Want A Dog? Come to Taiwan! (on stray dogs of Taiwan)

One major problem in Taiwan is the amount of stray dogs that are everywhere. Stop in front of any 7-11 or drive your scooter or car down the road and you are guaranteed to see stray dogs of all shapes and sizes.  Usually these dogs are larger mixed breeds but once in a while you'll see a stray dog that seems really out of place.  I've seen a few stray white and furry lap dogs roaming the roads in search of food.  Some look like they once had a past life of being played with by a child, being groomed, pet and fed, then suddenly left on the streets to fend for themselves. Maybe it no longer a puppy a child decided he or she didn't want to have a dog anymore.  Maybe they're lost and can't find their home (highly doubtful).  Maybe they ate too much or didn't know how to fetch so the owners disowned them.  Whatever the reasons, there are no pounds or organizations to take these dogs in and most of these dogs aren't fixed so they breed and breed.
   Being from a country where stray dogs are not a problem, it took a while to get used to seeing free roaming dogs everywhere.  What was hard for me to swallow was the amount of injured dogs there were walking the streets.  A lot of dogs are accidentally hit by cars or scooters, or venture into a farm in search of food and sadly get a foot caught in a trap.  I see a dog with a severe limp about once a day while driving my scooter.  What once was something for me to take notice of and pitifully stare and ponder what might've happened to the poor dog, is now something that I hardly notice anymore.  I am slowly but surely becoming indifferent to the fates of these stray dogs.

   One day, after a surf, Chris and I were walking back to our house when we saw a few people staring at a dog right on our street.  When we got closer, we saw that the dog was severely injured and in a lot of pain.  The poor dog had been hit and was unable to use his hind legs.  Not only that but it had defecated itself and was using it's front paws to drag itself out of view from the stares.  I was shocked and horrified, my sheltered upbringing hadn't prepared me to see a poor defenseless dog freshly hit by a car, sure to die any moment.  We trudged home unsure of what to do since everyone else around us had gotten back to what they were doing as if nothing happened.  I set my board down and couldn't stop talking to Chris about the poor dog and it's doomed fate.
Should we try to find it some help? He had a collar, who are the owners? Is there a vet in town we can take him too? Would he be able to get on the scooter?
The reality of it was that if it had no owner, no one would want to take the responsibility of trying to find help for it, after all, it's just a dog.  After about five minutes, I decided that I would go back and see at least if it were still alive.  To my surprise, it was gone.  I walked up to my neighbors house and pointed to the street.
I asked, "Dog? Where?"
He replied, "Owner take him."
I was relieved, at least if he were going to die he wouldn't die all alone.
   A week later, I was surprised to see the dog once again, it had lost a lot of weight and still couldn't use it's hind legs so he was dragging himself with his paws, a very heartbreaking sight. But it had survived nonetheless... if taken to a vet, I wonder what the vet had said.  I know for sure that in the US the poor dog would be put down so that he would no longer have to suffer.  But what is the correct way to handle such a situation?
   Another week went by and to our utter surprise, we saw the dog walking! It had quite a limp but it was clear, the dog was going to survive with the use of most of his hind legs.  

   Chris's sister, Adrienne arrived in Taiwan a couple of weeks ago and naive dog lover that she is, freshly from the States, convinced Chris to stop the scooter for a stray puppy.  Chris and I both knew that picking up a stray pup was bad news, it meant that it would surely be our responsibility and it would be impossible to find it a home unless it was our home. Which was why it had never occurred to us before to pick up a stray puppy. However, Adrienne's optimism and good nature was infectious, it was after all, a puppy, a cute one in fact.  Maybe we can feed her for a day and tomorrow we will find a loving owner for her...surely there are hundreds of people out there that would never say no to a puppy-and maybe the next day stray pups all over the world would wake up with ribbons on their head and treats in their faces.  Chris and I knew we were being irrational, taking in a stray pup in Taiwan would mean that it was now our stray pup, but we ignored our senses and figured, things would work out, it was just so cute.

A couple of weeks later, and we're stuck with a puppy, and there are still stray pups all over the world without ribbons or treats.  Chris and I are in no position to raise a puppy, we are constantly moving around, don't have a real home, don't even know when we'll have a real home and now we have a puppy.   
Adrienne!!! 

If you live in Taiwan and you are reading this, would you like a sweet puppy?? She's very cute, very smart and will brighten up your world.

The day she was found

Puppy hero

Heavily napping on my backpack

Lesson learned- If you are in Taiwan and see a stray pup and you're overcome with a sudden urge to rescue the poor little dog, DON'T unless you're looking to adopt one.

