Log #95 ZLO 2011 -- This is Winter?
Making a Difference
29 November
Announcing....
In our little corner of the world, there are many charities that need support. The old-folks home just got displaced by a new highway interchange and the orphanages always need
something. A significant chunk of change comes from the ex-pat community, which holds big charity events each year, golf tournaments and such,
to raise money for needy humans.
With the damage from Hurricane Jova, the community needs more support than ever, especially the Red Cross,
which has been in the thick of the recovery efforts.
In times like this, animal welfare isn't given alot of thought, except by a
few who've been out in the streets feeding displaced animals. That
would be our little group, PATA.
I'm the webmonster for PATA Manzanillo and Stan's
very involved, as well. He's the go-to-guy; he ensures each free clinic goes off without a hitch, and when problems arise, he fixes them. The vets and support volunteers have Stan on speed dial. It's alot of work, but supremely rewarding.
Our next charity event is a 5K Dog Jog where we solicit pledges from our poor
friends and families, who put up with our tacky shenanigans for
heaven-only-knows what reasons. If you aren't involved in a community
activity of some sort, well, we think you should be. And you should follow
your heart and support whomever. If you'd like to do a little something to
improve animal conditions in Manzanillo, click on one of these links for more
info.
Home Sweet Home
27 November
From the Juluapan Penninsula, Santiago Bay
Hammock Hanger
27 November
Free-standing design
John and Linda gifted us a hammock, perfect for the palapa porch. We're going to sling it between the snail stairs and the outer
palapa cross piece so that it's in the shade most of the day.
Also, our neighbor up the hill gifted us some perfectly good daybed cushions, so I'm thinking they will be great for seating on the palapa porch, too. I'm also thinking a swinging hammock chair would be cool. I hope the palapa poles are robust enough to take all the weight. Si no, this freestanding design would work
... great. Awesome.
Sayulita
21 November
Sayulita
Two apartments, five days, tip-the-maid prices; who could pass that up? Not us, nor John and Linda, nor Eric and Sherrell, so we all converged from Punta de Mita (Banderas Bay), Mazatlan and Manzanillo for R and R in Sayulita.
For the Burntfrogs it was a 5.5 hour easy drive north, right up until we slid to a shaky halt on the outskirts of Puerto Vallarta.
Cuz I'm no good at passenging, I'd taken an Excedrin PM and actually remained fairly relaxed throughout the twists and turns of the 2-lane between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta, but failing brakes at the bottom of the last hill changed that, and it was a nail-biter the rest of the way out to Punta de Mita, 45-minutes flat and straight (almost), to rendezvous with John and Linda.
After lunch and a Negra Modelo, my nerves calmed and the brakes cooled, so we loaded up and continued winding our way up the coast with no further ado.
Sayulita is a little seaside village that caters to gringo surfer dudes.
Some say that it's got a creepy vibe with the strange combo of ancient,
dreadlocked hippies, drugged-out surfer teens and cruise-ship tourists clogging
the streets and beach.
Our rental is a block from the square where there has been a flurry of Revolution Day activity including parades and mock battles...kids dressed up like Zapata and Villa and battles waged with live explosives.
Revolutionaries marching through gunsmoke
The house is also situated next to an iguana sanctuary, where some of the residents are more adventerous than others. One little guy insisted on repeated walkabouts up the sewer pipe.
Iguanario refugee
Letti, the manager, was disconcerted and called for back-up, but neither her son nor Eric was fast enough to snag the little guy. He kept disappearing back down the flusher with a flip of his tail. Yesterday, Letti gave him a towel ladder over the edge of the bowl...don't
know, yet, if he climbed it to freedom or not.
Wake-Up Call
16 November
The house across the street
with street dog visitor and hefty metal gate
I woke up Sunday morning dreaming about a barking, growling, screaming dog fight, only it wasn't a dream and it wasn't a fight. The pure-white English Bull Terrier across the street brilliantly poked his head through his metal gate and stuck. He was frantic and screaming like a banshee, his two companeros were adding to the din, and two street dogs on the outside joined in for the fun of it.
