Meet Grim

Dogs, dogs, dogs. They’re everywhere. Before we set out for Oaxaca, an acquaintance who lived here for a month expressed how much she loved this city, but “The one thing,” she said, “I never got used to, was the dogs.”

Photos probably tell the story better than words regarding the dogs of Oaxaca.
Here is a photo of a canine friend the kids call Grim, a reference to a Harry Potter image. We meet him every day on our walk to school. He’s old. He lays in the shade in the afternoon. He’s a little more active in the mornings.

Grim exhibits the behavior of most Oaxacan dogs we’ve met. He roams off leash, somehow, he has managed to avoid getting killed by a vehicle (our theory…hyper and stupid canines get weeded out of the gene pool very quickly) and he ignores passersby. Grim also looks about as cute as most of the beasts around town…that is, he has most, but not all of his fur, he’s a bit dirty and insect-bitten. Though our kids love dogs, they avoid him per our instructions, just as the average Oaxacan does.

A few of you may remember that Gabe was bitten on the chest (at the age of four) by a dog off leash in the Yucatán. The owner of the dog swore that his animal had had rabies shots…then proceeded to tell us that he was about to take the dog into a field and shoot him. He showed us various papers on the beast, who actually looked like a pure bred Weimaraner. After returning home and consulting a doctor, we decided Gabe should have the series of rabies shots. The risk was too great.

Thankfully, Gabe feels little residual antipathy toward Mexican dogs, but that experience has made us cautious.

Jason's addition...Dogs are better off here than in the villages of the Yuc. I don't think I've seen any bald dogs here and few with noticeable diseases.