Mad dog
Trip Start
Nov 02, 2003
1
34
70
Trip End
Feb 14, 2006
Antananarivo,
Madagascar
Sunday, April 4, 2004
this week has hands-down been the hardest i've had since getting here. last sunday, lulu (my puppy) died. bisky (callie's puppy) had been treated for worms, but since lulu had no symptoms, i didn't get meds for her. she got sick on a friday and i got her worm meds from the local cow-and-pig vet, but they didn't seem to be helping, so i took her to my banking town on saturday. i ran all over the city with her, looking for a vet that was open and finally found a wonderful man who was affiliated with the norwegian charities here (of which there are many - any white person who speaks good malagasy is automatically assumed to be either peace corps or norwegian. malagasy people don't seem to have any idea what norwegian people look like, though, as they consistently ask sara, who's iranian and very dark, if she's norwegian!) the man gave lulu some kind of drugs that seemed to help. i actually went to themis' pizza restaurant to chat for a while and learned that his kids were all going to be baptized the next day and planned to go.
sunday morning, i put on my nicest dress and went to leave lulu and bisky in callie's house, where natasha could check on them during the day (callie had gone to work with a friend in another part of the country for 2 weeks.) by the time i got to callie's house, lulu had become incontinent and couldn't walk. i held her for 3 hours as she died, which can only be described as horrendous. i've never theoretically been a fan of putting dogs down, but wished fervently that that had been an option. then i went to ask the guardian at the high school, where callie lives, to bury lulu; he was drunk and found her death hilarious. i carried her back up to my house and my guardian finally buried her.
through the week, i had to deal with lots of people finding lulu's death funny. they weren't trying to be cruel, but malagasy people don't take care of their dogs or care about them the way americans do. to americans, dogs are members of the family; to most malagasy, they're dirty animals who are supposed to live in the street and eat garbage. people found it absurd that callie and i doted on our puppies so much, and then truly funny that one of *our* well-cared-for dogs died while their mongrels were fine.
throughout the week, i played with bisky, who was being bizarrely aggressive at times, biting me when i played with him and actually taking a tiny chunk out of my nose when i kissed him (which i imagine will be funny to me at some point in my life but certainly isn't yet.) i assumed he was just playing rough and didn't dwell on it. on friday, i stayed up late reading a book (the secret lives of bees, which was pretty good) and at about midnight, heard strange sounds out of bisky. i went to him and discovered that he was choking on foamy white mucus that was pouring out of his mouth and nose. for the next three hours, i held him over boiling vinegar-water to breathe the steam, pounded his back, and attempted to suction the stuff out. by 3 am, he'd stopped breathing. i actually - and this is by far one of the stupidest things i've ever done - was so panicked and desperate that i attempted a sort of cpr on him, putting my hand around his muzzle and breathing through/into it, completely unsuccessfully.
i called peace corps and they came to get me in the morning and rushed me to tana for rabies shots. i'd already been vaccinated (a requirement for peace corps volunteers) but need boosters now. i also had to bring bisky's body in a baggie for an autopsy, which presumably will confirm that he had rabies (apparently given to him by the initial rat attack a month ago that killed 2 of his siblings.) i'm having to take deep breaths as i'm writing this, because it was just so hard.
before peace corps could show up yesterday morning, though, lans (the sketchy, emotionally unstable malagasy guy themis had been warning me about in his restaurant) showed up at my house and declared his passionate and undying love for me, apparently the first woman he's loved since another american girlfriend died 3 years ago. the facts that i haven't encouraged him at all and that he was just so obnoxious about it (he told me that he was in love with callie OR me and tried to make me guess which one) would have been enough to piss me off under normal circumstances. on that day, i could barely maintain some level of kindness towards him. fortunately, the peace corps car showed up to whisk me off to tana before he'd been there too long.
so here i am in tana, shot up with rabies serum as if my life depended on it (ha) and feeling pretty consistently on the verge of tears. callie was at the peace corps house when i got there yesterday, on her way back from the project she'd been working on, and i had to tell her that both dogs, healthy when she'd left, had died. this was made much harder by the fact that, though i know i shouldn't, i feel at least partially responsible for lulu's death. when 2 dogs live together and one has worms, you assume that they both do and treat them both - but i didn't. callie, though of course very sad, was nice about reassuring me.
i was going to come to tana anyway tomorrow for seder at the country director's house, which, i was informed last week, i will be both leading and in charge of preparing the food for (for 20 people.) turns out you can buy matzoh in tana, though, so that's a start.
anyway, chag sameach and happy easter to those who observe. i'll have internet on and off until wednesday, so please send me email or, if possible, real mail! it really would be great to hear from you, especially now.
love, jess
*****
And now, some legalese:
The opinions expressed and experiences described in this travelogue are those of one individual Peace Corps Volunteer. Nothing written here should be interpreted as official or unofficial Peace Corps literature or as sanctioned by the Peace Corps. I have chosen to write about my experience online in order to update family and friends; I am earning no money whatsoever from this endeavor.