Sheesh! I chased the street dogs off before I realized the predicament, and the terrier went wild. With his head stuck through the gate, he flipped a couple of complete barrel rolls, screaming like a sissy.
Well, we pondered and analyzed and squirted soap on his head to no avail. Thankfully, he was not a biter. He's built like a husky little piggy, though, and every tug and squirm just bunched his skin up, pinning his little piggy ears against the square metal bars.
So Stan rolled out his arsenal of saws -- he's got a saw for every occasion.
Ruso, after rescue, and hacked out bars that
freed him
from the 2nd from the bottom, far left cube
There was a lot of screaming and flopping and barrel-rolling on Ruso's part while the saw whined away, but finally he was free. Now
a couple of 2 X 2 metal bars are missing from the gate.
Stan's brilliant mechanical mind figured out that cutting the bar next to
Ruso would be impossible, so he visualized a solution that I'd never have
thought of -- he removed the bar next door, then whacked the upright with a
mallet to spread the trap just enough for Ruso to back out. He sawed with
one hand, held Ruso's head with the other, and with the help of a couple of
passer's-by, freed him.
About halfway through the reciprocal sawing, the owner responded to Stan's emergency phone call (he was not at home to share the mayhem at 6:00 AM). J simply watched as his (rental) gate was torn apart, then thanked Stan and went inside....
The Suerte Update
Suerte's moved from the hot
confines of the bathroom into a cage where
he can get air and socialize with the home boys
Shakin'
13 November
Santiago earthquakes give a bunch of warning before rattling our teeth. They arrive audibly, like a
Mac truck grinding uphill in low gear, providing lots of time to tense up, grimace and hang on.
Sometimes the growling sound is truly a truck and makes one feel silly as
they get ready to roll off the bed into the triangle of safety.
This past week we've had a swarm of noisy temblors centered within 20 miles of home,
but only in the 3.2 to 3.9 Richter range.
Swarming earthquakes
just east of town
Two theories accompany our recent quakes, that we're building up to the big one,
or that tension is gently being released and therefore we won't have the big
one. Since the quakes aren't on the big offshore tectonic plate, I doubt either
theory holds water.
In the past year, there's been another big swarming, daily quakes up north on
the San Adreas Fault around Mexicali,
in the crotch of the Baja -- shaking alot, over a dozen per week. Don't
know what the theory on those quakes is...just CA falling into the ocean?
This week's quakes, nationwide,
creeping up and down the mainland
The Suerte Update
 
A week into treatment, Suerte's wounds look healthy
thanks to antibiotics and aloe vera
I Hate People!
8 November
On the second day of a big spay/neuter clinic (6 docs, 130 animals already sterilized), Dr. Gustavo brought in a black cat that had been dropped on the doorstep of his clinic. From the looks of him, nobody was sure that he'd make it.
Dr. Gustavo brought the sad case to the mass clinic so that our more experienced vets could deal with
the poor kitty's very serious issues.
What the ...?
On arrival at
the clinic, waiting his turn for the vets' attention
As soon as I saw this emaciated little guy, I was so furious I swore that if he lived I'd take
him home, and protect him from mistreatment forever more.
Dra. Gaby anesthetized him and surveyed
the damage;
this is where the chain cut underneath his front leg
Cleaned with
antiseptic, it was obvious
that the chain had been wrapped around him a long, long time
Dra.
Gaby removed dead skin and muscle tissue
The chain wrapped around
the little guy's neck, across his chest and underneath one leg
Gently, gently Dra. Gaby prized the chain loose
from his flesh
Removal complete and sprayed with antiseptic.
The worst laceration is
under his front leg where a tendon seems to be exposed.
Slowly waking up in good hands
At this point nobody knew if he was a wild and mean street cat, or what, but Stan had also decided that,
regardless of his sociability, we were hauling his scrawny, lacerated self home with us.
Turned out that he's very tame and lovable. For now he's living in the
bathroom where he can eat lots of rich, healthy food (cat milk, tuna, and
Pedialite) and receive his antibiotic shots and twice-daily sponge baths.
He's a lucky, lucky boy.
|
