15.9.09

The stray puppy that finally got to me

I didn't name her because if I did, I would have to keep her, landlady or no.

puppy
I picked up this dog near the Shpresa office. I was walking towards the municipality of Cair to go to the atm and check that I have limited denari. I see this little brown puppy limping on the sidewalk all alone and whimpering a little as she goes along. Against my better judgement, I stoop down to pet her. Mistake number 1. She is so sweet and she looks up at me with her sad little stray puppy eyes and I can resist the urge to pick her up- so i did. Mistake number 2. I cuddle her for a while and then put her back down. She flops on her side since her foot is hurt. I gather up my resolve and turn to keep walking to the municipality.

I get 15 feet away from lovely puppy and an old man is sitting in his car, engine off. He has been watching me with the pup and tells me "zemi! zemi!". I ask if he knows if its someone's dog and he says no, its a dobro kuche and i should take it! well alright! Epic impulsive decision fail.

I carry her home and 20 minutes later I am feeding her peanut butter and milk because its the only food i have that a dog may want. She watches me all the time. If i leave her for a moment, she starts to whine. I put her in the bathroom (tile floor for easier cleaning) on a blanket with some water and try to leave to go to vero for something to feed her but i can hear her crying through 2 doors. I have to tell Nikolinka, cause she is going to hear this anyway.

I take puppy downstairs and put her outside in the back yard. I go up to appeal to my landlady, Nikolinka. I tell her I found a puppy near work, it has a bum foot and i want to keep her until her foot is healed (which i wanted to make a very indefinite amount of time). I can tell by the look on her face that it ain't going to happen. She frowns in disgust to know its a street dog but I just stare at her and pretend I don't understand her (its not so much pretending anymore really) and she says ok, but only on the balcony. :-\ I wanted to check on the ok-ness of me keeping the pup in the bathroom at least while im not home but i forgot the word for bathroom. Nice.

Then Nina gets a different idea. I can keep the puppy in the fenced in concrete driveway area out front. Sigh. I am clearly not about this. I would rather have puppy be free in green grass on the sidewalks then penned in on a concrete slab. Didn't have to worry long, puppy slipped through the fence as we stood there talking about my weight, which was a fun side note. Nina was apparently trying to tell me that I look thinner and wanted to know how I was losing weight. I thought she was telling me I was getting fatter. (Slab - thin, debel - fat. Totally mixed it up.) I ended up telling her it was beer making me fat, drinking with prijateli, which made her confused. Beer makes you fat, she told me. Ooh ok, you weren't telling me I was fat. Raz-bi-ram sega.

Puppy picked a nice soft cluster of long grass to curl up in out in front of my apartment building. I went back upstairs to my apartment and tried not to think about epic failure in securing a puppy and consoled myself by thinking of all the reasons why I can't and shouldn't have a puppy right now. An hour later, I couldn't see her from the balcony anymore.

When it got dark, I decided that I had indulged in way too much battlestar galactica and needed to go outside for a walk. I walked slow and looked around for my lost puppy love. I found her near the prodav by John Kennedy, sitting on the sidewalk crying. I pick her up, cuddle her again and walk her off to a nice spot to lay in while i planned on going to vero for food for her.

As I was walking away, the puppy got up to follow me. Then, a little boy and his mother were coming out of the apartment buildings and saw my puppy. He picked her up and they walked off down the street.

Now, I would feel good about this. I can assume the best for my lil pup. But I just remembered a minor horrifying detail about this particular area where I set her down. Back in June or July, I recall walking to work one morning and smiling at a little boy (hopefully not the same one) playing with a puppy on a makeshift leash of string. Cute right?

3-4 hours later, walking home from work in hot summer sun, I see the same little boy playing with a dead puppy on a string. Not in a malicious way, I just don't think he was old enough to understand that the puppy was not alive anymore. Its got to be a different kid. The one that took the puppy last night probably did not live where I saw him with his mom.

I keep hoping its not the same kid. I keep wishing I kept the puppy. I did not see her again today, but I am carrying around a can of poshteta in my bag just in case we meet again. cause i'm a sucker.

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