Pets

“If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.” – Maria Edgeworth

I think that moments are very important and some of the individuals that take care of those moments in my life right now are my pets. Even if its to make me angry, they leave no room for a boring moment.
I will start with Misi. Misi is a grown cat, a grown MALE cat. He is 13 months old and unfortunately likes to spray and fight at this very critical point in his life. My host family and I are abruptly awaken, more often than not, at 2am, to the high screeching meows of Misi and another “wild” cat going at it. One particular weekend I was away and so was the host family, Misi being the jungle cat that he is, is fine with not having people around and stays close to the house. There is a “gang” of cats (two) that come and fight with Misi (the stories as to why these cats come have changed from time to time and become more elaborate as time goes by. At first, we thought that the cat that came to fight was a female cat that would come and beat Misi for maybe getting her impregnated without her consensus. Then when it was two and only one would fight with Misi we figured it was the male trying to get vengeance from some wrong doing on Misi’s behalf and now we are not sure what the deal is). Any who, I got side tract. So, this gang, apparently showed up when we where all not home, when I return Misi’s face is completely scratched, to the point where he kept winking at me. His body was scratched everywhere, including inside his ears, he had patches of hair missing, it was worse than any other time. I couldn’t help and laugh (he kept winking at me) then when the blood dried his face looks even more funny. My host mom thought I had drawn black circles all over his face. Oh and the spraying! He sprayed my hammock! Misi has gone from being an outside cat 50% of the time to 90% of the time.
Frijol is a completely different story. She is seven months old and soon to hit puberty. Which I’m constantly on the watch for so I can go get her operated. Apparently, here in Ecuador you have to wait until they go into heat and wait until it passes and then you can go get her operated. She is HUGE, or so everyone tells me. However, she is definitely a bigger dog and looks like a German shepherd even though she is far from that. She loves to play, she literally spend all day playing. She even plays with dogs that don’t usually play, like with, Flecha, the old female dog that seems to be the most serious dog in all of Puyo Pungo. Of course, it’s only for a couple of minutes and then she is sent off with a whimper. Frijol follows me everywhere! Even to the bathroom. That right, she will wait outside until I come out. We have found a good way of entertaining her. I go down to the river and I throw a rock in the river and Frijol will bark and jump in the river after it. She obviously never gets it but its great exercise cause the current takes her down river and she swims back up river and onto the bank. She goes with me on most of my jobs hiking into the jungle to people’s farms and she chases everything! She chases chickens (not to worry she does not kill them) and the ducks, she hates the ducks and chases them off from anywhere she sees them, at the school, and the neighbors, and the not so close neighbor (you get the point). I think this hate was evoked because of the hatred my host mom has for them. They eat her plants. She does not like them, what can I say, Frijol was caught in the middle. A couple of Frijol’s bad habits include, barking, growling and chasing people as they walk by (she has never bitten anyone, thank god), jumping on me as I’m leaving for town and getting me muddy, since its always raining. Biting on wood, she bites on the wayusa stake, which is not good. Trying to eat Pelusa’s food (my host family’s dog, she doesn’t like that), jumping on Rumi (my host brother) and making him fall, jumping on other small children (she just wants to play) and eating Misi’s food (he doesn’t like that), Frijol has gotten a couple of swats on the nose because of that.
So, the moments are being taken care of, and more than a year has gone by.