Day 2

I am tired, and its late, so I hope to make sense of some of the higlights of our day today.

We started out again early to observe dogs in the plaza. It was quieter this morning, definitely less activity than yesterday. We did however find “Sleeper” again, the same dog that we saw yesterday sleeping under the cart. Today he was found sleeping/resting in the stage area in the middle of the plaza. He was surrounded along the perimeter of the stage by a bunch of men all ignoring him (presumably waiting for work or socializing among themselves). He was mildly perkier when approached, and was moderately social when Sue put her hands on him to quickly examine him. She determined him to be about 8 months of age, and he was a bit underweight. Later in the morning, he was seen again, vomiting and looking nauseous. We were wondering if he potentially has something like ehrlichia or some other tick-borne disease.

We also saw a much older dog whom we’d spotted yesterday. She was quite social with specific people, and we found someone who looked like her owner. We asked him about her, and he was not her owner, but they clearly had a relationship and he said he knew her well and she was owned by a vendor in the square. Her name was Bellatina. A few hours later, we asked about her to another man, and he didn’t specify her owner, he said “she belonged to everyone.” Both sweet, and a little sad at the same time. She was clearly aged, but functional, and certainly was well-fed and attended to.

A crazy interesting dynamic was with this whole group and these three characters. They clearly had “their people” and again we were able to ask about them. They are all owned by one of these men, and do go home (in some capacity) with them at night. The fascinating part (and I will get the videos of this) was the interaction between the two larger dogs. There were some pretty intense confrontational displays between the two of them, that didn’t have any clear trigger. Nothing escalated, but it was unusual behavior without a clear reason for the altercation. Then, it ended as quickly as it began when another dog ran near thier people, who were about 100 feet away. The distraction ended the heated discussion, and they were all off, presumably to guard their people from the intruding dog.

There was a lot more happening throughout the day, but one more highlight was this man and his pack of dogs. He lives near the training center we have been spending time at, and he walks every day from his house which is well on the outskirts of town, into downtown, with his pack of 6-8 dogs. This man is old, and very slow. And yet, the dogs stay with him. He stops to rest, they stop too. They are exploring as they go, but they are clearly with him, staying in his general orbit. It was fascinating to see.

Today’s primary takeaway was that even though we may be quick to judge how “people in countries like these” treat their dogs, that they are actually quite proud of their dogs and the do have strong relationships and bonds with them. Just because it does not look like an Americanized/Westernized version of how “we” treat pet dogs, does not mean those relationships are any less valid. And again, in different ways, these dogs’ quality of life is far superior than what most Westerners provide to their dogs.

I am exhausted and will make sure I circle back here later for clarity and hopefully to add some videos. Tomorrow we are heading to a shelter outside of Mexico City, lots more to come.