Why I didn’t get a dog…

So, my neighbor has this dog. It just appeared a couple of months ago and she installed the deathtrap doghouse outside of MY door. And, at first, she chained said dog to the fence outside MY door. This was irritating because said dog has a really loud, obnoxious whine. I would still be able to her the dog if it was tied up near the neighbor’s door, but so would she.

After a short while, the dog ceased to be tied up next to my door and she hung out near the neighbor’s door whining at all hours of the day. My neighbor’s solution to this problem is to open the door and grunt “Oi!” at the dog. It’s not terribly effective. After a few weeks I noticed that pup was looking a little fat, possibly pregnant. Within the week there were 5 tiny little puppies nesting at the end of the walkway. They are very cute but also amazingly loud for their size.

Starting about two weeks ago the dog resumed being tied up outside my door, where my neighbor can’t hear her whining in the middle of the night but I can. “Momma”, as I call her, had been getting slowly thinner since she was tied up but I figured it was due to the fact that she’s nursing 5 little dogs that are getting bigger and hungrier by the day. Shortly after she resumed being tied up I tried to help her out (and shut her up) by moving her doghouse a couple of inches so that she could actually get inside it and get out of the torrential rains. While doing this she bit me. Luckily it wasn’t a very hard bite and it didn’t even tear my jeans, but needless to say it was just another blemish on a not-so-great record.

Last week I went away to help another volunteer with a project at her site. When I returned at the end of the weekend Momma was skeletal. I also haven’t seen or heard (she’s a loud talker, especially outside my bedroom window when I’m trying to sleep) my neighbor in ages. My best guess is that she went away for some reason and left her nursing dog tied up and didn’t give a second thought to it. In the past she could do this and it wouldn’t be a problem, because the dog could wander off and find water and food- which usually means tearing into the neighborhood trash. But if the dog’s chained up, it’s pretty much at the mercy of someone to feed and water it.

So, I came home and was appalled to find the dog I really don’t like looking like it was about to keel over and die. Despite the fact that I don’t like said dog, I’ve taken to feeding it. It makes me sad to see someone treat a living creature in their care with such disregard. If you aren’t up to taking care of a pet (like I am here in the Philippines) then don’t have a pet. And so I’ve become the temporary guardian for the dog, cooking it rice and whatever else I can think would be good for a nursing dog to eat.

In a couple of days I’ll be moving out and I’m afraid Momma will be on her own again with nobody feeding her while she starves to feed her puppies. I think I’m going to try and figure out a way to untie her and let her roam where she pleases so that she doesn’t starve to death after I go. Now I just need to figure out how to do that without getting bitten…