My men's best friend

I mentioned the other day that we are currently fostering puppies. When P-daddy saw that I blogged about this, he asked "how does that have anything to do with expatriation preparation?!" So I had to explain that it *is* related since pet transportation and things like that are issues that we will have to consider. Plus, well, I can make almost anything relate to my future plans in one way or another!

But really, back to the animal question. The pet situation, and the dog situation in particular, is pretty different in Central America than it is in the US. I can't speak for El Salvador, but when I lived in Central America previously, we used to laugh about the "ugly dogs of Guatemala" who ran the streets all the time. Dogs kept as pets seemed to only rarely be mutts (perhaps a purebred status thing going on?), while the dogs running the streets - and they were *everywhere* - were the mongrels. That I know of, there were no pounds or rescue organizations, so street dogs that didn't get fixed simply continued to breed (and yes, it was obvious that many of the females had already had way too many litters!). I remember when my roommate and I got a puppy and took it for a walk down the street - everyone looked at us strange, because NO ONE walks their dogs there!

For us, we plan to have dogs for several purposes. One is just for companionship and fun. The bigger reason, though, is for security. If we have our way, we'll have a bit of land rather than just a small apartment, and having large dogs will provide a measure of protection/security that we might not have otherwise. Plus, there may even be a chance at some extra income if we don't have our dogs fixed, but we are not really counting on that at this point. Pooh is already becoming more accustomed to the dogs and is learning to tell them "down" and "sit". He loves playing outside and running with them and when we were between puppies, he would ask where Midnight was. It's very sweet, and I can already see that he is rapidly learning that a dog may be his best friend!