Puppy Power

SO in loosing my first dog in Malawi, I gained three. Their names are Red, Jessie, and Malayika. Jessie is the most independent and in contention for most dominant. She often does not come when called and has a way of looking at you like, “What man?” Malayika means Angel in Swahili. She is cuddly and most shy of Malawians. She listens fairly well and is the most dominant. Red is bouncy and all about the attention. She also is fairly good about coming when you call. All three are basically tan, Red, obviously has a red tint to her fur, especially around her head. She also has the biggest ears. Jessie is tan with a tiny bit of black mixed into a line down her back, she also has lighter colored eyes. Malayika has the biggest eyes and a patch of white on the scruff of her neck.

All three of these puppies have a tendency to popcorn when you get too close or they get to excited. Don't know what popcorn means? Think of whack-a-mole with jumping puppies. 4 and ½ month old hyper babies.

Here are some interesting stories involving the babies.

I invented something called puppy mush to fill them up while I was still trying t find someone to cook nsima for them. It is water, flour, salt and vuvu (crushed up usipa fish) all mixed together. I put a plate of that down and watched them attack it, slurping, gulping and occasionally growling at each other though no one wanted to stop eating. It was inhaled in 30 seconds. I got the idea because I was wondering what to d with a cup of flower that had been sitting out for a few days.

I had bought the vuvu at the Wednesday market. I went down all the fish stalls asking for Dagha until I finally found someone who told me that here its called vuvu. Go figure. Anyway I bought a bag of this stuff really cheap and biked it home, but man was it heavy! I put it in my bafa because of the arrangement I have with my neighbor. She comes and cooks nsima in my outdoor kitchen everyday for the dogs. I hide the vuvu in my bafa so she does not need a key to my house. I had just put the vuvu in the bafa than went inside to get a container. By the time I walked the ten feet to my bafa I push open the door and there are three little butt sticking up in the air, tails wagging and heads buried in my vuvu sack. Its fantastically amazing how fast puppies can hoark down food!. Needless to say I had trouble getting the our of the bafa. Pick one up and put it outside, turn around she comes in as you grab the other two...gah! So of course after I got them all out, closed the door and tried to do some damage control, they all whined outside the door like I was the bad guy!

So I had made tortillas, tortilla chips, guacamole and pico-de-gallo. I set out this awesome feast on my table and prepared to stuff my face. Of course the creatures are running around because I had to shut them in my house cause it was dark. After I ate I was going to put them into their room. I turn around and see Malayika standing on my couch, at attention, taring at the table. I decide to watch this pan out. She crawls onto the chair next to the couch and is about one inch closer. She leans out and falls on her face. Take two. This happens to more times and i'm just sitting their laughing. Finally there is a new plan she gets back on the chair and stretched out in a lunge to the bookshelf. From there it is a one two three and she super man dives her front paws out and just barely makes contact with the table. Success! So of course I scoop her up and then collect the other pups to put them to bed.