Lost Keys, Dancing Horses, and Abandoned Dogs

Matt is feeling better! I'm so happy to have him with me as I continue to learn more about this charming little town. As part of his rehab to adjust to the climate, he's walking with Herm and I at least once a day. And playing golf. The first time he rented a cart, but for the last two rounds he's back to walking the course. I think he's nearly 100%.   Our walks throughout the village are lovely.  The weather is still a bit warm but very comfortable.  Traffic is slow along the cobblestones streets and our village is so pretty.  Here's a few shots of what we typically see.

Typical village home, brightly painted and lots of flowers

This fearsome beast has a hole in his gate just large enough for his head -- he loves to bark at Herm

Many of the houses are painted with street art....

the gazebo in the plaza

La Caja de Musica, or Music Box, love the musicians painted on this little  pub

We went back to Guadalajara on Monday to pick up the car...and this trip didn't even phase him.  We drove through town like a couple of pros.  The car was ready and running great and the bill was even $100 less than the estimate.  After picking up the car, we found Costco!  This was an incredible Costco, very clean with a great selection of many of the items we loved from home.  And we had lunch there - $220 pesos for a hot dog and a drink!  A hot dog never tasted so good!

And this is probably not worth mentioning unless you've always lived in the midwest, but we have an orange tree!  Matt and I have been watching our oranges grow and wondering when we should pick one.  Finally, we couldn't wait any longer....and here it is - our first orange!

Ajijic Locksmith

 This last week I lost our house keys. I was taking Hermann for a walk, and I remember thinking "be sure and grab your keys" but couldn't actually remember grabbing them. I'd only gone about a block when I thought "did you get the keys?" but by then I didn't have them. I retraced my steps and no keys. I went back in the house and no keys there either. Now, here's the problem. We live in the village, not in a gated community with a bunch of other ex-pats. There is a strong divide of opinions in Ajijic over which is best "village or gated community". More and more the village life is becoming more popular as it really feels like Mexico. I'm very happy with our decision to stay in the village but a few things I don't like....and one is that our front door seems to be a gathering place for a lot of the young men on our street just about any time of the day or night. While the older Mexicans on our street always greet us warmly, not so much with these guys. A few will grudgingly say "buenos dias" if we greet them first. So, long story short, there was a group of about 6 or 7 of these guys in front of our house when I left. IF I dropped the keys on our street, someone must have picked them up. I believe they would have known I dropped them, so no reason not to give them back to me unless whoever had them was up to no good. We sent a hasty email to our property manager. She's out of town but she recommended a key man up on the "careterra" (main road). We walked up there to talk with him, and he grabbed his tool box and came to the house. Within 30 minutes we had a new lock and six new keys made. Total cost? $250 pesos (or about $20 USD). I'm always amazed that some simple things are so difficult in Mexico, but some things are so simple.  We also talked with him about making a spare key for our car.  He quoted $700 pesos for the key and another $700 to program it.  The dealer was twice as high.  I'm not sure I understand how he can program they key, thought that needed to be done at the dealer.  But I guess if it doesn't work, we don't pay.  Probably will get that done next week.

Check out this beauty!  On every walk around the village we almost always see a couple of horses. This one is my favorite, I love that sweet face and his perfect neck. The Ajijic horses dance, a dancing horse is a first for me. I haven't been able to get a good video yet of them performing but I found this one on YouTube Dancing Horses of Ajijic.  The horse pictured is about two minutes into the video.

\Don't bother reading any further if you aren't a dog person.....boring!

I've been working two weeks up at the ranch now, two days each week.  It's very hard to not become very attached to these sweet babies.  Of course I have my favorites.  Allie and Sam are "lifers", they are very affectionate and loving TO PEOPLE but seem to hate other dogs so little chance they'll ever be adopted.  They are the only ones that don't share their runs with other dogs.  Here's some pics of just a few of the dogs needing homes. These pictures don't do these dogs justice....it's hard to take good pictures through the fence and no way I'm going to be able to take a picture when I'm in the run with them.  That is one of the few times these dogs get any affection and they will not pose for a pic.

Princess

Princess is a dalmation mix and beautiful.....and calm for a dalmation.

Jake

Jake is just as energetic as he looks, still very young.  Oh...he would love a yard.

And this is another one of my favorites, sweet Missy.  She loves nothing better than a tummy rub.  She's been to two adoption days and hasn't found a home yet.  I hope she finds one soon!

Missy

This sweet girl came in last week.  When I was there on Friday she'd been there for two days and spent most of her days laying very still and shivering.  We thought it was nerves from being surrounded by so many other dogs.  Gudrun, the woman who spends her life running the ranch, became concerned and took her to the vet.  He diagnosed that she had some type of nerve damage and was barely able to walk.  Sadly, they had to put her down.

And then there are the puppies!  Someone brought a mother dog and her four puppies in about a month ago and they are the star of the show.  The mom is a beautiful spaniel.  Two of the pups are spotted like mom, and the other two black.  And they are so cute...but oh so bad.  I seem to have been "promoted" to now being able to clean out the puppy pen.  First you scoop all the poop from the mom and pups.  Then you need to scrub out the pen with clorox water and a broom.  None of the other cages get this much attention but they want to keep the puppies healthy.  So while I'm scooping poop, I've got one puppy chewing on my ankle bracelet, one nipping at my other ankle, and the other two trying to untie my shoe laces.  Once you get the poop scrapped, you need to pick up their blankets and toys so you can scrub.  The only place to put that stuff is on top of the dog house, and of course as soon as you turn around they manage to reach a corner of a blanket and drag everything back down....so repeat this procedure about three times.  Going in and out of the pen could be an olympic event.  Watching your step so you don't hurt a puppy, you try and open the door just enough to get out....before the puppies spill out after you.  I understand these puppies all have homes and I'm very happy about that....I'm also very happy they're not going home with me.  These four are too much work.   But oh the mom, is she an angel!  So calm and patient.....I'd like to take her with me for sure - only problem is Matt knows only one sentence in Spanish "no mas perros!"