television in the room - and Airconditioning. I may be in heaven - I've not seen television for 8 months now... So, I took a shower, and returned to see this