This Friday the 13th dawned fully intending, it seemed, to live up to its bad-luck reputation. Benji, one of the stray dogs that live outside our gate—and whom we thought had been adopted—ran away from its new owner and disappeared somewhere in San Miguel late Thursday. We woke up worried that some horrible thing would happen …
Tag: pets
Off leash and on a run
You may not agree, you may not care, butif you are holding this book you should knowthat of all the sights I love in this world—and there are plenty—very near the top ofthe list is this one: dogs without leashes. "Dog Songs," Poems by Mary OliverThough our seven-and-a-half acres of rocks, trees …
Recent discoveries in cat feeding
Does our cat suffer from "whisker fatigue"?Is that more interesting than politics? With America as troubled as she is, riven by political intrigue and class warfare, and my brain's capacity for bad news almost at the limit, my attention has turned lately to more recondite items in the daily newscycle.For example, did you catch the June …
How free pets become expensive
All of our pets are foundlings that we espied by the side of the road or by our front gate, and most notably Felisa, a rat-size puppy with an eclectic bloodline that Félix found under a bush.All dogs have some startup costs, such as sterilization and shots, but in the three years we've had her, …
A week at the beach, without Gladys
We had taken her on our yearly one-week stay at the beach only twice but already it had become a family tradition. Of an undeterminate age, except old; or breed, other than a street mutt, the ever-chunkier Gladys had learned to jump excitedly on the back seat of the car, do a few tight turns …
Raining cats and dogs, hallelujah!
Dogs and cats, of all sizes, ages and stripes, keep coming, in cardboard boxes or repurposed birdcages, at the end of frayed ropes, or wrapped in blankets in the arms of their owners. Freaked-out cats howl while some chihuahuas, bug-eyed and trembling, appear to be on the verge of an anxiety attack. For the return …
Canines at the Gate
At the mere clang of the ranch's gate opening, they leap over the neighbor's stone wall, crawl out from under this or that bush or whoosh from down the road in a cloud of dust. On a banner day, there might nine or ten barking and yapping customers. On weekend mornings, though, only three or …
Last night Negro put himself to sleep
It's sad when a pet dies, really sad, but not quite as much so when it dies by itself, sparing you the awful task of putting it to sleep, putting it down, putting it out of its misery. Pick your own euphemism. Any hackneyed turn of phrase will do except admitting you decided to end …
A near-fatal canine drama
Dramatis canes: (in order of appearance)Lucy: A Labrador-ish fifty- or sixty-pounder found abandoned on the side of a highway when she was a few weeks old and turned over to the local shelter where we adopted her about seven-and-a-half years ago. On the alpha ranking in our pack of five dogs, she's the queen bitch, …
The odd charm of a mini mutt
At roughly five months of age our fifth dog Felisa is staying relatively small. She is not going to be a miniature or a teacup anything, yet weighing just six kilos she is blissfully petite compared to our other dogs which start at nineteen kilos or roughly forty-two pounds. Even our two hefty cats weigh …
El Rancho Santa Clara 