Update On Rojo

Not a lot been going on around here lately, the calm after Christmas and before Carnaval.
We went to a meeting in the park on Sunday that I had heard about on the TV news. On Monday Roy went to try and find the office that we needed from the meeting. He couldn't find it and our landlord wasn't home so I went across the street to the little store and asked the owners if they knew where it was. After some discussion they knew where it was and I was told to hop into their car and they would go there. She drove us there and was even going to wait for us while we did our business. We told her we could get a bus home rather than have her wait. Man, people are so good to us, can't believe that. Anyway after much discussion we managed to get our business done. Good deal.
Yesterday I stopped off at Cynthia and Mikes, along with Bliss and we had a visit with them before my spanish class.
Rojo hasn't been around everyday for his food. There is a hot little number in the neighborhood somewhere and he has been following his new girlfriend around lately. Not too interested in food, he did show up one day though and gobbled it down before quickly heading back up the street. Doggy love!

Back To The Normal Views

Back to normal life today with a picture of a happy Rojo and also of last nights sunset.

Another Street Dog Post

You are probably getting sick of reading about the street dog, Rojo, that we feed everyday. Reading Waynes Blog yesterday reminded me of some photos that I had taken of Rojo eating. He is a very friendly dog and doesn't seem to mind cats, which is unusual. He never seems to chase them or bark at them or bother them in anyway. One day when we were watching him eat we noticed that one little street kitten joined him at the food. He took no notice of it and seemed to leave it 1 piece of food. We found this amusing. This day he must have been feeling generous as he left the kitten 3 pieces of food! Who says that we can't all get along and share what we have with those less fortunate? Just another lesson to us humans from the animal kingdom.



When we returned from Tucson, we didn't see Rojo for a day or so which was very unusual and then one evening he appeared. I took his food down to him and he looked a little rough around the edges. He was limping and holding one leg up in the air and his head was banged up over one eye. The leg did not appear to be broken though, more bruised, as when he felt like it he would stand on it. He seemed happy to see me though and didn't seem to be in pain. As I was feeding him the landlords daughter in law was chatting with another neighbor lady and they informed me that he was going to die. Apparently while we were gone one of the landlords sons had accidently hit him with his work truck and they expected him not to make it. As he is a street dog it didn't occur to anyone to take him to the vet, it is survival of the fittest with these animals. I took a good look at him and he seemed to be healing fine and to be in no pain, so wasn't sure why they thought he was going to die. At this point he didn't seem to need the services of a vet. I couldn't understand a certain word they were saying and couldn't find it in my dictionary and of course this was the "key" word. As the days passed he continued to heal and is now his old self, with just one more battle scar. He used to sleep right in the middle of the street and just look up when a car came and expect them to go around him, which they did. He may have learned his lesson though as he seems to sleep a little further off to the side of the street now. A hard lesson learned.

Being Really Lazy

See anything in the picture above? No? Well look down to the base of the tree in the next picture. Yup, it is our old buddy, Rojo the street dog. He found a nice, cool, shady place to sleep the other day. Usually he sleeps on another ladies patio; but I guess it wasn't shady there yet when he wanted his nap. Looks comfy, doesn't he?

We are still feeding him a bit everyday, not enough to keep him full as we don't want him to become dependant on us; but enough to "top him up" for the day. He loves the dog food and gets really excited when he sees me coming with it. He usually shows up around 5 PM or so to be fed. A couple of nights he was late and I was just heading out to class so didn't have time to go back and get his food for him. He waited until I returned after 7 PM and greeted me enthusiastically. We also keep a bowl of fresh water out for the birds, cats and Rojo so that they can have a drink when they want. Yes, the water is changed daily so that the mosquitos can't breed in it and give us Dengue.
I have been feeling just as lazy lately as Rojo. It could be the heat or it could be that I am just really being lazy. It is getting hotter here as we get into summer. Right now at 8:30 AM it is 30 C. or about 86 F. and will get hotter as the day progresses, naturally. Other than going to my painting and spanish classes I haven't been doing too much. Cooking has been slack because of the heat, right now I have the crock pot full of chicken stew, plugged in on the patio table outside to keep the heat out of the house. I used to use the electric frying pan a lot; but unfortunately it quit working and we cannot find one here in any of the stores.
We may be heading north for a couple of weeks soon, not far enough north to cool off, just to Tucson where it is just as hot as here. It will be a change of pace and after all it is a year since our last "vacation" over on the Baja. Everyone needs a vacation right?

Street Dog

The photos below show our street dog, we call him Rojo or Red, depending on the language of the minute. He is friendly and cute. He gets so excited when he sees his favorite people that his whole body waves instead of just his tail. We have been feeding him our scraps for some time now, along with all the other neighbors. Sometimes though, there are not too many scraps; and although one lady in particular seems to feed him more often than others, he always seems hungry. We decided to buy some dog food and give him some everyday, this will at least supplement the scraps that he gets. His body language and attitude tells you his appreciation.
One morning he saw me outside and decided that he would try for an early feeding, smart dog. He sat downstairs just staring up at us, until he decided to come up and get a drink instead. He couldn't seem to decide whether he should drink or bath; but seemed to enjoy the water.
Last night he came up seemingly just to visit. I was outside reading and he came and laid down by my chair and was just taking it easy. Good company for both of us.
He is a good dog in that the only time he barks is if someone strange is on our street. He knows who belongs and who doesn't. Other than that he is quiet and unobtrusive, a nice dog; although he could use a bath. He is the only dog now that resides on our street, we used to have 4 of them and things were noisier then. The city came by and picked up the 2 females a few months ago and the other male left and only returns once in awhile to say hello.