Street Dogs

Hola Todos!

How are you all? Well, today I want to tell you guys a bit about the Chilean Street Dog. I have always thought that when people say there are street dogs all over Central and South America that it is an exaggeration. Today I can honestly say that there definately are street dogs all over Chile. These dogs are quite annoying because they think they own the sidewalk, eat trash and spread it all over the city, need to be avoided when they´re excited over a dog in heat, follow us when we walk to school, chase after cars, etc. I´ve lost count how many dead dogs I have seen on the side of the road...too many. They love to chase cars, bikes, and runners and unfortunately many die when they get too close to a car and get hit. Anna and I have also seen a lot of abandoned puppies and it breaks our hearts to not take them home or take care of them in some way. I am not sure why the government doesn´t round them up and put them in a pound, but they are a part of daily life in Chile.

On a more positive note many of these street dogs are really sweet, they just need a home. There was one Anna and I met in San Pedro de Atacama that was so sweet and would have made a great "home" dog. Believe it or not many of the nicer street dogs make it into the schools and it is totally normal to see a dog wandering around the school campus looking for someone to pet them and for a little food. The picture that I included is of one of the "regular" street dogs that comes to my school, but there are many others that come and go. I´ve had to guard the door as my students walk into my classroom so that one of the dogs doesn´t sneak in too! I know that for many of you guys this is hard to imagine-picture :) since we fix all our dogs to control the numbers and round up any strays.

I did see a program on T.V. here where the government did round up a bunch of dogs that someone had on their property but wan´t taking good care of them. The government fed them, got them medical attention, and then found homes for all of them. One of the people who came to take one home was an American lady who flew all the way here for a rescue dog!! I find that kind of crazy! Anna and I have taken in three kitties, but they sort of fell into our laps so to speak (we didn´t pay over a 1,000 dollars to fly here and pick up an animal!). I have also heard the the gov. is trying to inact a law or some sort of initiative to cut back on the street dog-cat problem. Hopefully they are successful!

Well, I guess since I´m talking about street animals I should tell you guys that our poor Mamma cat died! It happened about three weeks ago :(.....I went out one morning to turn on the Calefón and discovered Mamma cat dead with her three little kitties snuggling into her. I am not sure what happened, but Anna and I know that she was in perfectly good health the day before. I talked with my English co-teacher and she said that some people in the city put out poison the get rid of street cats so that is most likely what happened. Very sad :(. But the three kitties Toby, Rocky, and Lucy are doing great and growing fast. I feel like one of those mom bloggers when I say they are growing too fast! ;) They were semi-wild, but we´ve got them so that they start purring before we even touch them, ha ha. Unfortunately we don´t make much money so we feed them only when we can...so, em, yeah feeding time is like World War III!! We practically throw the food bowl at them and they tear into it like savages. It is funny to watch but annoying at the same time. I will try to post a picture of them now that they are older.

Ok, well I´m not sure if that was interesting or not but it is part of our life here in Chile so I thought it would be worth including. Have a great day and I´ll talk to you all soon! ¡Hasta luego!