Crazy Dogs

I know next to nothing about the mating habits of dogs. However one of the neighborhood females is in heat so I'm getting an uninvited lesson. For the past 4 nights there has been a lot of barking and growling, sometimes very near our bedroom window. This occurs between 2100 and 0300 or 0400. Needless to say it can make for some very long nights. There is one dog in particular that has a very peculiar growl. The only description I can give is that it sounds like a demon. After hearing the demon dog last night at around 2100 and hoping that I could get a long nights sleep I went outside to scare it away. I grabbed a long stick and a flashlight for a bit of security. I went around our house to see a small pack of dogs, maybe 5, and a lot of growling and biting. The only dog I recognized was Rocky. And it seemed like he was being attacked by two or three other dogs. Hoping to break up the pack I yelled really loud and hit the stick on the ground as hard as I could. This scared the dogs a little but it also broke my stick. So much for security. At about the same time our neighbor, Eugene, emerged from his house and scared the dogs a little further. Our neighbors house has a street on two sides and between the house and the street are some bushes that act as a fence. As I approached the dogs with my broken stick they ran through the bushes out onto the street. I pursued out of curiosity and to see if I could further scare away the dogs that where attacking Rocky. As I emerged onto the street I saw an image that will be forever burned into my head. About 15 feet ahead of me was Rocky. He was viciously fighting two dogs at the same time. The amazing thing was that his penis was in a female dog that was trying to run the opposite direction. When I saw this I stopped pursuing thinking that Rockies problems where way beyond me. Just then a car drives by and with help from the headlights I see more vividly what I had seen before. The car also scared away the attacking dogs. Rocky and the bitch (c'mon it's a female dog that's what there called!) were trying to unattach. I still couldn't believe my eyes. I was not going to help Rocky with this problem. After a few seconds a dog resumed attacking Rocky. At about the same time Rocky was freed from his date and ran home, while the attacking dog and the bitch ran off together.

After seeing all this I was sure that Rockies days as a stud were over. There is no way that he could perform his male duties after the strain he put on his reproductive organs. I was surprised this morning then when I once again heard growling and barking in the back yard. I went out side to see what was happening. In front of me was a scene exactly the same as last night. Only this time I could see everything. Rocky was attached to the same dog. While fighting off two or three other dogs. Having nothing to fight with I walked towards them while yelling and making a lot of noise. I managed to scare the other dogs away but Rocky was still attached to this other dog. The bitch had dragged Rocky into the bushes that bordered the street and it sounded like she was getting attacked on the other side. They finally parted ways and I got a good look at Rocky. He had scratches and blood all over him. From the blood stains on his teeth it seemed as though he had given and received quite a beating.

The whole situation still makes me speechless. The only conclusion I can draw is that Oliver will be an inside dog while he is under our care.

Movies

Megan and I don't have cable, we don't even have a TV. But we do rent a LOT of movies. At a video store less that 200 yards from our house we can rent four movies for three days for three dollars. This movie store has a very interesting business plan. When new releases come out they only purchase one copy. Then they make 10-20 copies of the movie and only rent the copy. Then when the popularity of the movie goes down they sell the copies for $1. If you rent a copied movie it's $1 but if you rent an original it's $1.50. I'm not sure how international copyrights work but this has be illegal. However, cable is $25 a month and the channel selection is not that great so we enjoy watching a lot of movies.

Since we rent a lot of movies we see a lot of terrible movies. The worst movie I've seen in more than a year is "License to Wed". I hated all the characters so much that at the end I was hoping it would turn into a slasher movie. We do see some really good ones from time to time here is a short list of movies we really liked:

In America - My favorite movie that we've watched since we've been here. About a Irish couple who moves to New York.
Rescue Dawn
Rain
The Wendell Baker Story
Perfect Strangers
Premonition

Thanksgiving

As I write this post it has just begun to rain really hard. Besides the random down pour the weather hasn't changed much since we've been here. I was sitting in class on Thursday (Thanksgiving) while my students were working on a problem thinking about how one major difference between Thanksgiving this year and last is that, as usual, I'm sweating through it.

Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Micronesia but due to the fact that there are a lot of ex-patriots (why am I an ex-patriot? I'm still patriotic!) that live here I was reminded throughout the day that it was Thanksgiving. People would say "Happy Thanksgiving" to me but since I was at school getting ready to teach they mind as well have been saying "Happy Secerataries Day!". Just saying Thanksgiving a few times during the day (I did) and having turkey and mashed potatoes for dinner (I also did, and it was delicious) certainly doesn't make it Thanksgiving. This may sound lame but giving thanks doesn't even make it Thanksgiving. What makes Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is taking time out of our lives to connect to with the ones we love. So I celebrated Thanksgiving this morning, Friday, when I got to talk to my family with the newest member of my family, Megan.

Thanks Megan. Thanks Family.

Around our house

In August I posted some pics of our house in Pohnpei. Here are some more.

Our washer is located outside of our house. This picture is to the 'right' of our house if looking at the front. In the background you can see a some banana, coconut, and bettlenut trees. Notice the rice cooker, we also cook rice outside due to the steam and heat it generates...


If you look at the above picture(if you click on it you can see a much larger version of it, this goes for all pictures that we post) you can see a blue metal thing in the background and also a large yellow disk. They are in the foreground of the next picture and in the background are the tombs of previous residents of our house. That's pretty weird...


One nice thing about living 7 degrees north of the equator is that when the sun is shining bright our clothes dry really fast. This is the front of our house. The sheets on the line dried as fast as if they were in a dryer. The negative side is that it rains frequently and without notice so these could have been soaked if we weren't home to bring them inside really fast...


Here is a picture of the pig that lives 10-15 feet from our bedroom window...


The pig is pretty quiet. The only annoyance is when the wind blows a certain way we get to smell the pig pen. It could be much worse though, our neighbor cleans the pen every morning.

Here is a picture of the pig pen with our house in the background. If you look close or click on the picture to enlarge it you can see our bedroom window it's directly above the pig...

Oliver Update

When we first brought Oliver home we felt a lot of pity for him. All he did was eat, sleep and scratch himself. When he was awake he had absolutely no energy. He would mope around and eat very slowly. He looked as though he felt he was in our way. After a few days though he seemed to perk up ever so slightly and after a week or so he was actually playing with us...



He will nip at our hands, feet and ankles when he wants to play. At first this was very pathetic and he would quite after 10-15 seconds. Lately though he has had a little more energy and will play for a few minutes. He is usually most active in the morning and evening. Though rare, sometimes his nipping will be too much for us!

Needless to say we are adjusting quite nicely to having a pet in the house. I only teach two classes so when times are slow it's nice to have a friend at home with me. Our other dog (not ours at all but we'd like to think so) Rocky is also adjusting nicely to his new neighbor. Here they are sharing their common interest, scratching and licking...


Parting shot 1:
For the last few months we have been at war with ants. These critters will find the smallest morsel of food and converge on it in swarms. We take out our trash every day and sweep the floor two or more times per day but we are never perfect...


The above attack was because we didn't clean out a can of dog food thoroughly enough and they found it in our trash. We put the empty can of dog food in the trash at around lunch time and this pic was taken at 2100.

Parting Shot 2:
Here is a pic of my new hairstyle...

Places I've been

I love Google maps. When it first came I spent many hours just looking at different places. Then when the satellite feature came out I spent even more time on it. I've made a map of some places that I've visited. I plan to add pictures to it eventaully. But slow internet makes that process, well, slow. Enjoy...


View Larger Map

Note:

• This list is by no means comprehensive.
• Most of the dates are pretty close but not exact.
  
• Some of the locations may be way off. I didn't spend too much time perfecting them. (slow internet)
  
• It is a fully functional google map so you can drag the above and click on all the markers
• Blue means I have only been there once or a few times. Yellow means I've been there quite a bit. And green means I lived there for a while.
  

