New Year babies

My son's brindle Boxer, Einstein, is the proud papa of six gorgeous pups. I thought they'd be more naked-looking, but they all have beautiful coats already. The mama is a fawn boxer, very pretty. While he was here, my son showed me a video of the "wedding,"  from their courtship, flirting, racing around the property together and chasing toys, to the final consummation in the living room.


I know, here I am deeply involved in a shelter for homeless, neglected dogs, and I'm pleased about a litter of puppies. I do hope Einstein's novia isn't going to be bred repeatedly, but I have no control over that situation, and  I'm not sorry these little guys came into the world.

Does this template make me look fat?

On Christmas Eve the Capt and I visited a friend whose house has a spectacular view of the bay, to watch the Lighted Boat Parade. I had assigned myself the challenge of photographing the boats from this great vantage point but the results weren't exactly what I had in mind. I tried the Night setting. The Sports setting. The Fireworks setting. I steadied the camera on the concrete wall, but still the act of pressing the shutter caused a little movement. Oh, well, I thought some of the shots were interesting abstracts anyway... Obviously I need a tripod.

Christmas Day we were at the Yacht Club for dinner. Sounds so la-de-dah, doesn't it? Actually it was the cheapest deal in town: bring a salad or dessert, pay less than $7 per person. No prep, no cooking, no cleanup. Door prizes. Hugs from friends we haven't seen in a while. A Christmas tradition in the making.


Now my mind's on the New Year, thus the change of "outfit" for this blog. And then it'll be changing again after Jan. 1.


Prospero y feliz año, amigos. Have a prosperous and happy New Year, my friends.

Christmas goes to the dogs

 More notes on the progress at the new canine center. We are not calling it a shelter because a legal shelter requires a special license in Mexico, involving mountains of mind-numbing paperwork. Kristin is jubilant over response from local supporters:


Christmas has come to the dogs in a big way this year! They will be having a very nice Christmas dinner thanks to the generous donations we have received. Canned food is such a rarity and I think those shiny cans are just beautiful. They have cookies, rawhides, and new toys as well as new rugs and bedding! They are quite comical to watch when a new toy or bed comes in. It's a mad dash to lay claim to the treasures. 

 After experimenting with various dog beds, Kristin came up with generous-size steel frames, stretching burlap sacks over them and securing them with heavy-duty plastic ties. Blankets are laid on top. "These hold up better than anything we've tried, and we can just hose them off," she says. Ten of them have been constructed so far.

...and here's a bittersweet story about a chocolate lab and her litter. She has been scavenging from garbage cans because the neighbor who had more or less "adopted" her refused to feed her.


We have been feeding that poor skinny street lab every morning. She came dragging over today with her feet and legs FULL of cactis. I had one of the construction workers hold her down and I pulled them out with pliers... Kiko went over to the owner to get the puppies only to find out they are all gone... Later the workers told me he threw them in the garbage can. They took all of them and they are all in homes. One man said his is eating canned food and the other guy said he has two of them and he and his wife are bottle feeding them. 

I dosed the mother with a worm/parasite treatment and hit her with a big shot of vitamins and minerals. She is emaciated and very stressed without her babies... Later she managed to exit the center. I just let her go as she always returns in the mornings. I will get a better hold on her tomorrow. In any event, someone has already spoken for her and she is considered adopted. I have her on a medical hold and she is not going anywhere until she is spayed. I do not spay any animal that is in heat or nursing so it will have to wait a couple of weeks. She should fatten up a little by then. She is a sweetheart. The "owner" claims she isn't really his. He said she just showed up after hurricane Jimena (September 2009), and that is also her name...

 Ho, ho ho! Someone delivered hefty bags of kibble yesterday, along with cases of canned food, a real treat for these foundlings

The best news is that today and tomorrow Kristin and her husband Kiko will be able to stay home and celebrate Christmas, after having hired a caretaker over the holiday. 
  
...I am speechless in regard to the support, compassion, and friendship we have encountered this past week. I can't tell you the joy I feel when I look up and see a smiling face at our gate, holding a bag of dog food or a dog bed. It's been a while since these dogs have had a cookie and I laugh out loud at the site of them enjoying them so much.

