Part of my house-sitting gig is dog care. The first week I had both Dobbie, my hostesses dog and Suzy, his compadre and amiga in running around. Now that Fred the neighbor is back however, Suzy sticks closer to his house and Dobbie usually hangs around here.
Usually. He is, however, a boon companion to any other dog he sees, any person going for a walk, the butterflies he chases, the hawks he tries to catch, even the hummingbirds. Dobbie loves everyone and does not know the meaning of stay.
Because of this, I have had to leave him on a long lead the mornings I take off for San Jose. After the experience of the first day and his being a wanderer by nature, Dobbie has to be kept tied up. He hates this. Usually by the end of my trip (maybe 6 hours) Dob-ster has wound himself around some bushes or trees and is left panting, in no shade and without water, waiting for freedom. Needless, though perro stupido, he has become pretty clever at not coming when he thinks I'm going to leave.
I've been holding his morning kibble and stuff for just before I go, so I can coax him up on the patio, pet him and feed him, make sure he has water and give him "good doggies".
Wednesday morning the Nicaraguan coffee pickers came through early, as is their usual habit. They had a pack of dogs with them and Dobbie went over to check them out. I'd just gotten up and watched this from my window. I went to the patio and called him, as the pickers hiked over the fence, their dogs scooting under. "Dobbie," I called, "Kibble, kibbke kibble."
Dobbie gave me a "See Ya" dog smile over his shoulder as he went off with the new buddies to run in the coffee fields for the morning.
That was the last time I saw him.
I went around my daily getting ready, fixed his food, fixed my breakfast, etc and went out on the patio to call him. He didn't come, but I could hear his bark amongst the others in the field. I didn't worry because this is a pretty frequent happening....if I'm here (most of the time), Dobbie and I take walks or he pretty much runs with Suzy and the new pack that forms for the day.
At quarter to 7 I put his food out and freshened his agua and called him. Usually after a run or walk, he is content to wait for me to feed him..Dob-ster likes his chow. If I have a spare few minutes to drink some coffee and watch the sun move up thru the clouds, he is sitting right ON my feet. However, since he didn't come, I decided to walk down the road. The gate had been opened for the tractor that hauls bags of coffee beans back up and I followed the barking and talking of the pickers but though I found some dogs, I didn't find Dobbie. I decided to catch a later bus and continued to walk thru the steep coffee fields, calling. I kept at it for a couple hours, walking the fiercely slanted fields in my Birkenstocks, not the best shoes for hiking thru brush.
I called and hiked some more. Finally I walked back up the canyon and e-mailed the dentists office that I wasn't coming in that day. I know it's no problem. Little is a problem here.
Several times during the day I walked the coffee and sugar cane fields calling and coaxing and generally getting more and more worried.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Dobbies amiga Suzy came over and finished off the dog food I'd left.
I decided to take Suzy for a walk thru those fields one more time at dusk...we walked until dark and I called and listened. All quiet except for the calling of the hawks riding the thermals as the sun set.
Yesterday, Thanksgiving, I had made plans to go into San Jose to the dentist, take a mall trip with another woman also at the dentist, then several of us were going out for Thanksgiving dinner. I decided to stay home again and look some more. I didn't feel very much like either shopping or celebrating and I was worried even more.
No sign of Dobbie and no sign of the pickers from the day before either.
Again this morning I walked the fields, no pickers-the fields look pretty cleared out actually, the top two feet chopped off to allow the lower beans to get sun and ripen. No sign of Dobbie today and now I have no idea what I should do.
How the heck do I tell my hostess that her beloved dog has gone missing on my watch? I haven't seen him for 3 days nor heard his bark. I know that bark having listened to it many times the past 2 weeks, when he was running with his amigos after something in the surrounding fields.
So while I personally have many things to be thankful for, I can't help but feel very bad about my friends dog and am in a quandry about emailing her this problem..after all, perro stupido could show up. Right?
Well, not so much according to both the neighbor and the builder, Marcos, who came by this morning to fix the water line again. Fred thinks the 'Nico pickers" have killed Dobbie for being annoying and Marcos thinks they have just decided to take him with them to the nexr field, where ever it is. Either way, he may be gone for good and my hostell is going to be very upset with me.
Bummer, true bummer.
No comments:
Post a Comment