Imaginary Pets

Dear canine lovers and friends and distant observers,

Chile has a funny thing with its dogs. There are too many of them here. Definitely. But sterilization is apparently not an option. Why? I have no idea. The machismo? Some Catholic misunderstanding - all the tiny murderings if there is no insemination…?

Now they have a Dog Picture Contest. I wanted to participate (the deadline was today), but looking at the pictures I got I thought, it’s not really worth the money for the stamp … BUT! Now you can enjoy those dog pictures… and I have a story to go along with them, too.

So this morning I was joined on my “run” (=trott) by a not-unpretty yellowish dog … It was really kind of cute, the dog would run on a litte, stop and turn and wait for me, then keep at my side till it got bored and sped on, only to turn and wait for me again. (btw, not too great for my self-esteem, being patronized like this by a dog.)

I was beginning to worry, to be honest. I am really no fan of dogs – they don’t clean themselves like cats, the whole public anal business is nothing for me, nor the saliva-involving emotional expressions. But this dog was kind of cute. And it waited for me. It was searching my eyes… (ooh)… so I imagined immediately, what will happen after the run, how can I send it away? Do I have no heart? Should I feed it and send it away? Would it be good for a freedom-loving dog to be corrupted in that way? How can I take it in, what will R and R say, and the duckling (which I don’t have yet and which technically would never say anything)? Does this mean I can never have a duckling?

I think it was at that point that the dog got bored with me and my slow trot and remained at a central plaza, to join the other dogs.

sniff.