Camping with dogs

I mentioned that there was a local movement here to create a shelter for homeless/stray dogs.But a similar center has already been established, that we're going to support, rather than duplicate their efforts. My friend Kristin and her very patient husband Kiko have a small property to which they've added fencing, a trailer, a concrete pad and several other improvements. While our group was having meetings and firing off emails to each other, K&K just went ahead and did what had to be done.


Kris was always the go-to person here when people had unwanted dogs. They dropped off puppies in the middle of the night at her Canine Center, where she was offering boarding, grooming and selling pet supplies. The overhead at that location finally became too much and they had to close. The new property, while smaller, was a gift from an inlaw. But things haven't come easily to K&K, as you'll see in this email she wrote yesterday to our organization.


Outreach is part of their efforts, too. Every morning they drive out into the desert to leave food for the feral dogs living there. Often unwanted dogs, even puppies, are abandoned in the desert to fend for themselves. And they don't limit their kindness to the four-legged needy. Here's their story:


We are not actually even open yet but we have had dogs just pouring in. In the past four days we had 7 puppies dumped/dropped at our new lot... The good news is that six of the seven pups have been adopted! (The remaining pup, a female, is pictured here) That doesn't always happen so we are very happy about that. December typically has the highest adoption rate. 

This is our current situation. We have several dogs in the shelter besides the one pup. We do not have adequate staff and are not in a position to hire anyone at this time. We have one young man that is basically stuck there 24/7... Most days we have no one to cover for him and at this time we have no one else to cover the night shift. I hate to burn him out and I can see that is coming VERY soon. 

Kiko and I also sponsor a church in one of the little towns here. We are doing our best to get over there and do the food bags and that kind of thing so we have been running back and forth doing that. 

...I guess our most pressing need at the moment is finding someone who would be interested in just hanging with the dogs for an hour or two at any time of the day. They wouldn't need to do any work other than playing with the dogs. At least that would give all of us a chance to eat a normal meal at least once a day. We are trying to walk the dogs twice a day as well. We have one lovely couple who have been coming everyday and taking them on their afternoon walk. We had never met them before but are certain they are angels. 

As far as the construction of the center goes, we are trying really hard to get organized right now. It's just total chaos. We didn't expect to be found out until we were ready to start taking dogs again but the dogs always manage to find us...

When we have water we will need to pour a slab for the washing machine that just died a slow, painful death. 

 Our neighbor is requesting that we build a block wall to seperate us from him. He has been very supportive and is in fact, our only source of electricity. However when someone goes behind his building it upsets our dogs and they bark quite a bit. We do our level best not to allow the dogs to bark and disturb anyone. This is the reason for the 24 hour staff. Everywhere I look there I see things I need to get done. I think we are already so tired it's hard to determine what to do next.

We do not have power, water, or sewer yet. It's sort of like dog camping. We have had several people drop bags of dogfood off and for that we are deeply grateful. We don't have everything we would like to have for the animals but we are doing our best to meet their basic needs. We care very deeply for the animals and know that there are so many more who are in desperate need of care. We have several stations in the desert and surrounding areas and at this point I am going out at daybreak to feed and water... I hope to be of assistance in getting the spay, neuter, and vaccination clinic going when we are settled.


Tune in tomorrow...

Spiffed up for Christmas

I'm always slow to get into the holiday spirit, partly because I feel overwhelmed by all the sham for at least a month. Then something kicks in: a certain song (the Hallelujah Chorus works every time), a certain smell (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and clove, or else fir trees).  An occasional craving for a hot toddy.  I can tell the mood is coming on when I start to clean up the house, put up my chili pepper lights and spiff up my blog.  I come up with little surprises for the Capt but I can never wait until Christmas Day to spring them on him. That's the trouble with gifting him with something he really needs or wants, I begin to feel cruel for holding it back from him. He needs that fleece vest NOW, he's cold!

