The dog days are over...

This is one lucky pup!

This morning, as we were enjoying our breakfast, my new roommate Millie brought up how her friend had just found a puppy that really needed a home. We both agreed that it was a shame we don't have the space or the time to have a dog here. A few minutes later, I left the house with my friend Jimmy to go from business to business asking for raffle donations for our Meru Animal Welfare Organization fundraiser in september. My mind was already totally on dogs for the day.

On the way to one part of town, we passed one of the most tragic looking dogs I've ever seen still alive. It was unbelivably skinny, lying on the side of the road by with its head still held up so I knew it was still barely alive. Oh it was so unbelivably sad to see. I immediately called the vet that I knew to see if he could bring the drugs to put the dog to sleep there. It was going to be a feat of arranging things to make that possible, as I was running all around town and so was the vet.

So I had to continue on because of Jimmy, my driver's, schedule. Soon Jimmy had to pick up another person who needed him as a taxi and the three of us went together to a super market. On the way there, however, I received an unexpected phone call. A woman had found a tiny puppy in her yard out in the coffee fields here. She had called a bunch of people, whoever she thought would be able to help take in the puppy, and three of them recommended that she call me! As she told me this, I thought "oh great, what a repuation I have given myself!" when actually, I was feeling quite proud that I was a go-to person in the community for helping animals. I told her at first that I wasn't able to help her, but she explained that she was about to leave the country and had no other place for the pup. I caved in a bit, but told her I had to check with my roommate.

Meanwhile, we had just arrived at the super market. I wasn’t there for a few seconds before I heard my name from another car- it was the parent of one of my students. I greeted him and then, slightly sarcastically, asked if he wanted a puppy. He said, “oh, really?! Actually we’re looking for a puppy!”… I couldn’t believe it. He asked me to send him a picture of it when I saw it. I immediately called the woman who had found it and told her of this crazy lucky. We decided that she’d bring the dog to the grocery where I was and I’d take it home for the afternoon before we decided if the parent I knew would want it. As soon as I hung up that phone call, however, another young woman approached me and said, “I heard you say that you have a puppy! My boss is looking for a puppy” – this was super good luck, especially for Arusha, to have two people immediately interested in this puppy! So I gave her my contact and waited for the dog.

Not long even minutes after that, my colleague Tiana drove into the same parking lot! I went over to talk to her while I awaited the pup’s arrival. We were enjoying some nice lunch when the woman arrived with the puppy in a box. She thanked me a lot, spent some time talking to us, went and bought the dog some shampoo and de-wormer, and gave me more money for food, vet, etc. It was all very nice and the puppy was being very sweet and sleepy inside the box. Just as my food arrived at the table, the dog got really jumpy and kept trying to leap out of its box. It was completely disrupting the meal and it was clearly very upset that it couldn’t get out of the box, so I had to wrap up my food and jump in a taxi.

We arrived home and I made a nice little bed for the doggy. When Millie arrived home, we gave the doggy a bath, sprayed it with flea medicine (that should have killed her many fleas, but seems to have had little effect…) and spent a lot of time feeding and playing with her.

She’s so skinny it’s amazing. You can totally see her rib cage. But she’s been remarkably good, social, and very people-friendly. We’re quite amazed. We’ve called her Lucy for now, but hope to find a home for her very soon. It all just seemed so serendipitous that we should have started the day talking about puppies, then I spent the day fundraising for dogs, and then all of this dog stuff happened all afternoon! Perhaps a much more appropriate name for our “Lucy” would be “Lucky”!