The dogs that got me through vacation

In my dog deprived state last week, I was drawn to anything and everything canine in Isla Mujeres. I was expecting to see kibble packed with corn much more than I was expecting to see frozen, uncooked crabs (what?!). I did recognize one of the brands that lined the selves in the dog food aisle. It is hard not to recognize the yellow Pedigree bags. Ahh, something familiar!

There were plenty of stray dogs on the island ranging in size from a small Chihuahua mix dog to a medium sized pitbull type dog. They roamed in and out of stores, and restaurants and through the waves at the beach. What a great life they have! I did not see a single stray that was fat, or skinny and I didn't see any in poor health. I can not say the same thing for the pet dogs that I came across during our stay. Someone on the island must look after the dogs since I even saw a dog with coat that had its hair cut short and was relaxing in the shade on the sidewalk. Not to mention, most of them wore donated buckle collars with no tags.

To prove the importance of exercise, these dogs had free run of the entire island and when they did settle down next to the tourists at the tables they were calm and relaxed. There was one terrier mix (that reminded me of one of Rugby's classmates) that chose our table to settle down next to. We were next to a busy dock that was shuttling people from Cancun over for the day. He did a voluntary Long Down under my chair for the entire meal, happy to have company. I am sure a large portion of their diet is table scraps and we passed our scraps onto him before we left. 

I do not think I would want my own dog to live life as an island stray, but they certainly had a better quality of life than some of the dogs I have met here in the states. I could see Rugby fitting in very well with us on vacation, though. 

Bringing Rugby to the island would be the ultimate use of his off lead training. He could heel along the busy streets of Mexico, do long downs next to our chairs in restaurants and bars, and lounge under our umbrella on the beach. He could go the entire week off-lead. Since the small and "large" street dogs coexist together, I would not be worried about Rugby getting picked off as a meal for one of the larger dogs. Perhaps realizing all of these opportunities made me miss Rugby more than usual. I was constantly thinking about how much freedom his training would bring him if he had the opportunity to visit with us. If I ever end up in Isla Mujeres again, Rugby will be there too!