Tag Archives: dog

What’s It Like to Bring a Dog to Sint Maarten?

American University of the Caribbean, AUC, Expats, Expats and TCKs, For the New Expat, International Travel, Spouses Organization, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wondering what it’s like to travel overseas with a dog? Turns out, harder than you’d expect but more than worth it! Here’s my friend Jon, the husband of a med school student at American University of the Caribbean and proud owner of a boarder collie, on how to bring a dog overseas and help him adjust. To read more of Jon’s pet advice, head over to The Healthy Pup. 

Once we realized that we would be moving to St. Maarten for two years, there was no question that Forte, our Border Collie, was coming with us! As we prepared for our move, we realized we didn’t like the idea of Forte stuck in a cage in the cargo hold, so we decided to make him an emotional support dog so that he could sit with us on our flight. We had our vet fill out the paperwork necessary for Forte to travel to St Maarten.

We knew that Forte’s high energy would be hard to manage throughout two flights and a layover, so the vet gave us a tranquilizer that we had Forte take after we got to the airport, which made him drowsy but able to walk along with us. We had quite a day – we woke up at 2 in the morning, flew from Chicago to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to St Maarten. We landed in St. Maarten at about 3 in the afternoon, and Forte was great the whole time. He mostly slept on the flights (and lay on my wife’s lap a lot), and he waited patiently during the short layover we had. He’s weird about going to the bathroom in new places, so we didn’t have to worry about any accidents (but we did bring a few pads just in case).

 

Forte had no problem adjusting to his new home! We brought the blanket he always had in his cage as well as several of his favorite toys. Forte loves to play, so the minute we started throwing his ball around the apartment, he relaxed. We had to buy a new cage and retrain him to like his cage, and that was a process, but he likes his cage now, too! We also packed a few pounds of the kibble he was eating back home.

When we got to the island, we bought food and slowly increased the proportion of new food in his meals, which allowed him to transition to the food we will continue to buy on the island without getting an upset tummy. The dog park near the school is a great place to take Forte and throw the Frisbee for him, which is his favorite (my wife and I like it too, because it tires him out so much)!

We wondered if Forte would become depressed or homesick, but so far he has been his playful, affectionate self! We have done everything we can to make him feel at home, and it looks like we have been successful.


EarthDog Eco-Friendly Hemp Dog Bed – $84.00
from: The Ultimate Green Store

A Walk in Maho

American University of the Caribbean, AUC, Caribbean, International Travel, Saint Martin/ Sint Maarten, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Maho’s a nice part of Saint Martin, and one I’ve never really appreciated. Shopping centers, the casino, sky bars– not a lot to love, in my opinion, especially when it’s pretty much a fake little tourist village that looks nothing like the rest of the island. Actually, though, it’s a pretty nice to place to spend an afternoon. I took a trip through Maho with my dog today, and I enjoyed the simple pleasures I found.


airplane
Maho Village

Other than the huge resort Sonesta, Maho is mostly residential. I’m not sure why you’d call it a village when it’s really a lot of condos, but it’s a pretty nice place to live. Very safe and secure, with a lot of guards and a lot of gates. The one thing that I don’t love is all the big, barking dogs behind those gates. Kito and I decided to leave the resident dogs to their own business and check out the rest of Maho.

Maho Shopping

There’s one main road in Saint Martin, and it runs through Maho. Both sides of the street are lined with spacious sidewalks and places to shop or eat. The boutiques are fun to browse through. There are some nice little souvenir shops with low-priced t-shirts, so it’s a good place to look around if you’re not up for Philipsburg. The clothing stores are beyond my budget, but it doesn’t hurt to window shop.

