Puppy Love!

I GOT A PUPPY!

Abbie Mae joined my little Dominican family (and if by “family” I mean… just me and her) on February 12.

One of the Peace Corps doctor’s neighbor’s dogs had puppies. The owner said she was going to throw all the female dogs out on the street (they don’t have money to feed them or get them spayed and they don’t want more puppies, so the females are generally left to fend for themselves), so the doctor decided to bring them into the office and see if any volunteers would take them, and that’s how I met Abbie Mae.

She’s the cutest thing in the world. She’s only a month old, and though she’s a mutt, she looks like a little black lab. She’s still too young to eat food, so she only drinks milk. She hasn’t quite figured out how to walk steadily – She prances with her front paws like a show pony and with her back paws, she walks bow-legged and sticks out her but like she’s going to pooh – but she walks around like she’s a princess. She’s wobbles a lot and falls over and spazzes out and jumps at any sudden movement and is just so fun to watch. She makes everyone fall in love with her.

The day that I got her she had just been de-wormed, so she was sick and lethargic and unenergetic. I was trying to think of a name for her, and it came to me as I watched her sleep (as she had been doing all day), while her sister wrestled and chewed things up. She didn’t seem to have much personality at that point (she’s definitely proved me wrong since then). So I said to her, “You’re so aburrida.” (aburrida is “boring” in Spanish) and “aburrida” became “Abbie,” which I think fits her pretty perfectly. Abbie Mae.

Even though she wakes me every couple of hours at night (I feel like I have an infant… definitely not doing that any time soon), she’s just what I needed and I couldn’t be happier. She is just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

Here's a video of her:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-acu_2UUq0o


So happy! =)