Not Too Far Away a Waterfall (on the Seven Falls near Jialeshuei)

   I'm a little ashamed to say this but just recently Chris and I finally checked out some waterfalls that we live by.  Chris's sister, Adrienne is visiting us and we took the opportunity to see what the waterfalls were all about.   The one we went to is called, well, I forgot the Chinese name already but it's translated as the "Seven Falls".  We had heard that there were waterfalls nearby but we assumed that it was maybe a small waterfall and not really worth seeing.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that it's actually quite nice and a good hike to get to the top of the falls.  It's steep so there are a lot of ropes that are attached to trees that are there so you can climb up and sorta rappel down. 

 

There are several pools that you can jump into from some boulders so that was really fun too.  Unfortunately, it hadn't rained in a while so there was only one that was deep enough at the time. 

Pool in the background

Overall, the whole hike took less than an hour and that was because we were stopping along the way as well.  So not a long hike, just steep.  It was overall a good break from surfing and the scenery was beautiful.

This is a spider we saw on our way down.  You can't tell but it was huge! About the size of my open hand.

More about Surfing Taiwan

 
    From what I'm hearing this year's typhoon season in Taiwan is off to a really great start.  We've already had three typhoons come close creating some really fun typhoon waves.  The west coast, which is usually as flat as a lake is also starting to get some good swells and it's been fantastic! It's unbelievable how much surf there actually is in Taiwan.  When there's a west swell, beautiful breaks, a lot of them lefts, pop up everywhere and I'm sure a lot of breaks have yet to be discovered. 

   This week we got to surf a different break than our usual Jialeshuei break.  I didn't get any good pictures again (sorry!) but it was really good.  The wind was offshore and there were only six of us in the water.  Not only that but on either side of us, you can see lots of other peaks and a point break on either side lacking even one surfer.  Even driving down to the spot we surfed we saw at least half a dozen good, uncrowded breaks. 

Unfortunately it was overcast so the pictures came out really blurry, or maybe it was my camera. 

Finishing up and going home

   Yesterday a typhoon warning was issued again and the beaches were closed until this afternoon.  The waves were big and beautiful and it was torture to watch these waves and not be able to surf them.  When they opened the beach back up this afternoon the swell had dropped a lot but there were still overhead sets coming through and a strong offshore wind.  It was a lot of fun!  I love the typhoon season!

Creature on my Bra (on finding a creature on my bra)

Guess what's under the bowl...

   Chris and I haven't had a permanent home since we've lived in Taiwan and I like to think that we've been pretty laid back about our living situation.  After all I'm starting to think that normal things such as a closet are a foreign concept.  My closet is the floor space next to my bed and I have all of my clothes semi-neatly folded in a pile.  The top, removable part of my big backpack for the past eight months or a plastic bag has served as my "underwear drawer".  
   So this morning, I was rummaging through my underwear drawer/bag this morning and grabbed a bra. I glimpsed a small, black thing and my first initial reaction was to yelp and throw the bra across the room.  I was convinced it was a monster cockroach and was half expecting it to scurry across the floor.  When I didn't see anything I picked my bra up again and was shocked to find that it was a small fruit bat making itself comfortable.
   My first thought was, "Where's my camera??"  Then I was disappointed to realize that Chris took it with him to Taipei this morning so I was out a camera.  My next thought was trying to to figure a way get rid of the thing.  I walked over to my neighbor's house to ask her if she had any bat removal ideas.  She handed me a pair of tongs... funny girl.  The prospect of trying to grab a bat with a pair of tongs didn't seem very agreeable, I decided that I would cover it with a bowl and slide something under it.
   When I got back to my room I was horrified to realize that it was gone.  I realized that the bat could be anywhere and I didn't feel comfortable knowing that there was a bat somewhere in my room.  After twenty minutes of cautiously searching underneath my clothes I found it sleeping under my backpack.
I woke it back up by slowly lifting the pack and gingerly put a bowl over it, slowly sliding a newspaper under it.  It didn't fly around  like a crazy bat like I thought it would, instead it sorta squeaked a few times.  I took it outside still disappointed that I didn't have my camera when a brilliant idea came to me.  I could use the webcam on my laptop!

I caught a bat!

I was disappointed that this brilliant idea didn't surface when I found the bat on my bra.  That would've been a great picture.  Oh well.  

       I was surprised to find that the bat didn't try to fly away and instead just crawled around slowly.  I was able to lift the bowl up all the way. 

    Since I am no bat expert, I figured that I could leave it on the patio and it would eventually fly away.  I went for a surf and when I came back, I was surprised to find that the bat was still there, except it wasn't moving at all.  Then I saw that there were ants all over it.  

I feel horrible, I killed a bat.  I wonder how I did that... I tried searching the internet but I couldn't figure it out.  I just figured it would find another shady spot and fall asleep again.  

Needless to say, disposing of a dead bat was really hard for me and I really hope I never have to do that again.