Hannah and Robin have now departed for the US and Canada for their 3 week honeymoon. While Dan and I cannot have a dog in our unit, I volunteered to go by their place a couple times per week to hang out with Shoebill. They have a bunch of staff that lives on their property who will feed him and walk him and stuff. But Hannah seemed convinced that he would really enjoy seeing me and it appeared to ease her anxiety a bit to know that I would stop by and lounge with him.
Considering I work from home, their home or my home doesn't really make any difference and frankly, I could probably use Shoe's company as much as he could use mine. I started thinking about whether we would go for walks and things which reminded me of a funny story from last week...
Annabel and Peter were back in the UK getting things prepared for their move back at the end of the month. They have two dogs here in Ghana. I know nothing about dog breeds so I'm not going to pretend like I know what kind of dogs they are. Safi is a short haired big, lean dog (ridgeback-looking), very well behaved but very strong on a leash. Chewy, named for Chewbacca, is a small, white, fluffy dog with a heck of a personality. It is a well-known fact that Chewy is racist. He only bites black people, making taking him for a walk both a challenge and possibly life-risking. You are probably thinking that's an over exaggeration but one day Hannah and Annabel took the dogs for a walk in the botanical gardens. Chewy bit a man and he pulled out a machete and said he would kill the dog. Soooooo as you can see, hanging out with Chewy is risky.
While Annabel and Peter were away, Hannah was trying to get the dogs out every few days to get some fresh air. She realized quickly that, along with Shoebill, this was not a one person job. Last Thursday, I hesitantly offered to go with her. To be fair my hesitance was based on Hannah's terrible sell of the idea. The gist of which was "Hey I would like to walk these dogs, but I need help. It's probably going to be hot and dirty and sweaty and really quite shit. Do you fancy coming along?" Not much of a saleswoman, that Hannah.
Alas, off the five of us went. We crossed one big road but, luckily, one side of it is under construction so there was really only one heavily traveled side to worry about. Once across, we walked to a golf course. Who knew there was a golf course within walking distance? Honestly, I have no idea where the car park or the clubhouse is for this golf course as we just kind of waltzed onto it. We went back to the driving range and let the three crazies run around a bit. It was actually a fairly nice day. It's been so rainy lately that it has cooled the temperature substantially.
We started the walk home and Chewy was done for. Just kept laying down in the shade panting. So now I have Shoe and Safi while Hannah is carrying Chewy. We cross back over the busy street and then all three of them have crashed. They all found a shady spot by the gutter and have parked it. Mind we are now spitting distance to Hannah's compound so we are trying to explain to them how close they are to air conditioned comfort. We finally got home and cooled off a bit, but I have to say, walking a dog in the heat of Ghana is not a relaxing experience. Walking three is pure insanity!
No comments:
Post a Comment