We attracted a dog during dinner on the last night of the trek. He stayed with us overnight and helped finish off the leftover oatmeal in the morning. As a joke, we named him Salí, which means ¨go away¨ in spanish. ¨Salí¨ is what Bolivians always yell at dogs so that they get out of the way, and we thought it would be funny if a dogs name was Salí because then when you are calling your dog, you are really saying ¨Come, Go Away! Come!¨ Is that a little cruel? Maybe, but we got a kick out of it.
Salí followed us the whole next day, trotting right by our heels as we hiked. This dog has quite the personality and we all grew attached to him quickly. Tim, our semester advisor, grew especially attached. None of us wanted to leave him when we reached our bus at the end of the day. I asked Tim, almost jokingly, ¨Please Dad? Can we keep him? Please?!¨ And his eyes showed that he was considering it. Still, it was a stretch. Pick up a stray dog in the mountains and bring him back to the city as a pet? Our schedule is packed, and how can we travel around with a dog?
Our pick-up bus was parked on the other side of a large swinging bridge. As we filed across, one by one, Salí tried to follow but was spooked and ran back. No amount of coaxing, bribing, or feeding could get him to step on the wobbly wooden planks. Suddenly we realized that Salí might not be coming to the other side of the river with us; we might have to say good bye for good.
Standing on the other side of the bridge, we watched Salí run down from the bridge, barking and barking, not sure why his new friends were leaving. He paced up and down the shore, looking for another way to cross besides the bridge, but the river was deep and fast and full of rapids. We knew he couldnt swim across. He continued running and barking for more than fifteen minutes, while we watched on the opposite shore, not sure what to do.
BUT THEN HE JUMPED IN. Everyone went crazy, afraid he would drown and shocked that he would be so persistant to cross. We all dropped our backpacks and ran towards the point where he was headed. About half way across, his head began bobbing as he fought the strong current, and we all held our breath. But he kept swimming and swimming and swimmin and HE MADE IT! We were all laughing and crying and screaming with disbelief. I finally understand why people describe dogs as loyal. The whole scenario was straight out of a Disney movie: the dog who faces death to be reunited with his family. Obviously, it was decided that we HAD to keep him.
He hopped right on the bus and slept the whole way back to Sucre. We picked off a few (huge) fleas, gave him a rabies shot, and bought a colar. After a 5 hour bus ride (and two minor vomit-accidents on Tim´s shirt), Salí is happily asleep on the floor of our hostal in Potosi. Now, we officially have a dog!
No comments:
Post a Comment