Cholula, Puebla for the dog

Our flight got into Puebla at 5:30, and we took a taxi straight to Cholula. We wanted to immediately get the dog, but as soon as we arrived, we realized that we did not want to leave the next morning. We went to a travel agency and asked about hotels that would accept dogs. We had already gotten permission to keep the dog for a night in the hotel we stayed at on the last trip, but we wanted to have another hotel available, so there wasn’t any pressure on the first hotel to let us stay longer.

Finally, we got to pick up the dog, whose name we decided last week would be Pax. When we arrived at the vets office, however, it turned out that our dog is actually a female. Pax would no longer be the name, but we immediately had the answer. Cholula. We had wanted to name the dog after the area, but we hadn’t been able to find any good boy names. I had tried to convince Jose before that we should name the male dog Cholula, but he said that wasn’t appropriate for a male. Luckily, we have a female, so her name is now and forever Cholula.

After getting Cholula and the supplies she needed immediately , we headed off to the new hotel to see if we could stay a few nights. We put Cholula on her leash, but she just sat on the sidewalk, so we carried her to the hotel. We were accepted at the hotel, and for only fifteen dollars a night, we decided to stay there instead of the hotel from last time. We are staying until Monday, so we have a few days to spent with Cholula and get her comfortable with us before she has to travel on a bus.

The first night with Cholula, on Thursday, was difficult. We didn’t pick her up until after 6 pm, and she has spent all three months of her life in a tiny cage, so she was very excited and full of energy. We played with her and took her on a long walk, but she didn’t go to sleep until 10:30. We are having her sleep in her carrying case with the door off to keep the hotel room clean. She has had a hard time adjusting to the carrying case, and I think it is because it is so similar to the cage she was trapped in before. She would cry if she couldn’t see us, so we put her on the bedside table facing us. The first night, Jose took care of her. She woke up every half hour and tried to get out of her carrying case.

Yesterday, we took her to a very professional and much more knowledgeable vet than the old man we bought her from. He gave her a complete check up, and said the only problem with her is that she has an under bite, so she will looking funny when she gets older. She is even at the perfect weight, which is surprising considering the unhealthy food she had been getting. We got medicine to keep her ears clean and toothpaste and a toothbrush. He looked over her vaccinations and deworming record, and told us what needed to be done in the future and what needed to be done now. He gave her the last vaccination she needed for now, and flea medicine. He is writing up a health certificate and medical record for her, so we have everything in a more official form for when we cross the border. He said that we should not have any problems getting her into the United States.

She is very well behaved. She only goes to the bathroom inside where she has gone before, so we have the shower of the hotel room set up, and that is working very well. She only barks at other dogs, and I think it is mostly because she was the only dog at the vet’s office, so she hasn’t had a chance to meet many dogs. She met a calm stray dog yesterday, and stopped barking as soon as she had a chance to smell her. Our main issue is that she is chewing on everything. Her favorite things to chew are our fingers and my hair. We got her some chew toys, but they are too big for her little mouth. We got chew sticks, and one was gone in a day, but she doesn’t seem to like the other flavors. We will definitely be excited when she stops chewing.

We walked her almost all day yesterday and she spent a lot of time playing with her toys. She has a lot of energy, but when we ate lunch yesterday, she sat under the table quietly the whole time. She went to sleep much earlier, and slept for a few hours at a time. She still tried to leave the carrying case to sleep with us on the bed each time she woke up, but she went right back to sleep in her bed with a little petting.

We are very excited to have her and be able to spend so much time with her. She takes a lot of energy, but it is energy that we have nothing else to do with. I think she is going to make the time until we go home pass much faster.

Only 11 days until Jose’s appointment!

-Emma