Bicycle Dog

Bicycle Dog

 I have always had pets. My family currently has four dogs at the house and I miss my St Bernard mix Annie tremendously. So even though I resisted the urge and responsibility for a year…I recently caved and got a dog. He is now about 4 months old.

His name is Howie, short for Howard, Howard the coward.

He earned this name because when I was visiting Adam in Chisenga we went to Adam’s Village headman’s house, Mwene-Chisenga. Adam’s counterpart, the woman in his village he chooses to work with closely, Daria, has picked out a dog for me. She picked the male that looked like her dog, Ruby. They told me he barks a lot and would make a good guard dog. I didn’t fall in love with him and the little female, who was friendly and adorable, had some infection in her eye. SO a bit disheartened I am ready to call it quits when Mwene-Chisenga says

“What about the other one?”

I’m curious.

“Is it a boy?” It is.

SO next sparks about 20 minutes of awkward waiting while his 20 children chase this small puppy around. They give up so Adam goes out to help. We all watch as Adam and three sons chase this dog through the bush. It gets cornered and a\Adam wades into the bushes and grabs the dog as he bolts. Adam manages to grab it by the leg. Howie starts yelping bloody murder. Then he pees on Adam. Adam brings the pee-soaked trembling puppy out and sets him on the ground for me to see. Unfortunately I always seem to root for the underdog and my heart melted. His brown eyes peered up at me in terror, his short tan fur and two white socks on his front legs was adorable, he was skinny but not mal-nourished.

I picked him. I don’t really know why.

I carried him the few kilometers home in the mid-day heat. He was terrified of Malawians, cars, Mwabi (M-why-e which means ‘lucky’) Adam’s dog, the chain we put him on (which he would spaz out and chew hysterically rolling frantically around like an alligator.)

I’m not going to lie; I thought I made a mistake. He was giving me anxiety attacks lol, and I had had him only a few hours! I thought he was going to hate me forever. Adam said it would not take long for him to love me. I’m the animal whisper to Adam haha. 

Sigh….Adam was right.

I love my puppy and feel guilty whenever I leave him at my house. So coming back from the New Years, island trip, Adam started feeling crappy when we reached Mzuzu and it got worse when we arrived in Chitipa Boma. He came down with severe dehydration and a sinus infection that we were not able to treat for a few days. We waited for a ride but eventually I had to bike from Chitipa boma to my house (45-50min) and get medicine for him. It was bad, I think he should have been hospitalized but the boy fights medicine tooth and nail. I was really worried so even though we needed other stuff I only grabed the meds…and Howie. I felt to guilty to leave him especially since I did not know how much longer I would be away helping Adam.

What to do? The only thing I could. I went to my clean laundry basket.

I strapped an old, previous volunteer donated, forest green Hawaii beach towel that is used as my table cloth, tied it over one shoulder and stuck Howie in the front sling. I biked 45 min back in the mid-day heat with a 3-month-old puppy strapped to my chest. Needless to say that the rural villagers stared, too shocked to do anything. When I got to the boma with the more ‘enlightened people’ they pointed and laughed. Everyone insisted pointing out to me that I had an “imbwey” or “Combwa,’ or ‘Garu’ (all meaning dog) strapped to my chest. So what did I do in the face of this discrimination and mockery? I patted the bottom of the sling supporting my dog, said “Baby” and made kissy faces to my dog.

That’ll show ‘em