Saturday, June 21, 2014

Avoiding Tigers, Bears, and Gorillas

Harry Davis warned me that being in the Amazon Rain Forest it was a virtual certainty that I would come across a Bear or Tiger or Gorilla as I try to find the closest Starbucks here in Manaus.

Because my days have turned into a struggle for my very survival up here ... I am going to write about dogs in Brazil.

I am a dog-lover ... always have been and always will be.  The love of my life is my Basset Hound Mildred Penelope (we call here Millie P).  My wife is a very close second and a very, very close third is Joanne's Miniature Dachshund Addie.

When we were in Natal there were three dogs - that was it.  I think the locals swapped them around but there were only three dogs ... three brown mixes that liked being walked but were not that social.

In São Paulo - there are two geographies --- (1) the city streets and (2) Parque de Ibipuera .... in the city streets there are dogs but not the quantity you would see in San Francisco (for example).  The dogs in the city fall into four categories:  (1) Fluffy White Extra Small (2) Fluffy White Small (3) Pit Bull Mix (4) Lovely Mutt Mix.  That's it.

Where we live in Danville, California - it is basically against the law to own a dog that is not either a Golden Retriever or a Labrador Retriever (Black or Yellow).  My wife and I are scofflaws in that not only do we not have those but we have gone to very weird shaped dogs --- a dachshund and a basset hound.

In the Parque de Ibipuera the dogs were about half what you would see at San Francisco Golden Gate Park or (if you are in the East Bay) - Lafayette Reservoir or Iron Horse Trail.  But you do get a bigger variety of dogs at the Parque.

BUT -- what I have not seen in São Paulo to date is either a Laborador Retriever or a Basset Hound.  I dont have a theory for it because as you may know I get kind of distracted looking at non-canine park-goers ... but I just wanted you to know.

Final point on dogs down here -- they understand Portuguese.

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