With respect to animals, we thought we figured that our lives were in balance. In terms of mascots, of pets, of companion farm animals, we had already grown way beyond our limit.
At this time our four legged dependents consisted of two dogs for protection, two cats for rodent management, and seven sheep for fertilizer production (we call them our little poopers). And to be honest, we had begun to consider getting another huge dog to someday replace our current seven year old big boy. (There's no better insurance plan than having a huge dog.)
Then this past May, someone dumped two dinky Tico dogs on our property. It's common that locals not neuter their pets, then when unwanted puppies arrive, they get dumped - often on foreigners door steps. Even though this was the first time it happened to us, I was chapped - and didn't even want to look at the animals.
They were a miserable couple of ugly, flea infested, starving mongrels - and all I wanted was to get rid of them, the sooner the better. Just being honest here.
Unfortunately it's not an uncommon practice for people to take their unwanted pets on a little drive into the farmlands and basically push them out the door, thinking they will be able to survive eating grasshoppers. I used to think this practice was so uncivilized and inhumane. I come from a civilized country where we have "animal shelters" entrusted with disposing of (killing) unwanted pets. (I'm just exploring - tongue in cheek - both sides of the excess animal management coin here.)
Baru, our white shepherd/husky, found the first little dog under a bush, howling and petrified. The next day our friend Emma found the second little dog under his car - both obviously nearly starved to death, shivering, and whining. Weighing only 5 pounds of skin and bones, they were severely malnourished, parasite ridden discards: the ultimate definition of pathetic. What we didn't comprehend was that they were only about 6 weeks old.
At the time we had three volunteers consisting of a couple from Italy and Argentina plus another from France. They immediately bathed them, gave them a full examination, made them a bed and got them something to eat. Honestly it was a godsend that these young people were here and took charge of the situation, rehabing the puppies back to life. I figured that before we could try to find homes for them, we needed to fatten them up a little so that they could be at least a little bit attractive.
Those three great volunteers treated them like their own dogs, taking wonderful care of them, feeding them, training them, treating them like part of the family - hoping that they would someday be civilized and look health.
We named them right off the bat. The cute one became Fhia, referring to a type of banana that we had just cut down for eating. The other one became Nabo which means turnip, referring to the seeds we were planting when we found her. That's where we started with these two inseparable sisters. Here, take a look at Fia the day we found her:
The first picture shows Fia the day she appeared here. The second foto shows Fia held by Lidio after being with us for less than a week.
They stayed skinny for weeks and weeks, making it seem like they were just permanently small, boney dogs that would never fill out. During this whole episode of the puppy dumping, the puppies lived with the volunteers day and night. In other words, I had nothing to do with them - and refused to have anything to do with them.
A few weeks later two new volunteers from Germany arrived and took over the puppie care duties - and within several weeks they had fallen hopelessly in love with Fhia. They decided they wanted to adopt Fhia even though they were traveling.
In the meantime, the girls continued to grow and grow, to run around together, and to play incessantly. They were inseparable.
After preparing Fhia's legal documentation for her trip to Mexico on the next leg of their travels, they got her a large-ish dog carrier, and began traveling around Costa Rica with the brightest light of their hearts: Fhia.
Here's a foto of the day all four of the volunteers left Musa Bambusa on their new adventures. Two Germans, an Italian and an Argentinian (from left to right). Both Fhia and Nabo are in the picture on the last day that the two sisters would ever see each other. Both had grown amazingly by that time and looked like real puppies.
So all at the same time, all the volunteers left and Fhia left Musa Bambusa to continue on their travels. But Nabo stayed behind as though abandoned. Up until that time the puppies only responded the four volunteers. That's who fed them, played with them, trained them, and put them to bed at night. After the volunteers left, Nabo refused to leave the volunteer cabin porch. She refused to come live at our home. She only wanted to sit in front of the cabin staring at the spot on the road where she had last seen her people and her sister. She sat there for a week, waiting for her sister to return. It was a real tear jerker.
Gradually she became entertained by Baru and Cora, our original dogs - and eventually by the two cats.
A month later when our next volunteer arrived, Nabo had bonded with us and WANTED to stay at our house. Specifically, she decided to glue herself to me. By that time I had stopped rejecting her, realizing that she actually possessed some precious qualities. And since we both finally realized she was a delightful little girl, we decided to stop trying to re-home her.
As a side note, our next volunteer was an amazing wood worker and he set about rehabing the front porch of the cabin. Now it looks gorgeous.
The name Nabo got feminized, becoming Naba and Nabie. She's been growing at over 2 pounds a week for months now. We had thought that she would be a dinky Tico lap dog but now she must weight over 35 pounds and still growing strong. Unfortunately her head isn't growing as quickly as the rest of her body so I'm hoping someday it catches up. For now she's a pinhead.
In the meantime we got some chickens and built two long awaited worm bins next to the sheep platform.
All girls, all layers, all friendly.
And the best news, best-best news is that after not being able to get the property macheteed (cut down) for 14 months, some macheteros showed up and gave us a hand. That's Jeff in the foto: in front of him the macheteros already cut and behind him was just waiting for the next day to be cut also. Thank God.
Now Nabie is huge compared to the size I thought she'd become. She's easy to train and just an all around good finca dog. She and Cora run around like playful sisters, happy to be alive.
Several days ago we got word that our young German friends had made it back to Germany . . . WITH Fhia. That's amazing. Those kids were determined. It's no surprise that they report Fhia doesn't want to travel anymore. I guess she got tired of being in the cargoholds of buses and airplanes. Just between you and I, Fhia's a pretty girl, really she's lots prettier than Nabie BUT Nabie is so pleasant, loving, clever, and now relatively huge - that I'm certain she is the best of the two sisters. The Germans would disagree, of course.
There you have it. The tail of two sisters. We'd love to hear about what's up in your world lately.