What leaves me cold: the frantic visual and aural clamor in stores, Santa Claus in all his manifestations, the usual articles about how to avoid holiday stress and avoid social stigma by buying just the right gifts.  Constant reminders that thefts escalate here during the season, because the have-nots all want to provide gifts for their families too. The notion that Christmas is really just about increasing the luxuries and bling in one's life, thus driving us to buy more shiny stuff, rich food and gadgets. 

I've gone from avoiding Christmas entirely (easy to do if you're out in the Pacific on a boat with someone of like mind), to throwing myself into a tizzy a few days before the 25th, which is hard on my wallet and inner peace (who did I forget?) Now I'm looking for some balance, and giving myself the gift of a few (carefully selected) new experiences. Learning carols in Spanish. Treating my nose to wonderful spicy baking aromas while reminding myself to give away most of the results.


Would you believe, for instance, that I've lived my whole life without getting involved in Christmas cookie mania?  I made up for that yesterday when I invited Maya, 10,  over to make gingerbread cookies we decorated with icing.  She's been saying for weeks she wanted to repeat our last very successful cookie project, so I dug up some recipes and she brought over her cutters, which she's been dying to use since last spring. I made up the dough ahead of time since it had to chill, and we rolled out a batch. We cut out moons and little houses, fish and hearts, put them on to bake and because my convection oven repeatedly blew the power strip, they ended up baking far longer than they should have. Definitely turned out al dente. But we had a great time mixing up colored icings. She's fascinated with the process of combining red and blue, red and yellow, blue and yellow and all of the above... We tried using the frosting bag I bought, but the frosting wouldn't hold its shape. Tasted pretty good, though. These may be the ugliest Christmas cookies ever produced, but we were satisfied, and the Capt. enjoyed them too (especially since I had to put off making lunch until after the cleanup).

Whenever I used a word she didn't know, she'd look it up on my computer. And vice versa. So I learned that the Spanish name for my favorite color is verde azulado. A handy thing to know.


She had no apron and was wearing a blouse with flowing sleeves, so she took a plastic bag and cut holes in it for her head and arms, tucking the sleeves inside as they do for school painting class.


Qúe lastima, today Maya, her family and their Yorkie Akira leave for Mexico City for Christmas. I'll miss her birthday and worry she'll come back a blasé teenager.  I won't get a chance to sing carols with her and teach her "Las Mañanitas" on the guitar. But she has asked to make cupcakes when she comes back, so I'll spend the time looking for recipes, and maybe doing a little kitchen testing. And make her an apron.

Just say yes

In the interest of a richer, fuller life, I've been promising myself I'll do something I've never done before, anytime the chance presents itself. Opportunities are be abundant just lately, and I've made a point of saying "Yes!" to as many as possible. It's been keeping me pretty busy, but most of the results have been better than expected.


Last week our cooking club launched a Gingerbread Project: we got together on Tuesday (for the basic structure) and Saturday (for the decorating). My gingerbread dwelling was a doghouse that I gave my neighbors for Christmas.

It wasn't an unqualified success. When I was glueing my first attempt together, I was too impatient to wait for the icing to harden sufficiently, and it collapsed in my hands. So humiliating. So Mary built me another one, what an angel!

Then I started a website for the club, and all the details of the Gingerbread Project appear on the landing page.


It was a doghouse because I have dogs on the brain lately. I'm on the fundraising committee for a new community group planning to establish a shelter for stray and homeless dogs and cats. The goal is not just to warehouse the critters, but to immunize, neuter, medically treat (where needed), exercise and socialize them, so we can eventually find them homes. A number of individuals have succeeded with this process, and hundreds of dogs have been adopted in Mexico and the US through their efforts, but there's never been a centralized location here where the animals could be kept until now. There's a shelter in Alamos which we plan to visit after Christmas, for ideas and inspiration.


So this will be another first for me: I've been involved in community activities, but never the fundraising part. To tell the truth,  I always avoided it. The prospect is daunting, but considering that our first fundraiser is just over a month from now, there's no time to be daunted. We're planning to organize a procession to the local church for the Blessing of the Animals which always occurs January 17 in Mexico. I hope to have a logo created, leaflets printed to distribute and t-shirts for the volunteers to wear. There are so many firsts involved in this project I haven't even thought of them all yet!


