We recently had a family here volunteering with us: Jamie and her 2 children, Maya and Gabe. Volunteering as a family is a wonderful experience. And the children in Costa Rica love to meet kids from around the world.

While the Malik's were here, Gabe discovered a tiny, baby animal in the driveway of our volunteer center. None of us really had any idea what it was. The poor thing looked like it had fallen out of the trees and was in pretty bad shape. Maya was very concerned about this and decided to stay behind to care for the animal. We were all pretty convinced this fuzzy little thing was a baby kinkajou.

Maya kept watch and even fed the animal some milk. It finally started coming to life and then began playing with Maya. It was really cute! The next day I took our new buddy to the Sloth Rescue Center, Aviarios del Caribe. Everyone got all excited, started taking pictures and looking up info in books.

In the end, it ended up being a opossum. Who would have thought? They told me that opossums make great pets. Maybe so. But I decided to leave our new friend in their capable hands. You never know what you're going to run into here!

Many thanks to the Mailk family, especially Maya and Gabe for finding and caring for the opossum!

Yes, she might look sweet and calm in this picture, but she's c-r-a-z-y! We have a new kitty at the orphanage. We rescued her from the jungles of Limon. At first we were going to call her "Gritona," which means Screamer. I'll let you guess why. But now I think we're just going to call her "Storm." She's a bit possessed!
 

But we adore her. She's always playing and giving us love. She spends most of her time trying to get on the back of our necks. If we put her down, she just climbs right back up again. You should see the scratches and gouges she has made on our legs!

So we just wanted to officially welcome Storm into our center and our lives. We think she'll make a great addition to the family.

If you happened to read our earlier post about Bambina, then you know she was on her little deathbed. We're happy to report she is now out of the woods! Things certainly got worse before they got better, but she is nearly back to 100% herself now.

Of course, we're now dealing with a wounded paw (as you can see in the picture), and an overabundance of fleas and ticks. But the good news is she's going to live.

Next we need to find the money to get her some vaccinations -- the ones she should have received a couple of months ago. The sad thing is that ZERO dogs on the reservation get their "puppy shots," because people can't afford to buy them. Hello. They can't even afford to buy their own food!

On occasion we host animal clinics in the area to try and give shots, spay & neuter, and give general medical attention to cats, dogs, horses, chickens and pigs. If you are interested in helping us with one of these clinics, we'd love the help! Please contact us for more information.

As part of our daily lives here as a non-profit foundation in the community, we're called upon to assist with many things. I happened to be visiting Uatsi on the Indigenous Reservation a couple of days ago. One of the families we work with there has the cutest little puppy, Bambina, who is only about 2 or 3 months old. She's normally active and happy. But she looked nearly dead. The family said she hadn't moved the whole day. And she was cold to the touch -- something that doesn't happen much here in the Tropics on a hot day.

The indigenous, like most poor people in the world, wouldn't spend the little money they have (if they have any at all) on a pet. This turns out to be the reason why Bambina was sick in the first place. She'd never had any of her shots. Laura and I decided to take her to the vet ourselves. Turns out she has something called gastrointestinitis. The doctor was wonderful (after waiting 2 hours for him) and didn't even charge us for the visit. The antibiotics and other medications cost us $20.

Bambina is temporarily at Laura's house being nursed back to health. She's still not out of the clear, but doing better than she was 2 days ago.

I thought I'd share with you a gift I had made for Isaac for Christmas. For those of you faithful readers, you'll remember our house was broken into (read story here) and two of our dogs were killed, Paco & Oprah. Well this whole affair was really hard on us, but especially on Isaac.

So to commemorate their lives, my friend Mike Young from San Francisco painted this amazing portrait of the dogs. I wish the picture showed all the amazing detail, but this photo was the best I could do. Mike did an amazing job and he was fun to work with. (email Mike)

Paco is dressed in the clothes of the first president of Costa Rica, Jose Maria Castro Madriz while Oprah boasts the outfit of freedom fighter, Pancha Carrasco. Jose Maria and Pancha fought together for Costa Rica's freedom. Her belt buckle shows the Costa Rica seal.

Our dogs, Tiesto and Anika, are now about 3 months old. It was time to cut their ears. Why you ask? Great question! Isaac really wanted them to look mean and look like "real" Dobermans.

So he took them to some guy (vet) who is supposedly the best in Costa Rica. They now have their ears cut, sewn and glued to pieces of styrofoam for the next 10 days. It looks painful and cruel to me. But 2 days into it, they actually don't seem to mind it too much. It made me wonder who the first person was to actually think of cutting these poor dogs ears?

I know. Only the proud parents can handle so many pictures of the puppies, but I couldn't resist. They are just too adorable! Their 2 favorite pastimes are sleeping and playing of course. Here they are hard at work.

And every rare once in a while they actually stand still. Usually only after a long play when they are worn out.

Okay. We finally have some names for the new puppies! The "little brown guy" is now known as Tiesto and the "little black piggy" is now Anika. I really did like the suggestion someone made to name them Snickers and Twix. But Isaac didn't like that idea. Oh well. Tiesto and Anika will be fine. No matter what we call them -- they are still adorable!

