The Pet Situation

We are dog lovers, this is true. However, we have fought hard against the urge to open our doors and let the street dogs flood in. This is mainly because we are thinking long term. What would we do with it after our two years is up? Who would watch it while we travel? What would Zoey think? But as hard as we try to say “no,” there are people all around us saying “yes.” We have been literally inundated with offers to take on a pet. We have heard everything from “but they are such good protection,” to “but it’s so hard to be a street dog.” Our site-mate, Jordan, has even hinted that she would love to become our dog’s God Mother.
Recently, I witnessed a nearly bald street dog, or rather a park dog since it lives in the park in front of the cathedral, giving birth with the help of a transvestite midwife (no lie). He/She even offered to sell me one for $100 American, because while the mother is a pretty nasty looking bitch, the father is a “purebred.”
“What kind of purebred?” I asked curiously.
“A black and brown one,” the transvestite responded, as I slowly pushed the crisp $100 bill back into my pocket.

Alas, still not pet to speak of, however we are thinking outside the box and trying to be flexible as the Peace Corps encourages. For example, street dogs are a dime a dozen, but what other animals can be adopted in a city of 200,000+ people (and an equal amount of dogs)? How about a street horse, because there just so happens to be a white one that eats the trash on our corner. Or maybe if Adam hadn’t killed the giant, blood sucking blue and grey tarantula that I found under a block in our patio yesterday, that could have become a loving pet, which we would have named Hairy or Fang after his most notable physical characteristics.
There are plenty of scorpions that would make for low maintenance pets. One of our friends, Elizabeth, found a very large one in her house. She was telling us about it with all the fear and anxiety that a six-inch scorpion invokes, and I asked her, “well what did you do?”
“I thought about it,” she said, “and then decided to get one of my plastic chairs and sit a safe distance away, then I smoked a cigarette and watched it until it disappeared.”
“Scorpians don’t just disappear,” I reminded her.
“Shhhhhh,” she silenced me, “I would prefer to believe that they do.”
It may be a Peace Corps cliché to take pictures of large spiders, but check this sucker out!