So if I don't get back to this blog for a while, I want to wish all of you...

Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!

Bedazzled!

Saturday was a day for getting out and meeting friends, getting hugs and new ideas. First we headed over to the monthly mariners' swap meet, where I saw a number of people who've been gone for months, including Stephanie, who's back from a summer in France where they lived in a village devoted to wine-producing. Talk about your French immersion experience!  And then...bingo! We found a propane stovetop with a built-in grill to replace the bulky stove and oven on the boat.

Bonus sighting! Linda Lou and her lavish Glass Pond jewelry

 

Then I hurried down to the annual crafts fair at the marina (a benefit for Rescate, our local medical rescue service). Que sorprisa! There was Linda Lou from Alamos, a blogger I've been following for a couple of years, and never got to meet before. Her table was laden with gorgeous fused glass jewelry she makes in her Glass Pond Studio, and after all this time of hankering for a piece I had a chance to buy one. Uh oh! I was supposed to meet the Capt and some friends at the Marina Cantina for lunch, already running late and here I was bedazzled with choices...  they were all so beautiful it was a hard decision!

I mentioned to Linda that I'm working with a group of people to start a shelter for stray dogs and cats here, and she told me there's one already established in Alamos. I'm hoping to interest some of my group in driving down to see what they've developed, get some ideas and find out how they manage to support their shelter. We don't need to reinvent the wheel...

Hiatus

A couple of my good friends have inquired about my silence on this blog recently, wondering if I'm OK.  After five years of steady blogging I've taken a few weeks' hiatus from the computer and taken on some new challenges.

We made two trips up to Errorzona to pick up and later drop off my son who spent two weeks with us. We had lots of beach walks (his boxer Einstein is such a joy to watch playing in the surf), and long talks. It was the most time we've spent together since he left home 25 years ago, and I enjoyed every minute. There's a chance he might come back, rent an apartment and stay here for a few months, since he's a webmaster and can do his work from anywhere.

I took a number of photos with my camera and iPhone, but this is the only one that turned out. The boys, knackered out from a three-mile beach walk.

I signed on with a fundraising committee for a proposed new animal shelter here in San Carlos and suddenly found myself elected chairman. Yikes! Oh, well, I've been promising myself to take on some things I've never done before, and this certainly qualifies.

There have been weekly jams with guitar-playing snowbirds who arrived in the past few weeks, and I put in a request to join yet another group. A British luthier who lives in Guaymas made some improvements to the action on my guitar, and I'm still considering taking lessons from him. While we were in Tucson the Capt bought me a used-but-still-nifty Roland keyboard amp with vocal input. He also volunteered us to do some songs for a concert benefiting one of the local orphanages, next February. Yikes, again!

This morning I was working on "Santa Lucia," an old Italian song from Naples, picking up the correct pronunciation from a YouTube performance by Enrico Caruso. I'll never sound like Enrico, but at least now I understand that a single "c" is pronounced like "ch" while "double c" sounds like a hard "c." This is not for performing, just to satisfy my own urge to sing that particular song. Three summers ago the Capt and I offered a ride to a group of vacationing Italian teachers who had just arrived on the ferry in Guaymas and needed to get to their hotel in San Carlos. I've never met such warm and friendly people! Somehow we got all six of us and their luggage into my little Escort and on the road home we sang "Santa Lucia." If I ever get the song down well enough to record it, I'm going to send my version to Franca, one of the teachers and ask her to share it with the others.

Tonight I'll start rehearsing with the chorus at San Fernando church for the Guadelupana, a celebration of Día de La Virgen de Guadalupe on December 14. This year we're going to sing at a home for elderly ladies as well as at the church. Lolita, the choir director, is one of my favorite people and I always enjoy singing with her group, and trying out my halting Spanish with them.

The Capt and I finished Parte Dos of a series of Spanish courses with Dolores, a very dedicated and amiable teacher, and will go on to Parte Tres in January. We had quite a few lightbulb moments and I actually found myself, now and then, not having to translate before I spoke. Poco á poco...