A couple of months after the robbers killed our other dogs, we finally got up the strength to get some more. These still-yet-to-be-named creatures are doberman pinchers. They are adorable! But they sure are trouble. Pee and poop everywhere! Not to mention they are already chewing apart the house. But thankfully, I think we'll be able to manage. They are just TOO CUTE!

It took over 2 years, but I finally saw my first Costa Rican snake yesterday. This comes a week after my friend, Colin, lost his dog to a snake bite. Isaac and I had just driven home and all the (five) dogs came out to the gate to meet us. But stretched out all across the entire gate was this green, almost transparent snake. It was doing the crazy snake thing with his tongue. I was so afraid the dogs were going to get bitten! But all ended well. The snake jumped at me and I ran away like a little girl. Then Isaac tried to run it over with the truck! But the little bugger got away. We're told it was a "lapas" snake, but I couldn't find any info about it anywhere.

We do have lots of snakes in Costa Rica. But I guess I've just been lucky that I hadn't seen any before this one. A couple of years ago on the property that we own, one of our workers, Jose, had a run in with coral snake (extremely dangerous). I'm hoping I don't meet her!

Last night one of the dogs of my friends, Colin and Roberto, was bit by a snake and died shortly thereafter. It’s really sad. Pancho was such a sweet, loving dog. This picture is about a year old, but he was still just as cute.

Here in Costa Rica we are certainly subject to things we might not be elsewhere in the world. We do have snakes and other dangerous animals. Now mind you, I’ve been here over two years and have traveled a few times into the deep jungle. I’ve never seen any snakes. But don’t be fooled – they are here!

I think the toughest part of the situation with Colin’s dog is that there was no way to get a hold of a veterinarian. I’m pretty sure where he lives in Puerto Viejo there is a vet, but they couldn’t get in touch with him or her.

Living outside of the metropolitan area has it’s pros and cons. This is something important to take into consideration when choosing where in Costa Rica to live. And it’s also why I always suggest to rent someplace before buying. One never truly knows if they will be able to handle the area until they try it out!

Please send love and light to Colin and Roberto during this hard time. If you feel so inclined, you can send an email to them.

I heard a funny -- and sad -- story today. My sister-in-law just moved back to San Jose from the small Costa Rican town of Orotina. She relayed a story about a famous parakeet who lived in one of the town bars. The bird would be let out of the cage, walk up and down the bar counter and sip off of the clients beer. The bird would often get drunk, then sing and talk like crazy. This went on for years.

Well one day last week the bird had a bit too much to drink and woke up with a hangover (goma in Spanish). Someone had the bright idea of giving the poor bird some aspirin -- and the little birdie croaked.

A sad end to a short life.

My parents just got a new dog. (Click on photo for larger version.) His name is Henry and he is a Papillon. I had never heard of this breed before. But he sure is cute! Seems pretty smart for just 3 months old. And boy is he fast! He runs around the house in circles like he's had too much sugar for breakfast. Now my parents are obsessed with the dog. They haven't let him out of their site at all in the last five days since they adopted him. You can tell by the sweater he's going to be spoiled like crazy!

If someone would have told me that someday I’d be living on a farm with cows, horses and other creatures – I’d have never believed it!

Now not only am I living on a farm but we tilled our soil yesterday (for our garden) with oxen! It was a sight to see for sure. I feel like I’ve traveled back in time.

The interesting thing is this old guy and his son were the ones who tilled the land for us with their oxen. I assume they do this for a living. Well as crazy as it all seems, it only cost us the equivalent of $14. What a deal! And it sure was fun to watch.

We helped a bit too by moving all the sod we could to another area. Nothing like getting your hands dirty!

Well, we couldn’t help ourselves. We got 2 new Rotweiler puppies. We already had 3 dogs, but 2 of them are scared of their own shadow and the third – though he looks mean – would just lick you to death.

Sadly, dogs are needcd to protect the yard and house. Petty theft is pretty common we are told, but not for those with guard dogs. So our new adorable little puppies will be trained to defend house and home.

Interestingly, a couple of days after we got the puppies there was a man killed in our area by two Rotweilers. He had broken into the property. The worst part was that the dogs attacked him for over an hour, so there was plenty of time for the police and news stations to arrive. The nightly news showed the dogs attacking the bloody and half-naked body. Yuck!

I hate to say it, but the good part about that is that it instills more fear into people around here about Rotweilers.

We just couldn’t believe how adorable and sweet these creatures were. They really grab your heart! We ended up naming them Paco and Oprah. Though I think it’ll be a while before they figure out their names. And, as they look exactly the same (other than the private parts), it’ll be a while before we know which one is which.

The most frightening part for us now is trying to protect them from the alpha dog we have. He’s already killed another small dog recently. Most of the time he’s pretty calm. But these little guys must think he’s their mom as they keep nibbling at him to find his tittys. It really anoys and scares him, and he growls and snaps at them (before running away like a little girl!).

Guess we’d better enjoy them now, as they’ll grow really fast! Make sure you click on the photos to see a larger image...