The dog

Lonelyness is something the expat wife has a constant battle with. If you are not careful you can quickly fall into the various bad habits that we see plenty of around us. From becoming more and more reclusive and self-absorbed to drinking all day long, to staying in bed all day long, to getting fat and bitchy...We have seen it all. Since i could feel myself slipping into the reclusive catagory, i started to nag about getting a dog.  There are a few problems with having dogs in Saudi Arabia. If you want a 'Western' dog (any known breed from another Country), you will have to write a cheque for up to 10 000riyal (roughly 2 500 USD) and it needs a passport, a microchip, all the vaccinations and to be neutered/spayed. So a rather costly little bit of company.  Your other option is to go 'local' and get a street dog...Well...From the streets, as the name implies.  These all look the same: multi-coloured, slightly like a Whippet, slightly like a Border Collie, slightly like a Maltese poodle - all mixed together. Not my favourite type. Internet searches for dogs for adoption gave me exactly 4 results. Out of these, i choose what looked and was discribed like a Border Collie, which came with all the paperwork, toys, etc. Owners moving back to the States and cannot take the dog with them for whatever reason.  Piper was delivered to our house within a day. She was far more a local dog than the imported version. Whippet thin and with tail and ears cut off (who DOES that to any animal???), a ball of energy and the cleverest eyes you can imagine. You could just see she is ready for action and entertainment, just like me.  We became instant friends and her owners where extatic that they found the perfect home for her.  All is well that ends well....Or not, as these things go.
So my friends, this is the reason we have not been blogging. Piper does not travel well at all. She vomits all over the car the moment we hit the desert roads. She is much bigger than what she looked in her pictures and does not fit in the back with all our camping gear. And then she committed the ultimate sin in our very quiet, very traditional Saudi, neighbourhood.  Because dogs are frowned upon in the Muslim culture (apparently Mohammed had a thing for cats, but not dogs), very very few Saudi's know much about them and are therefore very afraid of them or they simply detest them. Piper, full of beans as ever, within one week with us caused a few neighbours to complain about her barking (which was honestly not a lot). One day Robert went outside to throw trash in the bin and left the gate to our yard open just for that second. Piper spotted the gap immediately and did a runner.  Of course this is now a game.  The more you chase her, the more she runs.  Shouting helped even less and pleading amused her quite a lot.  Fortunately for us she ran into a neighbour's yard.  Unfortunately for her, his wife and small children were outside and she scared the living s..... out of the family. We managed to catch her, apologies profusely and tried to calm the dude down. He would hear nothing of it. He wanted murder in the first degree, nothing less.  We had to return her to the original owners STAT.
So, my friends, even though i am very sad, this means we can go camping again this weekend!!! See you on the other side!