OOP's (Only On Pohnpei)'s

Here are a few funny things that we've observed about Pohnpei...

• Coconut oil used in diesel engines ($2.50 / gal coconut, $4.55 / gal diesel)
• Moldy hair
• Moldy hair treated using coconut oil
• Neighbors castrate a pig 10 feet from bedroom window
• Neighbors eat a female dog because of to many gentleman callers
• World class Yellow fin tuna $1.35/lb, box of cherios $8
• A dog that you feed for three months won't be pet and a different one follows you out of the jungle
• A kid walking in the mud with no shoes on won't pet your dog because "he'll make me dirty!"
• 11 flavors of spam available in the grocery stores
• Canned tuna and mackerel is a big seller. (Ironic as it may have been caught right off the coast of Pohnpei, shipped to Japan for canning, shipped back here, then resold.)
  

We realize that these probably happen in other places as well but "Things that happen in Pohnpei as well as other places" isn't as catchy as "Only On Pohnpei".

Oliver

Andrew and I were worried about leaving Oliver outside to fend for himself overnight because there's some mean packs of dogs around here. So, we decided to let him spend as much time as he likes inside, which happens to be most of his time. Of course, this means housebreaking is involved.

I don't think he's been indoors before, because the first few times we took him indoors, Andrew had to push or carry him in. Now he thinks he can go inside anywhere - the video store, the fast food place, the library - we have to be careful not to let him slip past us. He is beginning to learn where he must wait outside, and where he can enter. He seems to be a naturally at doing his business outside.

Our first night with him, his LOUD pudding like bowl movement woke us up at 2am. He was in obvious discomfort and not in control. The next day, he didn't poop all day, so we were prepared for another cleaning project the next night. But, he made it to the morning. We took him on a walk when we woke up, and after a little while, he pooped.

Here comes the awkward part. Every time Oliver does his business outside, we must coo and praise and celebrate his poop with him. This is kind of embarrassing to do in front of people in the U.S. - but absolutely humiliating in Pohnpei. Locals do not have indoor dogs here. They think it's weird that we let a dog follow us around, and unsanitary that we keep a dog in our house. Needless to say, we get some pretty strange looks when we cheer for Oliver's poop.

The following morning, Oliver woke me up with some whimpers. Was he begging to go outside because he had to poop? I stumbled to the front door and opened it. He darted out and did his business immediately. The fact that he even left the house without me impressed me. He hadn't gone more than 10 feet away from Andrew or me since he entered our home. Incredible, did he really learn and understand that fast? Well, it's been one week today since we met Oliver, and the only mess inside occurred that first night. My only guess is that he'd instinctively rather go outside for some reason. Whatever the reason... I'm amazed and pleased we don't have messes to clean.

Ok, enough potty talk. Let me brag some more about how great Oliver is. We don't use a leash. He just follows us everywhere like he did in the mountains. One of us does usually carry a stick to scare off all the dogs that hassle ours. He's calm, and well-behaved with the dogs that are nice to him. We did catch him flirting with Rocky's baby-mama. He was even nice to our friend's dog who wouldn't stop barking and growling at him. I take him to my high school English class with me, and he sleeps at the front of the room. He follows me to the grocery store, and waits outside the glass door, watching me until I return. I've notice other people have to dog-proof their house. The only changes we've made were finding a place for his food, and bowls. We haven't had to move anything out of his reach. He's good with kids too. There's a 6-year old that plays with him at school, and he's been calm when my 11th graders give him a hard time.

He does bark a couple times at night, so we have to figure out what to do about that. I'm hoping soon to start teaching him to stay, come, sit, etc.

Oliver spends most of his time sleeping. I think his body needs the rest to digest all the food and get healthy. If he's not sleeping, he's most likely scratching. He has fleas. Andrew's done an excellent job of picking off most of the ticks. He's most energetic early in the morning and in the evening. When he's feeling playful, he'll push is shoulder into you to push you around a bit, and sometimes he'll nip at your fingers or ankles. If I pet him and stop before he's satisfied, he'll give a little lick and then start nipping my fingers.

