Don’t leave me behind!

Poor Scampi was heart-broken when we moved to Teop Island. He’s not our dog, but we’re the only people at Hio who give him any love (he’s a bit of a scabby dog, so it’s easy to see why he’s unloved). Often when we were leaving Hio after a short visit, he would try to swim across to Teop Island after us.

One time he tried going through the mangroves to see if he could follow us that way and when he realised that he couldn’t, he howled and howled – we could hear him almost the whole way to the island.

Scampi knew that he didn’t have the stamina to swim all the way across to the island, but the dogs who live on the island have built up their swimming muscles and regularly swim between the island and the mainland with their owners (when they go to their gardens on the mainland).

Scampi, the new village dog

Meet Scampi, the relatively new dog in our village. The poor thing is not doing too well. He has a sore on his head, which isn’t healing and he is losing a lot of his fur which makes him look ugly and less loveable.

Scampi came to our village with his pregnant female owner who stayed in our village to be near the Health Centre to give birth there, and he never went home with her when she left. (Maybe gets treated slightly better in our village).

He was very afraid of people and wouldn’t let us get near to pat him for a while. We gradually won his trust and he lets us come close now, but he’s still a bit cautious, so we have a bit of work yet until he becomes confident around us. The poor thing, he wants to play, but then when we make playful movements, he gets frightened and runs away! He is quite a fearful dog, afraid of other things too, not just people.

In this picture he’s not looking too confident. Hopefully one day we can get a photo of him looking happy, and perhaps also with his coat in better condition.

Our friendly village dogs again

I’ve talked about our village dogs before, but they are so cool that I want to talk about them again.

We decided to give them wash and a flea treatment, and it was quite the scene! We put a collar and lead on the dogs, which was totally foreign to them, so they didn’t like that and they also didn’t like getting the cold well water poured over them! Sasaki was the hardest to handle as the collar was too big for him and he is the most vocal dog I’ve ever seen, so he let the whole world know that he wasn’t happy about having a bath!

Here are some photos of Sasaki. He is a fairly young dog and has a cool personality. He has a blue tongue.

The other dog in our village is Bill. He is getting old and the people in the village seem to like Sasaki better than him. He is the dominant dog, and if we’re patting Sasaki, Bill will get jealous and start a fight. However, Bill seems to have decided that he belongs to Rebekah and me! He has accompanied us when we’ve gone for a long walk to another village and a few times he has escorted me to our shower room, waited outside and then walked back with me after my shower.

Here are some photos of Bill.
Going for a walk with us:

Our friendly village dogs

We have two dogs that live in our village and both are very friendly and come running up to us for pats. I’m pleased that they are not afraid of people like many other village dogs are.

Meet Sasaki. He is my favourite of the two. He is really cute and makes some interesting noises sometimes when you pat him. Sometimes he’s a bit naughty and jumps up on us for pats.

This is Bill. He is the older dog and is the dominant one. If he sees me patting Sasaki, he gets jealous and runs up to me to get patted too. Sometimes there is a bit of growling and the occasional fight between Bill and Sasaki.

Village – Animals (post by Bill & Liz)

Most villages have various animals running around, such as pigs, chickens, dogs and cats. Our village did not have pigs due to its proximity to the local medical centre and the disease risks pigs cause.

Villages have quite a lot of dogs, but they are not pampered pets as we treat them. The village dogs accepted us very quickly and never barked at us, yet when strangers walked along the track close to the village, they would give warning barks.


Here is Liz’s ‘friend’. This rooster would start welcoming the dawn from about midnight and Liz wanted to wring its neck.

Animals

We saw a lot of animals when we were in the village. Some were living and some were dead when we saw them (for example the snake mentioned here). There were cows, ducks, chickens, pigs and crocodiles that the people were looking after to either eat or sell. There were a few cats and lots of dogs and puppies in the village.

One day we went to the market and we saw some people carrying a baby crocodile, so we had a look at it and had our photos taken with it. They were just carrying it that, they weren't selling it at the market, but sometimes when they are bigger, they sell them, either at the market or to private buyers. They get good money for the skin. In our village, one family had about 13 crocodiles in a pit that they will sell once they are bigger. The bigger the crocodile, the more money they get when they sell it.

Here's me with the baby crocodile:



Close up of the baby crocodile in my arms. See, it's mouth is fastened shut. They took the band off after we held it, and it was snapping quite a bit!

Another day we were sitting under a shelter doing some work, when some people came back from being out in the swamps, and they had with them a large lizard that they had killed and they were proud to show it to us. Here is a picture of me holding the dead lizard:

And the lizard full length:

And now for the dogs. The poor dogs have a hard life out there, but they got a bit of love and affection from me.

Here's me with a puppy:

The two puppies in the picture below are litter-mates, but one was weak and rejected my the mother and wasn't getting fed for a while. Correna took that puppy under her wing and cared for him, giving him food and washing him. We saw a lot of improvement in him and the mother dog accepted him and let him feed. As you can see in the picture, there is a huge size difference between him and his brother. When we left, someone was going to look after him for Correna, but he was still so small, we don't know if he will live to adulthood.

The next picture is of a young dog, maybe a 6 month old. She was about adult size, but still a puppy. I really loved her, she had such spunk and energy. She had already learnt to be cautious of human hands, so it was often hard for me to get near her. I usually gained her confidence by patting the baby puppies first.

When she let me near her, she just wanted to play. Playing involved her mouth and my hand, but she was gentle and never hurt me. Dogs know how to control their jaws well.

Village dogs

I had a great time befriending the village dogs and puppies when I was in the village.

Our family had a female dog called ‘Banu’ who had four small puppies. Banu grew to love me – whenever I came down the stairs of the house she would come to me with her tail wagging. One day when I went back and forth to the market several times, Banu came with me wherever I went.

Here is a picture of Banu looking lovingly at me.



Me with Banu. Note the paw on me, she is asking for more pats!



Another dog in the village had two puppies born while we were there. The owners asked me to name the puppies, so I called one ‘Jyra’ and the other one ‘Dolly’.

This is me with Dolly on the left and Jyra on the right.


When we were making the sago someone had brought some puppies along too and I was happy to see and cuddle them. Here is a photo of me with two of them.





It's a hard life being a village dog or puppy. Isn't this just the saddest picture? This is one of Banu's puppies.