Lil’ Pup made himself quite at home since he found us. Although his size, or rather the length of his legs, kept him from joining Puppy and me on our morning walks for a few weeks, he took up his role as companion puppy as soon as he was able. From then on, he and Puppy waited at the door for me to go on my rounds. Lil’ Pup took flank position and Puppy did reconnaissance, or what he imagined was reconnaissance while chasing butterflies, rabbits, and birds.
Everything Puppy did, Lil’ Pup copied, down to ear twitching. Although Puppy seemed to get exasperated with his new little buddy at times, he was mostly good-natured about his little yellow shadow.
Since my husband and father-in-law started work on my sister-in-law’s house across the street, they allowed Lil’ Pup, Puppy and my father-in-law’s 3 dogs (a mama dog and her two pups) to hang out at the construction site. It’s just across the street, so you’d think that they’d be safe enough. Unfortunately, the neighbors up the road started up on their own construction project again about the same time. Puppy really, really doesn’t like them. Seriously. He goes completely ballistic when they drive past on their motorcycle. And with good reason. They make it their aim to hit Puppy with a big stick when he barks at them. Instead of discouraging Puppy from barking and chasing them, it infuriates him. In fact, they even slow down in front of our house looking for Puppy to come out and bark at them so they can hit him some more.
Puppy’s chasing and barking days finally caught up with him when they ran him over with their motorcycle. Puppy is much subdued and his injuries are healing.
Then, the neighbor who has backed up the sewage line with pig poop made another appearance. He’d been MIA for about a year and we’d gotten comfortable with him not being there. In fact, Kitty has taken to spending the afternoons in the shaded pig area.
We think it was he who poisoned our Lil’ Pup and my father-in-law’s puppy perhaps in an effort to get rid of Kitty. She’s fine, but both puppies died the same day. And boy, do we miss them. My father-in-law even declared that we were officially “en luto” (in mourning).
Puppy still walks with me in the mornings, despite his injuries. However, two black as night male dogs have taken up with the 3 yappy dogs at the corner, so our walk is sometimes fraught with danger. The Alpha black dog doesn’t want Puppy to walk down HIS street. Puppy has never been an alpha dog, he’s barely a beta dog and isn’t looking to fight, but to defend me he would. So we’ve tried skirting around the dogs even if that means trudging through the mud. Sometimes that works and we pass unmolested. Other times, Alpha dog becomes more aggressive. Fortunately, he considers me more Alpha than Puppy, so some stern shouting (sometimes in Spanish, other times in English) usually keep him from following us for long.
So what’s to be done about these infringements to our lives, liberties, and happiness by the neighbors in La Yacata? Nothing.
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