Lu, a Chinese teacher at the college told me today, "He will be a very good dog because you rescued him."

Welcome to the Jungle

On Friday November 2 Megan and I headed into the rain forest of Pohnpei. A few months ago we asked rather casually in Megan’s office if there was any good hiking on the island. It just so happened that Megan shares an office with a Biologist who used to frequently go into the jungle and take some surveys of butterflies, lizards, dragonflies, …etc. Don, Megan’s officemate biologist, told us he take us out on the first three day weekend of the semester which happened to this past weekend.

A taxi ,reserved by Don earlier in the week, picked us up at 0630 and dropped us off at the trail head. For the first few hours the trail we were walking on was nicely defined. The trail is used by sakau farmers because it grows best on hill sides. We past a few sakau plantations and as we did the quality of the trail deteriorated. Several times we lost the trail and needed to back track a little. At around 0930 I noticed a dog about 20 feet behind Megan. The dog followed us for quite awhile. It didn’t seem that the dog intended to harm us but we were a little leery because of the other dogs we have met on Pohnpei. At one point the trail seemed to dead end so we had to cross a stream. The dog didn’t seem to want to get wet so we parted ways. About ten minutes later he was back. The next time we took a break I put some trail mix on a rock and the dog ate it very gingerly. He followed us a little closer now.

After we pasted a big sakau plantation the trail pretty much dead ended. We now bush whacked our way through the jungle while following a stream. As we gained elevation this became more difficult. At one point we were wading in the stream at an angle that made it more of a waterfall than a stream. We had given up trying to stay dry anyway as it was now sprinkling. Even though I was drenched I was not uncomfortable because it was warm out. As we ascended further the stream actually became a waterfall that was very beautiful. The dog was still following us although he didn't seem to enjoy it anymore. He was having a hard time on the slippery rocks. A couple times I didn't think he was going to be able to follow us due to the terrain but he always seemed to find a way that better catered to four legs.

After scaling a large boulder I realized that there was no way the dog would be able to follow us anymore. Once the dog realized this he started backtracking, looking for a different path. As soon as I had all but given up hope I spotted the dog. He was actually above us about 10 feet but couldn't get to us. Thinking he would eventually figure out how to get to us we continued up the waterfall. When we had left his sight he started whimpering a little bit. I felt bad but thought surely he would find a way to us. A few more minutes went by and he started howling as if he where really in distress. Don said that there was a dry spot up a little further and that we could take a break there. Immediately I went back down to see if I could help the dog. The howling got louder as I got closer and I was afraid that he had hurt himself trying to get to us. Fearing the worst I continued descending. As I neared the dogs distress calls my mind was racing; “What if he fell and broke his leg?”, “What would I do if he was immobilized?”, “Why did I give him the @#!$ trail mix?", …etc. I was now in a position that I believed I would be able to see the dog. I couldn’t. My mind continued racing. Hearing and not seeing the dog I was pretty sure I would have to put the dog out of his misery. Now I was racing down toward him stumbling along as I went. At once the howling stopped. I stopped fearing the worst. I looked up to see him in the same spot I left him, he was looking at me. My presence seemed to calm him. The dog didn’t look distressed in the least. He looked bored. I went about searching for a way to get him down. Once I did this he seemed to start looking again too. I found a way to get to him but it involved wet, slippery rocks. I was pretty sure that if I could get to him I would not be able to get down and definitely not be able to help him down. Megan now joined me and she felt that the situation was pretty hopeless. Although oblivious to this until now I realized that it was raining very hard. Megan retreated to the dry spot. Ten minutes later Don showed up to see what was going on. I had pretty much given up at this point and seeing Don I realized that we should continue on our way. Don shrugged his shoulders and I was ready to continue on the hike. Just then the dog walked up right next to me. Seriously folks I couldn’t have made this stuff up if I tried.

