Tag Archives: puppy

Kito’s First Trip to the Forest

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Kito has been more places in her first year and a half than most dogs see in their lifetime! Although she didn’t love the plane ride that brought her to the United States, she has been enjoying her new surroundings. The desert life has been pretty exciting for her, but she absolutely loved her first trip to the woods!

 

 

Ben took his big Step 1 test, which is the first medical licensing exam that future doctors must take, on the day before our third anniversary. Of course, we had plenty to celebrate on June 7, when his test was done and we had been married for three whole years!

 

By the way– if you want to see our second anniversary adventure in Sint Maarten, read this post. 

 

 

We decided to take a road trip to northern Arizona, where it’s nice and cool. As we drove, we could watch the temperature gauge in our car drop from 101 to 81 degrees. What a difference 20 degrees makes!

 

 

We stopped near Munds Park, which is just outside of Flagstaff, and took a dirt road into the woods.

 

 

Kito was so happy to get off leash and have space to run. She doesn’t go too far away from us, which is good– we did see a coyote while we were walking. Of course, it took off in the other direction as soon as we caught sight of it.

 

 

We also saw a herd of elk. We tried to track them, but that’s pretty hard to do with a dog who wants to play fetch the entire way.

 

 

Hopefully this is the first of many road trips! Kito definitely enjoyed it as much as we did.

 

Puppy Photos

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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

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

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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

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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.

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

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Where do you like to take your dog?

Indigo

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One thing that I love about the ocean is the line of indigo at the horizon. This is my favorite part of painting ocean scenes. I love the way that turquoise becomes aquamarine becomes indigo. On sunny days in Dutch Sint Maarten, the indigo line stands out sharply against the clear blue sky, creating the perfect picture of paradise. Indigo Bay is aptly named for its lovely view of this deep blue phenomenon.

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If you look at a map of Sint Maarten, you won’t find Indigo Bay on it. If you drive the entire circumference, you’ll never catch sight of it. Indigo Bay is actually the name of a luxury housing development located on Cay Bay. To find this area and the beach that belongs to it, you have to find the billboard advertising Indigo, turn right, and follow a terrifying road down to the water. The road is actually not as terrifying as it looks, once you start driving. In fact, as you go, you’ll be amazed at the gorgeous landscaping and layout that is invisible from the road above.

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This morning, some of the other med school spouses, kids, and I visited Indigo for the first time. It’s a great place for both kids and puppies. The waves are soft here, even when the rest of the island is dragging out their surfboards to ride big breakers. Here, it is calm and peaceful. Little boys splashed in the gentle surf while little girls ran through the sand to fill little buckets with perfect little shells. My puppy, Kito, contented herself with digging deep holes in the sand and biting any ankles who entered the circumference of her anchored leash.

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I usually am the first to grab a board or snorkel mask and jump into the sea. Today, though, it was a morning for relaxing and chatting. There will be many more days of beachgoing for us in the next 15 months, and more than enough time to dive into the sparkling waters.  Twelve beaches down, 25 to go!

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Coconut Retrievers

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.