Puppy Surgery near electrical mishap ..

---

I just had to write a quick blog update tonight before this highly exciting information left my brain!

Oh, Osita!

Tonight I went outside to give Osita and Reina their “mid-evening” snack (usually a dog biscuit), and found Reina immediately perched by our back door. However, Osita was not to be found and calling her did not bring her out of wherever she was. I waited a few minutes, then looked around the house calling her name repeatedly and still could not find her. Finally, I went to the back door where Reina was anxiously awaiting her treat and alas, there is Osita lumbering out of the dog pen. I was surprised because it is impossible to get them in the dog pen in the first place.

So, I petted Osita on the back and as I did that, my hand struck something metal! A closer examination revealed that she had a big piece of metal fencing stuck to her behind and tail! And, I do mean, stuck! She didn’t seem in pain but clearly she knew something was not right. The fencing did not just come off with a few light tugs. Osita’s hair is very shaggy and definitely not straight and manageable like Reina’s hair.

So, what was I to do? I had absolutely zero experience in removing anything from a dog, besides perhaps a bone or oftentimes, my shoes from their mouths. Always being the quick on my feet, I grabbed the nearest pair of scissors, calmed her down with additional dog treats, and the proverbial, “Don’t worry, this won’t hurt.” It was time for puppy surgery!

It took me almost a half hour to remove all of the metal from her furry butt and tail. I literally had to cut dozens of individual strands of hair—okay, in some cases big clumps of hair—to finally remove all of the wire fencing. Near the end of the surgery I wanted so much to just tug the fencing off, but yes, I can be compassionate at times!

The biggest problem, of course, was getting Osita to sit still. She didn’t seem to mind the “hair cut” but she wanted to sit down on her butt. Finally, after ordering her repeatedly to stay up on her legs, I got the job done. Oh, did I mention, I did all of this in their pen in the dark with just a small flashlight? Just try to maneuver a flashlight, scissors, and keep a 3-month old puppy still! A proud moment for me indeed!

Near Electrical mishap…..or not

Today, FINALLY the movers brought our stuff we shipped from the states to our house. We finally feel like we really moved now that our personal property is here. I was annoyed all day because they called me at 7:30am saying “we’re on our way.” If you give them a few hours to get the stuff from the warehouse and drive here, I was confident they’d be here by noon….and that is what the shipping company told me. Well, at 3:30pm, the movers had not arrived and I was just waiting for the rains to come our way.

There were several “issues” apparently, one of which was “a problem at the warehouse” which delayed them. They also could not find our house which delayed them further, and finally, they were not sure they could navigate our dirt road. I thought for a big truck with big tires it would be easy. Apparently the moving crew walked a good length of our driveway before driving their truck down. Getting increasingly annoyed while waiting for them to inspect our driveway, I grabbed Carol (our bilingual assistant/cleaning lady/woman extraordinaire) and we sped down the driveway in my car to coax them in.

They finally agreed and slowly came in. However, as they passed the house, they hit the electrical line which runs from the pole across the driveway to our house, just hitting the top of their truck. I was certain we’d lose power and have nice boxes to look at by candlelight.

As the truck hit the line, one of the workers immediately hopped out of the truck (and it was a fairly large truck), climbed onto the top of the cab of the truck and held the electrical wire up so the truck could pass. I was amazed at the sight of this guy, like a squirrel or monkey, getting up their so fast. I was also amazed that the wire did not send thousands of volts of electricity through his body, resulting in the obvious. I admit, I know extremely little about electrical wires but I thought I was always told as a kid that you couldn’t touch them. Does any one know?

The unloading of the boxes was fast and routine and as the truck turned around and passed back by our house to leave, Mario, one of our great workers, hopped on the roof of our house to hold the wire up for them. I guest all Ticos know about electrical wires here!

I am heading to San Jose on Wednesday. I’ll write much more on Sunday or Monday!

Pura Vida!

Andrew
[e-mail]
http://www.AngelValleyFarmBandB.com

---

Comments

[Chris]

I am so proud.
Andrew. I am so happy to hear you were able to help Osita in her time of need. I can hardly wait to meet them when we visit for Thanksgiving. You know I am gonna bring them a bunch of toys and treats.

[deleted_7293]

Tico inventiveness
Drew, Continue to enjoy you blog entries. Glad to read that the 'hiney haircut' was a success for Osita. As to the truck and the electrical wire... I have always been amazed by some the things ticos do to problem solve. As long as the insulation was on that wire, it wasn't wet, and the guy wasn't grounded (rubber shoe soles or the tires on the truck) it was prolly safe to raise the wire up. Besides, I suspect they had done that more than a few times on deliveries to get the truck under low wires. -Paul ==

[Cheyenne]

Publishing, anyone?
Andrew, I do hope that you are saving all of your journalistic musings. Will you write a book about moving to Costa Rica, and your adventures, misadventures, and mishaps? Cheyenne