An eventful week…..

On Sunday, 4 police officers showed up at our door, looking rather intimidating I have to say, and not a word of English between them. I however got the general gist it was about Martin, who at that time was playing in our back yard with Pica, along with numerous kids.

Luckily Greyvin was visiting ,(he is our house and dog sitter while we are away, and has become a good friend, so had dropped in for coffee). Greyvin thankfully could interpret for us as a lot of things were being said and I was losing track!

Remember Martin, Pica’s admirer, that one who followed Luca home, and never really left?

Over the past 3 weeks a routine had developed. He would spend the night at Andrea and Fifi’s where he could go inside, sleep and eat,then he would wander up our way, poke his head through Luca’s bedroom window, Pica would head out and play until they were both exhausted. Then he would play with the kids and head back to Andrea and Fifi’s for the night. All free range of course, no one locked him in anywhere, he came and went as he pleased, obviously suiting him well.

Well turns out, he is the local police dog and they wanted him back! Martin however, had absolutely no intention of going back! He would not go near them and ran and hid. One police officer in particular was trying and trying, turns out she was the owner, had rescued him as a puppy and you could see she was pretty upset that he would not go to her. He would go to the kids and me and Pica, but if they got near him, off he would go. After a good 1/2 an hour or so, she gave up and said she would return.

The next day more police showed up, and this time with food, still it did no good, he was not interested all, Pica ate the food! 🙂 . While this was all happening one of the school administrators happened to be passing and called in. A quick reassuring explanation was given by me as to what was going on, I was thinking the situation must look a bit bizarre! She just shrugged like it is a completely normal occurrence to see numerous police officers trying to convince a dog to get into their vehicle, and said she had just called in to say hi 🙂

Still having had no luck at convincing Martin to go with them, once again they said they would return.

Tuesday late afternoon they again turned up, this time with a collar, chain and someone else to help! Martin was not at our place but I knew where he would be, so took them down to Andrea and Fifi’s. Sure enough there he was, and this time they asked me to hold him while they put on the collar, as still they could not get near him.

It was HORRENDOUS! He was shaking and resisting them and the kids were all over Martin crying as they dragged him to the police vehicle. Fifi’s Grandma is here at the moment staying with Fifi, and like me, felt we had little choice. I felt terrible, the kids were a mess, and yet he was her dog, she had a right to take him, we could not refuse.

Turns out right after, Fifi went inside and rang her Andrea ,(who happens to be in the US for the week, missing all the police drama), Andrea messaged me to find out where he was being taken, she then rang the officer to offer to buy Martin!!!!

Apparently they had a good conversation and the outcome is still pending, depending on how Martin assimilates back to his old home, so we will see, watch this space…… Oh, and his name is actually Pelicano ,(Pelican), he does not respond to that name now, it seems he is rather taken with the name Martin!!!!!! 🙂 …..

The other development this week, is Rich and I seem to have taken on a role as tutors. Some of the local kids come up here for help with their English homework and we in turn get to practice some Spanish, and they can help out with Luca’s Spanish homework. Everyone turns up, sits down, we supervise and help them with it, then they all run off and play. Luca loves it, the more communal the better, as far as he is concerned 🙂 !!!!!

The school has also asked both of us to do some tutoring, me in ESL and Rich in Math. We are having a meeting next week with the academic coordinator to see how it will work. It will be a good chance to become more involved with the school and community, practice our Spanish, and learn some more skills ourselves 🙂

Hard to believe another school week coming to an end, they are truly flying by! We go to Guatemala in 3 weeks, our 3 month visa is up and to renew we have to leave the country. Nicaragua is out because of civil war, so all us expats, who would normally just pop up there, are looking elsewhere. There are some cheap flights to Guatemala and we have heard such great things about the country, we figured why not, so off we go….,

It is still the little things here that grab my attention, there is so much more time to notice to stop and notice the beauty around us! Check out this amazing ladybird, about twice the size of the ones we find in Canada. She was hanging by our clothes line this week, gorgeous girl (or boy 🙂 )!