The boys were enthralled, as you might expect, but I found myself in a quandary. This puppy was a duka dog. That's what everyone calls the stray dogs around Kenya. They're everywhere and often hang around the dukas (shop stalls) looking for scraps to eat. They are usually a nuisance and are usually treated rather poorly. There are many duka dogs that find their way into our compound and raid the trash pit, and some have even gotten aggressive with people, so they are viewed with distrust and disdain and the general consensus is to get rid of them somehow.
So there we were, with a beautiful and lonely and scared duka dog puppy, unsure of what to do.
The boys great idea: adopt her!
My great idea: call Eli and make him decide what to do!
In the meantime, we created a little bed for her and tried to make her comfortable. We gave her milk, but she didn't want anything to do with it. She was timid and fearful and didn't do anything for quite awhile. The boys were kind and gentle with her, watching over her and working hard to keep their voices calm and quiet (as opposed to the excited shouting they did upon first discovering her). It was so sweet to watch them take care of this pup!
Shortly after discovering her, we suddenly heard more whining and whimpering from somewhere else on the compound. This time it was not a single voice but a chorus of voices that we heard. I tasked the boys with splitting up - some searching the compound and some watching over the puppy at our house. After a brief search, the boys discovered four more puppies! They were tucked away in a small ditch behind the community trash pit. And they were very vocal. Clearly the first puppy belonged with this litter and had somehow escaped and wandered off.
We made a final decision to leave all five puppies there, even though the mother was nowhere to be seen or heard. Someone else advised us that the mother would probably return later in the evening when there weren't so many people around. In the morning, everything was quiet and all the puppies were gone. The boys were bummed but we reminded them that the mother probably came and moved them somewhere else.
Caleb wanted to remember them always, so he painted this picture of the first puppy that we found.
Kai also wanted to remember them always, so he painted all five puppies where we left them in their hiding spot.
Asa chose to paint a suchomimus after it defeated and started eating a T-rex. Apparently he didn't need a memento of the puppies :)
Well, a few days passed and then we had an experience of déjà vu. We were sitting in our house reading a book when we heard loud whimpering and whining from outside. It again sounded like a puppy and it again went on and on. And again we found a puppy at the Webbers' house! This time it was a different puppy, but it was also all alone and clearly in distress. So we repeated our actions from earlier in the week and took it back to our house for safekeeping until we could decid what to do.
This time around the puppy was not timid and fearful. This time it was incredibly active and playful, and the boys had a blast letting the puppy chase them in circles around the house, over and over again. The boys decided to name him Gold.
Gold was a hungry and thirsty pup and did not want to be left alone. And the mother was nowhere to be seen or heard. This time, however, there weren't any more puppies in the litter to reconnect this one with, so our only option was to put him back where we found him and pray the mother would come back for him.
Or so we thought.
By God's grace, as we wrestled with what to do with this poor lonely pup (because there was no way we were adopting this guy despite the pleas of our children), my friend Lauren sent me a message that she knew of an animal shelter in Nairobi. She didn't know the name of it or where it was, but she knew that it existed. Which was beyond my imagining but came as a huge relief and source of excitement for us. Never in my wildest dreams did I think an animal shelter existed anywhere in Kenya. Animals are not viewed as pets here (except in rare cases), and so the idea of rescuing them and adopting them out is quite literally a foreign idea. But apparently there is a place in Kenya that does just that. I could scarcely believe it!
A quick Google search later and we called the Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals. We were told we could certainly bring the puppy to them, so we called a Family Meeting and asked the boys what they thought of the idea. They loved the idea of rescuing Gold and it was officially decided - we were embarking on our first ever Animal Rescue!
(As a side note, we were already planning a trip into Nairobi the very next day. If that hadn't been the case, I'm not sure we would've been able to rescue this pup. But God's timing was perfect, and we are so thankful it worked out this way!)
We brought the puppy inside to clean him up a bit. He was covered in bugs and there was no way we could get them all off, but we did the best we could and explained to the boys that the bugs were yet another reason why taking Gold to the animal shelter was a good idea - the people there could give him medicine and make sure all the bugs were cleaned out so he could be healthy.
After cleaning him up and drying him off, we made a little bed and put him in the shed overnight. He whimpered and whined most of the night but thankfully that made him sleepy for the car ride, which was quite convenient. We tucked him in for the 4-hour drive and he promptly fell asleep!
Gold was a great traveler overall. He was a bit restless toward the end, but I can't begrudge him that. Everyone is a bit restless toward the end of that drive. We made a quick stop before reaching the animal shelter, which turned out to be a good thing since the poor little guy apparently needed to be sick in a parking lot, but he didn't have any major problems inside the car and we are thankful for that!
We arrived at the animal shelter and then it was time to say goodbye. It was tough, I won't lie. Caleb's tears were pretty strong even before the puppy was taken inside. His tears provoked Kai and Asa to cry also, and all of their tears combined led to mine. It's not fun watching your kids grieve another goodbye, even though it's just a puppy we've known for 24 hours and even though we always knew we couldn't keep it and even though bringing it to the shelter was absolutely the best thing we could've done. It was tough. Especially because our family has a special place in our hearts for the animal kingdom. And because our boys desperately want a pet and I'm basically the Crusher of Dreams as far as having a pet goes. (But seriously, hellooooo pet allergies and routine international travel!)
So we said our goodbyes through tears, and we prayed together for Gold and the future God has for him, and we decided to get straight back to the guest house and order pizza (as is our routine whenever we get into Nairobi) and hope that routine and comfort food would help. And since then we've left space for unexpected moments of sadness when any one of the boys are missing the puppy, and providing hugs and comforting words that are needed in those moments.
I'm so thankful for the experience of finding and rescuing a lost puppy, and of loving it while it was with us, and for giving our boys the chance to think about and decide what was best for him and then to follow through on that decision even though it wasn't what they wanted the most. This was a great life experience and I hope they will always remember this. And I am so proud of these boys - for their kind and caring hearts, and for their love of all God's creatures, and for how well they walk the difficult parts of life and pour love and encouragement onto each other in the process.
As I whisper to them over and over again, I felt in my heart deeply: "I love you with a fierce love, and I am proud to call you mine."
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