Last year, I spent Christmas in Slovakia. We did a ton of skiing in several countries including Slovakia, Austria and then in France. Two years before that I spent it in Hungary and then traveled alone for two weeks in Germany and Switzerland and back to Hungary via Slovakia. Well, not entirely alone since I met a ton of great people along the way. This year however, we’re planning on spending it in Colombia, in the home city of my girlfriend, Ana.
There’s enough for me to see in Medellin, since I’ve never been to South America before, or a Spanish speaking country, but we’ll be traveling throughout Colombia during our brief vacation. Around Christmas will obviously be reserved for spending time with her family but before and after that we have a few excursions planned.
Colombia is a Catholic country (even though a lot of them are scared of how religious the United States seems) and as a result, the city is full of lights and other decorations during this special time. Since towns in the United States are generally discouraged from putting up Christmas specific decorations, it’ll be something entirely different to see an unabashed version of a city Christmas display. Hungary has always put up lights in Budapest, with Christmas trees and other Christmas specific things, but from what I’ve seen from photos, Medellin Christmas lights are far more spectacular.
We’re still looking for a scuba resort where we can dive for a few days for less than $1000. You can do that in Florida in the Keys for half that price, including hotel, but for some reason, we’re having a hard time finding a good/cheap one in Colombia. I really don’t want to spend that much money right now, though if we had to, it’d totally be worth it to swim with whale sharks and huge manta rays.
Other than that, we are planning on visiting some colonial era Colombian towns, the coffee region (with Juan Valdez, the guy with the donkey on all the Colombian coffee) and various other things unique to South America or Colombia. We don’t have a whole lot of time, but we’re going to make the most out of the time we have. You can be assured there will be a ton of photos when I get back.
We’ve had Petunia since the beginning of September and we couldn’t have asked for a better dog as our first foster pet. She’s sweet, quiet, calm, doesn’t jump up on people, playful and loves to snuggle up to you if you lie down with her (she’s also more than willing to jump into your bed though!). For the first month we had her I had only heard her bark maybe four times and that’s only because she was excited about something that was going on. She’s great with my cat Meko, who’s not such a fan of her but he really isn’t a fan of anything that he can’t eat, scratch or sleep on.
We got Petunia through the Animal Wellness Foster Program (AFWP) who provides the food and any medical care she needs. So really, it’s like renting a dog almost for free, keyword being rent, since someday we’ll eventually need to give her up to another loving home. We also buy her extra treats because, well, she’s just too cute not to. However, the reason we chose Petunia from the Montgomery Animal Shelter was that it was unlikely she would be adopted and as this animal shelter is a kill shelter, the foster program is essential to save these dogs’ lives. The problem is, Petunia is a pit bull, a bully breed as it’s known. People have a misconception about these dogs and ignore other aggressive breeds like dalmatians because there’s a Disney movie about them. I’ve never met a sweeter dog in my life. These dogs are also infamous because of the Michael Vick dog fighting incident. Just like with bad children, it’s usually the parent’s fault and that goes with bad dogs as well.
Since I’ve gotten her, we’ve trained her to sit, lie down, come and not snap when giving her treats. Instead, she’ll put her teeth on the treat and try to knock it out of your hand with her tongue. We’ve also taught her to walk without a leash and will come when called if she wanders too far ahead. She’ll also run with me on grass but she’s a little slow and I can usually out run her if I sprint (but just barely). She also allows us to brush her teeth and even though you can tell she’s not a huge fan of it, she puts up with it.
Dogs and Cats Do Get Along
It was a little tricky getting Petunia and Meko to tolerate each other. When I first brought Petunia home, the first thing she wanted to do was sniff everything she could, including poor Meko. Luckily Meko is an extremely curious cat and kept approaching Petunia to check her out, then hissing, moaning and running away. I never let Petunia off the leash at any point while she was home. Every time I caught her looking at him funny I’d poke her to divert her attention. Sometimes I would even turn her head, she’d try to look at Meko and I softly move her head away again. This went on for about two weeks with Petunia sleeping in her own room with the door closed. I wasn’t worried for Meko’s safety, but really Petunia’s. Meko isn’t declawed and while I clip his nails every other week or so, he can still take a large chunk out of your skin if you’re not careful.
I tried to introduced them properly several times with Meko always feeling too uneasy. Petunia now won’t even look at Meko and instead diverts her eyes when she walks past him. It’s the funniest thing to watch but that’s not what I intended. So maybe they don’t get along, but I feel 100% confident I can leave them alone together without either one of them hurting each other. As I said, she’s the sweetest dog ever.
She’s an Eligible Bachelorette
Next week she gets spayed. After that, it’s full time advertising to get her adopted. It’s not that I don’t want to keep her, it’s just that at this point in my life I can’t. Had she come into my life at a later time I wouldn’t think of letting her go. And everyone that has met her has said the same thing: she’s the sweetest, nicest dog ever. Check out Petunia’s own webpage on Petfinder.com. Make sure you check out the video of her playing in the back yard, it’s hilarious at the end:
I’ve been a little rough when I’m playing with her but she’s never shown aggression at any point that I’ve had her. Not even toward Meko. Now, when it comes to other dogs, it’s hit or miss. Some dogs are a little too intense for her at this point and I hope to work with her to get her to not feel threatened. She’s already made one good dog-friend already, so I know she can learn to be around other dogs as she’s learned to be around Meko.
The dog, not the girl!
Not All Dogs are Perfect but They Do Go to Heaven
Petunia does have her problems, and in the interest of full disclosure here they are:
She snores, loudly, and sometimes snorts in her sleep. She also dreams about chasing things so her flailing legs on her bed could get a bit noisy during the night.
She poops, a lot. OK, maybe not anymore than the average dog, but this is my first dog. Maybe when they breed a dog that doesn’t pee or poop, it’ll be the perfect pet.
She doesn’t like other dogs. We’re working on this one and I just think when she was abandoned and/or neglected in her previous home, she met other not so nice dogs during her life to make her not trust them. I’m 100% confident she’ll learn to trust other dogs again as she meets ones that will play with her instead of trying to bite her.
So, if you or someone else you knows wants a sweet, huggable, playful dog, Petunia is an awesome dog. And don’t feel bad about taking her away from me. Sure I’ll miss her, but we plan on saving and training another dog as soon as we can after Petunia. Dogs are a ton of work, but they’re also a ton of fun.
Last month I finally put down the floor I’ve been talking about for so long. My dad came into Blacksburg just to help me put in the floor (and by help, I mean he did most of the work). Continue reading
On Virginia Tech’s Reading Day (the day between classes and the beginning of finals), the Scuba Club at Virginia Tech (SCVT) performed a clean up on the New River near Radford, VA. We picked up several trash bags of garbage, mostly that were left behind from the fishermen that frequent there. There were plenty of fishing line, beer cans and other trash to keep us busy for a few hours and we do this every year.
As it had been raining for the past several days prior, the river level was two feet higher than normal, and big trees were being swept down river. The visibility was non-existent and we didn’t want to get caught or crushed by the trees coming down, so we didn’t get to go diving. However, there is still a ton more beer cans and other trash left by the fishermen at the bottom of the river that we have yet to get to.
While we were there, a photographer from the Roanoke Times took several photos of us as we worked. I had passed up picking up some trash that was in the water because I was wearing shoes but since I had all my scuba equipment with me, I put on my diving boots and jumped into the water to pick up the pieces I had missed.
The photographer caught me just as I was walking out of the river and they put me as their main image. Pretty cool. Check out the image below and download the PDF for the full size.
