In a New House

Mali and I just moved to a new house with our parents, who insisted on bringing the cats too. I'm not sure why they bothered as there are plenty of cats in the neighborhood. Soon after we moved in, they learned to be very careful coming into our yard... because two very mean and very fast dogs live here now. We haven't caught one yet, but we will! The minute mom wakes up every morning, she lets us out the back door and we race into the backyard to find the cats. It's so much fun!

Our daily walks take us past the zoo every morning now. I am absolutely fascinated by those horses with stripes, the horses with the reallllly long necks that are very very tall, the horses with big feathers and buggy eyes and especially by those horses with curly horns. They have a LOT of horses at the zoo! I sure wish I could go inside!!

We go to the park instead, which isn't half bad. I get to chase birds and be chased by Mali. And when the park maintenance dudes aren't looking, I jump in the fountain. It's as big as a pool and I swim around the fountain and do laps. It's a lot of fun but the maintenance dude don't seem to appreciate how much fun it is. They should try it sometime.

Hey, today they sent my mom an email saying that I'm Dog of the Day! Silly people... don't they know I'm ALWAYS Dog of the Day around here?

Growin' Up!

I'm a year and a half old now. I've developed a very VERY loud bark when I'm mad or startled or just trying to defend Mom and Dad. I always bark at least once when someone comes to the door, just to let them know I'm here and they had better not try anything funny.

Mali is my sister. She can be a real pain in the neck sometimes, but really, I don't know what I would do without her. She steals my bones sometimes, which drives me crazy. And she's so good at chasing a ball, I don't even bother anymore. She runs faster than me, can you believe that? I thought I was fast, but she's faster.

We have a nice life now. Mom & Dad have told us we're going to live in a bigger house someday, but we don't quite understand what they are talking about. And we're happy where we are. We're happy dogs, for sure!

More dogs like me

By the way, Ellen said to mention that there are a lot more dogs like me in the Yucatan (in case anyone reading this lives there). And there's a great place called AFAD that keeps them safe and finds good homes (like mine!) for them. Ellen wrote a story about AFAD and the dogs of the Yucatan and you can read it here:

http://www.yucatanliving.com/culture/dogs-in-mexico .htm

We hope you'll support them and all the other kind people trying to do good things for the dogs of Mexico.

How did I get so big?

I'm now only 11 months old and Jim & Ellen cannot understand how I've gotten so big. Everyone stops me on the street to tell me how handsome I am and to ask "Que raza es?" (What breed is he?) Ellen just tells them I'm "Mexicano" or "Malix" (which is the Mayan word for "mutt"). Then she tells them that all the street dogs of Mexico would look this good if people loved them and fed them. Of course, no one believes her... not even me :-) Everyone knows I am *particularly* handsome!