taco

Maho Eating

There are a lot of places to eat in Maho. A local fave is the pizza shop behind the casino, but I have to admit that I’ve never been there. Three Amigos isn’t bad, but you’ll have better luck at Maho’s best kept secret, Taco Macho. You can find it in the Alegria complex past Sunset Beach. We’ve enjoyed Moomba on a special occasion, although it’s a little pricey. Fig & Bananas is very popular with the wine and tapas crowd, so if that’s your jam, you really can’t go wrong. We’ve also had pizza at Rialto, which is good for a quick lunch. The most popular spot in the area is definitely Sunset Beach Bar, a top tourist destination where you can watch the sun set over the ocean and see planes fly just above your head. Our number one favorite is Gio’s, the gelato place on the corner. Try the cheesecake. It’s delicious.

maho beach

Maho Beach

To be honest, I’m not sure if it’s called Maho Beach or Sunset Beach, but either way it’s a great place to go. During tourist season from October to May, artificial sand expands the beach to accommodate the hundreds of people who wait for airplanes to blow them away. Yes, Maho Beach is that beach– the one where you can get blasted by a 747 jet or stand a few hundred feet below and landing plane.

Today, Kito and I walked to Maho Beach. I’m not really into the whole jet blast thing, but I do love seeing the planes come in for landing at Princess Juliana Airport. Plus, it was a dry day today, so Saba stood out sharply against a clear blue sky in the distance. I love that view. Kito just loves getting attention from all the tourists. Maho Beach is actually an incredibly friendly place to go. I just walked down and sat on the retaining wall with my dog, and lots of people stopped to talk. A few people gave me a quick smile and paused to pet the dog, and one little Dutch girl who was selling watermelon at her lemonade stand gave me a slice for free, just because. Or maybe because I looked homeless. Hopefully not. A tourist from the Netherlands sat down beside me and we talked about our dogs for a while. She’s an agility trainer and her dogs compete in Belgium all the time. We watched the planes for a while before Kito started getting hot and wanted to go home.

If you have time to walk around Maho, why not take an hour or two to do it? There’s a lot of other great things to see on the island, but Maho’s not half bad.

maho
Pin Me!

Puppy Photos

Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

Dogs are funny. They know when they want attention, whether or not you’re ready to give it! This week, I have been busy preparing to move out of our apartment. For me, that meant scrubbing the walls for hours with Magic Erasers to get rid of all the marks. Kito was apparently pretty excited that I was on floor level, and she spent most of her time standing directly in front of the wall where I was trying to clean. I tried to take some before and after photos of the wall to make myself feel better about my progress, but she hijacked those, too. dog tail

dog nose

dog photobomb

close up dog face

crazy dog

panting dog

At this point, I finally gave up and took advantage of the rare opportunity of catching Kito in a photogenic mood.

dog posing

dog laying down

468x60 Banner
Block dog laying down alert

laying down dog close-up

I sure am going to miss this puppy during my travels! She is the sweetest.

Dogs in the Dugout

American University of the Caribbean, Caribbean, International Travel, Saint Martin/ Sint Maarten, Spouses Organization, , , , , , , , , , , ,

My favorite breed of dog is rescued. There is no shortage of rescue dogs on the island of Saint Martin! Meet Kito, Rosie, and Herald, three island mutts who joined the Daily Herald Little League team in the dugout today.

Dugout Dogs

Kito is my puppy. She’s eight months old, and we got her from a shelter on the French side of the island. She knows how to sit, stay, come, and roll over, among other things. She is also learning yoga moves. So far we have “downward dog” and that’s about it. She gives high-fives to the kids in return for cookies.

kito

 

Rosie is the team mascot. She belongs to Coach Tom and Lisa. Some of the boys on the team found Rosie on the field a couple years ago. Lisa wrote a book about it and is trying to get it published. Rosie’s special trick is standing on her back legs and spinning around. She’s the kids’ favorite!

Dog on a bench

Herald is the newest member of the team. He’s a six-week old puppy that one our families found near the stadium. He has five or six siblings living in the dump, so if you really like this little guy, you could probably find one just like him in the Philipsburg dump. Jaeda’s family named him “Matti,” which is Dutch for “friend.” Coach renamed him Herald after the team, which is sponsored by The Daily Herald. Coach also has Herald’s brother Tommy, who Aloyel found. Tommy is available for adoption.

