The dog came back the very next day

I've been resolute with the decision of not having any more dogs. We love our Frankie, but dogs are like children that never grow up. They always need you, which does create some limitations regarding the freedom to travel as and when we want. Of course, there are many unexpected lessons, too. In my case, having a dog has helped me relax. My house simply cannot be as pristine as I might tend to want it. Frankie has short hair, so she's pretty easy to groom, but there's still a bit of hair on our couch and if we don't clean her right away, muddy paw prints across the floor are inevitable after she's been out in the rain. I've learned to be 'somewhat' good with it. They also provide unconditional companionship and love. And man, are they ever masters at tugging at our heartstrings. I never thought I'd fall for it, but I'm a total sucker in the end!

In Costa Rica, there are many, many stray dogs. They are very docile, all seem quite healthy and happy. The roam and visit where I believe people feed them and a stroke now and then. Feliz, who is also known in our community as Carlos and Pelusa, has an owner, apparently, up the mountain, who doesn't seem to pay much attention to him. Most Costa Rican don't take dog ownership particularly seriously. There is a woman in Copey who takes in stray dogs (she's got 50 at the moment), has them fixed and tries to educate the folks on how to properly take care of their pets. It's a hard, long road as the concept is so foreign in this culture. Feliz has been hanging around Martin's place a lot since we've moved here. In fact, we thought he belonged to him. In the past couple of weeks, our little friend has been taking up residence under our covered porch area, just outside our back door. On night, I walked to the compost bin in the pitch dark. I was wearing head gear with a miner's light shining from my forehead to keep my hands free to open the lid. As I turned around to walk back, all I saw was two glowing amber eyes. Completely darkness with two amber eyes staring at me, not moving. After my heart jumped into my throat and settled back down, ever so slightly, I walked a little closer and realized it was Feliz. And he followed me down to the house and rolled into a ball and fell asleep on his new-found mat under the chair. He is such a calm, appreciative creature. He rarely barks. He never whines or scratches at the door. Even when our door is wide open, he never crosses the threshold. We now feed him, brush him and have bought some tick and flea solution and applied it on his neck to help kill these nasty critters. Although we won't allow him in the house, he's welcome to hang out for as long as it suits him. We don't want to get too attached as he's not ours and at any time, he may choose to move onto other pastures. Frankie and he get along really well... no jealousy from Frankie, which is a bit odd. She's been know to get aggressive with other dogs on her territory. So, as long as Feliz comes back, we're happy to consider him part of the family.

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