Pelulu Had Puppies!

Proud Papi Pelulu with his son, Pinky

That’s right – Pelulu is now Papi Pelulu! One of our neighbor’s dogs, Luna, had puppies two months ago and we just found out today that Pelulu is the Daddy! It’s an exciting event here in Costa Rica when dogs have puppies and there always seems to be someone who wants a puppy. It’s not like in the States where we campaign to get pets spade and neutered. In fact, all the Ticos seem to think it is a shame that Mocha is spade.

Not spaying and neutering leads to a large number of street dogs, but those dogs have some chance at a life and don’t have to fear getting picked up by a dog catcher and murdered in a dog pound. Our street has recently adopted a gang of street dogs (callejeros) that probably wound up without a home because their previous owners could not afford to take care of them anymore due to the decline in the economy. There are four of them and they hang out around our dead-end street all day and night, helping to protect us in return for a place to call home and Uncle Charlie’s scraps from the butcher shop. It’s comforting to know they are out there because our street is a cut-through for a lot of foot traffic.

Pelu and Pinky

And now we have one more dog on our street – Pelulu’s puppy! The mama gave birth to four, but the owners found them homes before we even knew that they existed. They decided to keep one and name it Pinky (?) and it is already as big as Pelulu LOL! The neighborhood thinks Pelulu is the ugliest dog, so they all seem to be happy and somewhat relieved that Pelulu is able to produce good-looking offspring. Poor Pelulu. Up next we are hoping that Papi Pelulu will have puppies with another dog on our street, a beautiful Chihuahua named April. 🙂

Pinky, Pelulu’s two month old son