We continued over broken terrain up the hill. Now the dog was at my heels. Periodically I would hit the dog in the face with my heel he was so close. We pasted a few vistas that offered beautiful views of the forest and even a waterfall. After quite a long climb our journey seemed to plateau, though still ascending the elevation gain was negligible. Noon arrived and we took a lunch break. The dog benefited as we all took pity on him and shared our lunches with him. I fed him some more trail mix and after I had finished my apple I gave him the core, he ate it. Not many dogs will eat fruit and I suppose there are even less that will the core of an apple. He sat in front of all us, pretty evenly spaced waiting for a handout. After Don fed him some of his bagel that contained meat he sat a little closer to Don. As we continued I remarked that if the dog followed us up a waterfall for a few nuts and some cereal he surely wasn’t going to leave us after we fed him so much. Knowing that Megan wouldn’t be against the idea I said that if he followed us all the way home we’d keep him.

At the end of the days journey we came into a large meadow that was filled with ferns. This is where we would camp for the night. The meadow…

The campsite…

After setting up camp we headed to a stream to get some more drinking water. Don snapped this pic of us with our potential new dog (he’s pretty scrawny)…

Notice on the left of the previous pic there is a stick next to Megan. We each had a walking stick that was very instrumental to our getting up and eventually down the mountain. Here is pic of Megan ascending the fern meadow…

This is what the view from our campsite was. Here you can see the mangrove forest at the edge of island, the outer reef of Pohnpei, and the farthest thing you see is Ant Atoll…

We had a pleasant evening enjoying each others company and reliving the events of the day. Dusk set in around 1830 and we decided to go to sleep for the evening. Megan and I talked about a possible name for the dog. We settled on Oliver after the title character in the play Oliver Twist. “Please sir, can I have some more?” was what he seemed to be saying as he followed us during the day.

Believe it or not we shivered throughout the night. The combination of damp clothes and fierce wind kept us very cool. Despite this we felt well rested in the morning. A nature call finally made me emerge from the tent. I was curious to see if the dog had decided to stay with us. The spot he was the previous evening was vacant but Don was up and motioned over near his tarp. At some point during one of the many night rains the dog had cozied himself up to get escape the rain. I didn’t get a picture of the dog but he was curled up in tight ball kind of like he is in this pic…

After packing up the tent we decided to skip breakfast since it was raining, we hoped it would clear a little or we could find some shelter in the forest. The first thirty minutes of the morning I was miserable. The rain was pounding us pretty hard. I had a small pool of water in my shirt where the waist belt from my pack was wrapped around me. The ferns we were walking through made sure our legs were equally saturated. I had a hard time warming up since the ferns grew very thick we walked pretty slowly. Once we were out of the meadow we picked up some speed and the canopy of the forest helped shield us from the downpour. At around 0830 we found a small shack that Don guessed was a temporary shelter for sakau or banana farmers. We decided to have breakfast there. Once again we all gave a portion of our breakfast to the dog. Since we each shared so much with him he may have eaten more that any of us individually.

Up until breakfast Oliver had followed me very closely. However after Don shared a hardboiled egg and part of a bagel that had salmon on it the dog decided to split his time behind me and Don. After a mid morning break and more of the salmon bagel, Oliver followed Don exclusively…

I had to sneak the previous pic of Don as he seemed a little camera shy. Notice how close Oliver is to Don. That is how close he always follows. Sometimes he will stop and smell something foe a few moments but he never goes in front of the person he is following.

Our destination was the COM national campus, pictured here…

At around 1130 we arrived and used the facilities to wash up. Originally we planned to take a taxi from COM to our house in Kolonia but now that we had a dog we figured this wouldn’t be possible so I headed to small store and bought Oliver a can of tuna to prepare him for the 5 mile walk. As we were about to embark another one of Megan’s officemates, John, offered us a ride in his car. This was relief to us. Especially our feet.

I’m sure we’ll have a lot to write about in the next few days with the new house mate and all. I’ll leave you with a pic of Oliver in at his new home. His scrawy spine has earned him the nickname “stegosaurus”…