Introducing Shanti!

Shanti at 2 months, Perla at 5.5 months

Updating on the "Perla & Co." post: after finding the three newborn puppies and conning my brother into bottle feeding them twice a day for the two weeks I was in the States, I came home to half of a sled dog team of puppies who were looking less and less like Rotweillers every day...it must have been part of their evolutionary survival tactic. Conveniently, as they were eating me out of house and home, the annual All Volunteer Conference was approaching, and as the name suggests, all 180 Dominican Peace Corps volunteers would be attending. Needless to say, the two puppies I took with me immediately found good Dominican-American homes.

The third puppy, by far the largest and least aggressive (and by least aggressive I mean a big baby) I kept for my own. Her name is Shanti, peace in Sanskrit, and depending on what time of day you catch her she is exactly or exactly the opposite of what her name means. Either way she is the happiest creature ever and does have a special peace to her nature. She and the kitten are constantly wrestling and still sleeping together. The other day I caught the kitten cleaning Shanti's face while she was sleeping, as if to say, "My gosh you are disgusting, don't you know how to clean your face? Don't worry, I love you." Adorable.

Last weekend I took Shanti with me to the river for the first time and after we both got wet we snoozed together on the rocks, she as my pillow. It is not part of their culture to have a pet as part of the family, and definitely not to hold it or put your head on it, that's quite repulsive actually, but even one of my youth noted, "Ese perra vale cuarto!" - "That dogs worth a lot of money!" seeing her so calm under my head.