Pets Cuenca

As I was awoken this morning around 4:45 by the loud sounds of a very small dog, I started to think about the differences in pets here versus in the USA, at least where we last lived in Decatur, Georgia. Our last neighborhood we lived in had any kind of oridinace you could think of, noise, smell, pets and so many more. When we moved there we brought 2 of our 4 dogs Ed and Capri. I knew Capri would be able to handle a smaller hame and yard since we were downsizing and she is a beagle. We couldn't find Ed a new home so we had to take him with us. Ed is a big dog, he is a tree walker coon hound.

Where we lived before Decatur, in middle Georgia, the dogs had lots of yard to enjoy and the neighbors didn't seem to complain about them barking, we even asked a few of them and they said "no problem". Taking them to a city was a little different, and we didn't know that dogs weren't allowed to bark for more 10 minutes, or you could get cited. Unfortunately, we moved to squirel haven. Every where you'd look there were squirels and for a hound and a beagle, well lets just say it was hard to control them. After a few months I learned some new commands that helped get them back to the house when they wouldn't stop the barking.

Now we are here in Cuenca and we left Ed and Capri back in the states with family. Ed is with my brother Allen and Dad. Capri is with our daughters in an apartment. We miss them very much, but there are benefits to not having pets anymore. We can go out and not worry about being there to take care of them. Feeling guilty when we are out past their dinner time.

Before moving to Cuenca we had read on some blogs and Yahoo groups about dogs that were being poisoned. That was so sad. Maybe it's because they don't have a system in place to deal with noisy dogs. No animal control and they can't talk to each other here either.

When we first arrived here in Cuenca I saw dogs roaming around the streets without owners and it wasn't like in the US where they just run out in the street with the possiblity of getting hit. No these dogs in Cuenca know how to cross the streets. They will start at one side and stop in the middle where the island is and then look to make sure it is safe to continue crossing the street. It is great. Our landlady told me that she will let her dog out of the yard and remind it to look both ways and be safe and then dog comes home. You can walk down the side walks and dogs will walk right past you, they don't care about what you're doing or what you have in your bags they are just going some where with a purpose it seems.

Back to the little dog this morning. I wanted to open the window and yell out to tell it to shut it up, but I am pretty sure it speaks spanish LOL, and I may have upset it more and it could have barked even longer. I thought about going to talk to the owners later in the morning and then I remembered what my friend said that it's not worth it because then they owners may not be responsive to you telling them how to take care of their dog and then they will know where you live and may treat you worse. I just want to be neighborly and tell them to shut their dogs up. Hopefully nonone is thinking of poisoning them.

In the states you could call animal control, but here the animals are in control. Still it seems a dogs life here is much more laid back than in the states, and just maybe the dogs are smarter.