Preparing to leave Tunisia
April 18th, 2008
It seems like ages since my last journal entry. That is because we have been in Tunisia since Nov. 2007 and haven’t had much to report. But, since we are preparing to disembark and get “on the road again”, that is all going to change.
We have had some wonderful times in Tunisia, mostly because of the people we have met while living in the marina. As always, it is great meeting new people and difficult to say good-bye.
Our newest and greatest news is the presence of a new granddaughter and the addition of a puppy. Madison Lynn, Kacy and Chris’ first child was born on March 30, 2008 and I was fortunate enough to be there for her birth. I will never forget the miracle of that experience or the joy I felt watching my daughter bring her daughter into the world. Thank you Kacy, I love you.
Brisa, our pup, is our second most exciting bit of news. She is a Portuguese Water Dog, from Lagos, Portugal. We met her mom and grand mom, as well as her owner, Rodrigo, while cruising through the southern part of Portugal last summer. He knew that we wanted a Portuguese Water Dog, answered all of our many questions about he dogs and helped us contact local breeders. He contacted us in December inquiring as to whether we had gotten a dog yet and when we responded with a no, he told us that he had just had a liter if we were interested. She joined us on March 17, 2008, the same day I left Tunisia for Colorado and Madi’s birth.
I returned to the boat 3 weeks later to find Brisa very bonded to Michael. She was not happy about my arrival and has been giving me a hard time ever since. She went from a “consistently house broken puppy” to a nipping, deliberately misbehaving little devil! Each day she gets a little better, but it is clear that Michael is the love of her life.
We decided to follow a RAW diet which consists of raw meaty bones, organ meat, ground raw meat, and protein vegetable/egg/cottage cheese etc. mush consisting of just about everything I would normally throw away. The main reason we chose this diet is because we often find ourselves in countries which do not have a high pet value and therefore do not have a good selection of dog food, where as we can always get chicken parts etc. A very beneficial consequence of this diet is that her poops are not the usual steamy, smelly, dog piles of icky to pick up poop but rather small, odorless, dense, dry pellets which are neither offensive or difficult to live with!
Living with a “shed-less” dog is a huge advantage. We do have to clip her though, which we just did, rendering ourselves a stuffed 1 gallon size zip lock bag full or beautiful black hair. It is definitely a 2 person job and I learned that from now on I will have to wear my bathing suit while doing it because I had a thick layer of hair on my clothes which required a full roll of lint removing tape to clean up.
We have a few current “Brisa” pictures for your enjoyment. Remember to click on the picture to open up the rest of the gallery. Also, look at our new calendar, thanks to Jordan, and see if there is anywhere you would like to meet us. The dates are “soft” and can be adjusted according to the desires of others. We love company on board and look forward to hearing from you if you are interested.
