I did not want a puppy. But now I have one! Here's the story of how it happened.
I originally wanted to get a dog for my house because in Paraguay, having a dog is like having a security alarm system installed in your house: they spend the night outside, and if anybody comes near your house, they start to bark, and if it's a "desconocido," (somebody they're not familiar with) they will attack them if they don’t leave. Plus, living alone, I figured it would be nice to have some company. I discussed it with some fellow volunteers, told them that I was officially looking for a puppy, and invited them to let me know if they got their hands on one for me.
But then I changed my mind, and I did NOT want to get a puppy. Turns out that my neighbor’s dog also guards my house, and actually sleeps on my porch almost every night. Whenever someone comes near either house, she lets us know. Plus, it occurred to me that if I get a puppy now, it’s going to be a puppy for most of my time here, and will take quite a while before it actually grows into a dog. And then I started thinking about all the responsibilities and costs of having an animal to take care of- buying food, being there every day to feed it (and finding somebody else to feed it if I’m not there, which is often), getting all its vaccines, neutering it, treating all its potential illnesses, catching all its potential illnesses myself, and spending all the time and energy that would be required to teach it how to behave the way that I want it to… Obviously a puppy is not as good of an idea as I had originally thought. No way do I have the time or money for that.
But then fellow volunteer Ashley called.
“Hey! I have great news! I found you a puppy!!!” she said.
Uh oh. How was I going to break the news to her? I needed to stall for more time… “Oh? Where did you find a puppy?” I asked her.
“My neighbor’s dog had a litter, and I happened to stop by the house just as they were about to drown the 2 female puppies. I told them I knew 2 people who wanted female puppies, so they gave ‘em to me for free!”
[In Paraguay, everybody wants male dogs. Most people kill the female babies or let them die because nobody wants them, and the average family can’t just keep them because they can’t afford to feed more dogs than they already have.]
“Wow, thanks so much Ash… but I kinda changed my mind about the puppy, I don’t think I want one anymore,” I replied. “Do you know of anybody else who would take her?”
Ashley hesitates. “Are you sure you changed your mind? I really think that once you see this puppy, you’re going to want to keep her. She’s absolutely adorable, and has a great personality. I do actually know some other people who are looking for puppies… but this puppy is super special and I really wanted to give you dibs on her. You know what? I’ll bring her to Villarrica on Monday so you can meet her, and if you still don’t want her, we’ll find somebody else.”
Fair enough. “Alright, see you on Monday, then!”
And the rest is history. When I saw the little tyke, at one-month old and 3 pounds, it was love at first sight. With a cute little button nose and beautiful coloring, my repressed motherly instincts could not resist. She licked my face when I picked her up, and her tiny body was trembling from the cold (it was only around 45 degrees that morning).
“Do you know what you want to name her?” Ashley asked me.
Crap. This was something that had not even crossed my mind. “Uhh… nope, not really.”
“Well,” she began, “I’ve been calling her Osa because my neighbors think the looks like a bear cub and they’ve been calling her Oso. But she’s a girl, so I figured if we’re going with the bear name, it should be Osa and not Oso.”
I peered at the puppy with a puzzled face to figure out what it was about her that made people think she looked like a bear… I figured it was because of her black/brown coloring, her big round belly (which I later realized was swollen due to the fact that it was chock-full of parasites), and the funny way she hobbled when she walked (which I originally thought was because she was still learning to walk, but later realized was actually due to a handful of bad pique infections in her feet.)
“Hey, that sounds like a great name to me!” I replied.” Osa it is.”
An old Paraguayan man promptly came up to us asking about the puppy, and reprimanded me for not carrying her inside my jacket to protect her from the cold, “She’s a beautiful puppy,” he said. “You have to put her inside your coat, like this, to help protect her from the cold. A pup that little won’t survive long at this temperature!” he advised. Good call, Gramps. From then on, Osa got used to traveling inside my jacket on my chest. It’s actually one of her favorite places to sleep. She’s so little that most people don’t even know that I have a dog with me unless I pull her out of my jacket to show them. I guess when people see me they just think I have a strange abnormal lump sticking out of my chest…
My first night with Osa was a disaster. I had no idea what to do with her, I was terrified that she was going to freeze to death in the night. Having peed and pooped all over the house throughout the day, I was not at all confident about the idea of letting her sleep on my bed. But, I didn’t want her to die. So, I prepped her doggie bed, which I had bought for her that day, laid plastic underneath her, in case she made a mess in the night, and covered her up in my bed to try to keep her warm. We did not sleep at all that night. Every 1 or 2 hours, she was up crying, meaning that she wanted to be let off the bed to poop or pee. So every 1 or 2 hours, I was up with her, letting her off the bed, turning on the light, and cleaning up her mess, before climbing back under the covers to begin yet another REM cycle that would not be completed.
This was not going to work.
So the next day I went downtown to buy a nice warm blanket for Osa, along with doggie food, doggie bowls, and 5 Liters of disinfecting bleach for my shit-and-piss-covered floor. I set up her doggie bed with her blanket in the kitchen, next to her food bowls, and blocked the doorway to the other rooms so she couldn’t try to come find me in the night. She fell asleep in her bed while I was in the kitchen eating dinner, and didn’t even notice when I left to go to sleep. She slept through the whole night (getting up on her own to poop and pee on the kitchen floor) and didn’t wake me up till morning with her little yips. (Cuz after 8 hours without eating, her worms were huuuuungry.)
There are many more Osa stories. I will post photos soon. But you can also Skype call me if you’d like to see her in video! Casey.conger1
