I can tell you what I am doing at 3am...I am taking a small puppy back and forth to the litter box in my bath tub. Usually she goes in the box. Sometimes she actually steps out of it to pee...Her name is Dora. After Dora the Explorer. (No, she doesn't speak Spanish...she just likes to Explore). I had decided last fall that this year I was going to get a dog. This desire was greatly increased when I realized that I could bring my dog back to the states with me as long as I had a puppy passport that shows that she has gotten all her shots. She is adorable. How did I get her??? So I have wanted a Borzoi forever, and they are super expensive in the states, but not here in Kazakhstan. If you have never seen one, they are beautiful. The have the same body shape as greyhounds, but have more hair. Very powerful runners, graceful, etc. So Saturday I was going to the doggy bazaar, and I was excited. But Friday night I got a call on the phone. My girlfriend had found a box of puppies on the ground outside her house, she was frantic, its freezing, can I take them for the night and then we can take them to the bazaar with us and give them away there. So I brought this box of puppies to my house, against my better judgement. Gave five wiggling puppies baths (they were sooooo dirty that I really did think they were all brown until I washed them and realized they were actually white and beige). And fed them. Then spent all night running them outside in the cold to pee, cleaning the floor, trying to get them to stop crying, etc. Needless to say, when the sun came up Saturday morning, I was not asleep, and I was not very happy. Not only that but one of the puppies had worms coming out of it when it pooped (alive worms which seemed to be pulling themselves out of him) which freaked me out. I called the health office at the Peace Corps to find out if I needed to take any medicine (no, just clean everything really well). Anyway, we got a cab and took the puppies to the bazaar, and paid a lady 1000 tenge to sell them (apparently she is going to sell them but she needs money for their food. See, in America, we would just give them the dogs and the money they make from selling them would be enough, but not here. Here, you have to pay people to make money off you...) I can't complain though because I was told that the fee would be much higher. We got back in the cab. Went home. No dog. We got there and Diana said to me...."We should have kept the curly hair one." She looked so sad. She wanted that dog. I looked at her face. I hate it when she's sad. I remembered how the curly one walked. How she seemed to hop. I remembered her curly tail. So cute. Ok. So we get back into the cab. We go back across town to the bazaar. We find the lady, and convince her to give us one of the puppies back, without paying her additional money. We take Dora to the vet to get rid of worms. So i now have a puppy. She is the cutest little thing. She is definately a mutt, but looks like she might be part pomeranian. We are not sure how big she will get, but someone told me that you can tell by puppies feet how big they are going to get. If that is true, so is going to be one tiny dog. Anyway, I wanted a big beautiful graceful Borzoi, and the Universe gave me a tinny furry ball of love...see how it works? You always get what you need, it just isn't necessarily what you think want!!!
