And Dog Makes Three

June 27, 2010

Our neighbors Dan and Kelly and their two sons, Thompson (13-yrs) and Harris (10-yrs) were here when we moved in (staying a month).  They’re a fun couple from Texas, and the boys are just terrific.  They bought their place a few years ago, shortly before we did. And although we have talked on the phone and emailed each other over time, our trips to Olon had never coincided, so we were meeting them for the first time.

Likewise, we had never met Bobby, our gregarious neighbor across the street, although we had spoken on the phone frequently.  Bobby is from California, and purchased his lot about a year ago. He has been in Olon since early spring, working on construction, and plans to live here full time as well.

Our South Carolina neighbors, Rocky and Elizabeth were in for a brief visit. Beth is a gracious and warm woman who is very involved in animal rescue in the States, and she was the one who convinced Todd and I to adopt one the stray beach dogs.

All of the dogs run free - some are attached to homes, many are not. They really do have the "life" here, running around town and the beach; and each seems to have their own little daytime territory, run with their "homeboy" packs, and some go to a home each night where they will sleep outside and bark at anyone coming near. It would be cute if so many weren't malnourished or clearly in need of a vet's attention.

Anyway, "Daisy" was a beach dog who has been hanging around our compound, going from occupied house to house. She's probably about 6-8 months old.  Very friendly and very smart - whole compound adopted her, but she's ours "officially", since we are here full time now.  We have the water/food bowls and she sleeps on our back porch at night (we made a bed for her). During the day, she plays with her posse on the beach (two little black dogs, one of whom looks like Toto) or her best friend “Spot”, when she’s not roaming our neighborhood looking for hand-outs and petting.  We had her fixed last week (which Beth generously offered to fund). 

Todd and I joke that we had a shot-gun marriage in light of the sudden addition of Daisy to our family.  I thought Todd might be a hard sell on this one, but he is smitten with her as well….now if I can just talk him into a couple of cats………