Matti

On Saturdays, we always bring our dogs to baseball practice. Today was the day of the all-star game, and a lot of our team were selected for the game! We coaches expected to watch this one from the stands, but we were needed to run the game. So Coach Tom umpired and the rest of us packed in the dugout with the kids and the dogs to take care of stats.

baseball team

The dugout is always a pretty loud and hectic, and the presence of three dogs only added to the craziness! We always have fun, though, and the dogs added to that, too.

dugout dogs

Our kids team actually ended up winning the all-star game! They were pretty thrilled. It made up for not making it into the championship game. You seem, our kids are mostly ten and under, and they play in the ten-to-twelve-year-old league. After all those games playing against big kids, they were more than ready to take on kids their own age. Our best pitcher is nine and regularly strikes out twelve-year-olds.

baseball on sxm

The kids said that Herald was their good-luck charm.

jaeda puppy

Do you love rescue dogs, too? Anywhere you go, puppies need homes. In Saint Martin, there are many dogs who need families! Adopt your own good luck charm from one of the shelters, or rescue a puppy from the dump. You won’t regret saving your little buddy!

The Pooch and the Beach

American University of the Caribbean, Caribbean, Expats, Expats and TCKs, International Travel, Saint Martin/ Sint Maarten, Spouses Organization, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Kito’s favorite days are when we take her to the beach. Generally, she’ll nip at everyone’s toes until she gets too tired to romp around, and then she’ll settle down and dig herself a shady little hole. IMG_5448

Sometimes, we play with other dogs at the beach. She loves that. Her best bud is Sasha, the gentle German shepherd.

IMG_5342

Last week, she watched Ben surf for a while from the cliffs above. I captured the many sides of her little personality.

IMG_0331IMG_0420IMG_0332IMG_0418IMG_0359

Where do you like to take your dog?

Coconut Retrievers

American University of the Caribbean, Caribbean, Expats, Expats and TCKs, International Travel, Saint Martin/ Sint Maarten, Spouses Organization, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This island is absolutely covered with free-running cats and dogs! They call island mutts Creoles on the French side of the island and coconut retrievers on the Dutch side. Some are not so nice– like the scroungy mutt who nips at the heels of runners– and some are generally loved and just hang around. There’s a yellow dog who lives on the sidewalk of the small shopping district of Maho. He is just a regular fixture, and nobody minds him.

cat

 

Many of the students at American University of the Caribbean have adopted a stray or shelter animal. Our neighbor had a cat for a while– she was the sweetest. She used to sit on the window sill and wait for me to walk by and scratch her head through the cracked window. My friend Stacey has two cats from a shelter here. Several students foster animals. I know of at least one who takes puppies home every trip back to the States and finds families for them. Other expats and locals take care of the strays, too. The little league team I help out with adopted a dog who wandered on the field one day. She lives with their coaches, who have two other rescues.

12028832_10153219728206483_2596124571413485779_o.jpg

I had been begging Ben for a puppy all last semester, but as far as I could tell, he wasn’t too interested in that idea. I had pretty much given up on the idea by the time Christmas break rolled around.

Two days before Christmas, while my family was visiting us, Ben slipped off to “run some errands” and didn’t get back until dinner time. He came back with something in a bag. I opened it, and there was a sweet little puppy face looking back at me! We named her Kito, which means “precious gem” in Swahili.

img_3660

Kito has been busy keeping us up at night, peeing on the floor, and eating rocks. We’re a little more tired and a little less tidy than usual, but she’s more than worth it. There’s something nice about having something warm and fuzzy to cuddle with. As Lucy Van Pelt would say, “Happiness is a warm puppy.” I’m glad that God made puppies; they certainly are nice to have around.