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At some point in time, Victor wanted a hamster, but not until Bobby died. For Victor, Bobby was king until he wasn’t.
We were all sad when Bobby died. Bobby’s death was Victor’s first experience with the death of something, someone, he had a long term relationship with.
Knowing we were moving to Mexico, we did not rush out and buy a hamster. We decided to wait before taking on additional responsibilities.
Between the time of Bobby’s death and our move to Mexico, Victor developed a desire to have a dog, and not any dog. He wanted a “Doge”. For him, a Doge was pretty much any dog that was light brown, had pointed ears and a protruding snout.
And what did we end up with?
After being in Mexico for a couple weeks, a one man dog rescue operation, Coatepecanes
, posted a picture of a huskie that he had rescued and was looking for someone to adopt it. I am crazy about huskies. Full disclosure, I’ve never had one. I fell in love with huskies as a result of stories my grade 5 teacher read to us. In particular, Farley Mowat’s Lost in the Barrens.
Lucia, thinking she could teach both Victor and I a lesson about how much work dogs were, and how much trouble huskies were, suggested to the rescuer that we foster the dog. There was some back and forth, and before you knew it, we were picking up a huskie, that had just been neutered, from a local vet.
The rescuer asked us not to name the dog and not to get attached. He said we must be ready to give up the dog when the time came. Lucia assured him we could. This all happened on Saturday, and by Tuesday we were fully attached!
Lucia was as surprised as anyone when the dog not only turned out to be calm, didn’t bark, and indicated when he needed to be let out to go to washroom. In short order, we were all thinking we might like to keep the dog. We all ended up calling him Buster.
Buster had worked his way into our hearts until he made that fateful mistake. He took a liking to Lucia, a bit more than she wanted, and mounted her leg. Then he thought Victor might be interested in the same show of affection. Whereas Lucia could shake Buster off, Victor was a bit more at Buster’s mercy and the adults in the room had to intervene.
So here we are on Wednesday night, and what looked like a beautiful friendship has come to an end. The rescuer had identified an adoptive home for Buster. We met the adopters in the park with their dog, a female, and Buster forgot all about us.
What was particularly fascinating for me was how the rescuer, the fostering, and the adoption, all happened within the community. There was no interference by the authorities. Just three sets of people looking to give a slightly rambunctious dog a better life than that offered on the street.
Lovely story, Robert. I wish you the best in finding a “forever” dog soon!
Story worthy of a movie script 🙂 You found a great friend there Robert
[…] previously reported in It’s a dog’s life, we fostered a husky. The fostering was short. After Buster left us, Lucia set about researching […]