Brizo’s Tail 2

Hi, everyone, remember me? You can read my last story if you want to. My long name is Chien D’Eau Millie de Maunakolo but that’s kind of a lot to remember. Mom says my sailor name is Brizo, protector of sailors. That’s me! I’m almost a year old now and boy have I had to do a lot of protecting lately. Mom says that there is a virus in the air that dogs can’t get but that humans can so I’ve been watching for it. So far none has gotten on our boat because I’m a pretty good guard dog. I’m not sure what a virus looks like but I can smell bad guys so I think I’ll know. If it smells scared and angry all mixed up together that will be the bad guy. Mom says that when I lunge at people walking by on the dock that my wildly wagging tail makes a mixed message but that just says I’m excited. I told her that if I saw a bad guy I wouldn’t wag but she’s not convinced.

Before the virus started we saw a park up in the mountains. It’s called Jardin Botanico Vallarta. It was cooler up there but still got hot during the day. I found a stone dog there but he wouldn’t play. I guess he was guarding something.

There were lots of trees and plants but I had to stay on the leash which is correa in Mexican. Which totally isn’t fair since I can run lots faster than mom. I could have seen the whole park while she was looking at a couple of boring flowers! There’s one path through the woods called the Jaguar Path but it’s totally a rip off since there were no jaguars. It was a fun path though and went up and down and all around through the trees. Mom says jaguars are big kitties, much bigger than me, even like 200 pounds, but I have never seen a kitty nearly as big as me so I think she is exaggerating. Exaggerating is a nice way of saying lying. Anyway there were no kitties on that path. Then we went on the River Path, Sendero Rio, and this one got the name right. There was a nice river, more like a big stream, with big rocks and shallow pools that I could roll in. Mom waded in, too but she wouldn’t roll on her back even though I showed her how fun it is. She complained that there were biting things, no-see-ums, so we had to leave, but nothing bit me. I’m glad I have thick curly hair. I’m pretty sure she was glad when I shook the river water on her, she looked hot and the water felt so nice! There was also a pool in the garden and it was full of orange and white fish swimming around. I thought I could be very helpful herding those fish, it is my ancestral duty, but mom wouldn’t let me jump in. She can be lacking in imagination, but probably just because she’s human. I try not to hold that against the humans, they can’t help being human, but being a dog is much better. Well, those fingers are pretty useful for scratching itchy places.

Another day we went to the beach, a different one than where we live on our boat. We took a long trip in the car and stopped at Litibu Grill which is close to Punta Mita where we anchored once. It faces the Pacific Ocean, not Banderas Bay where we live. Mom said she didn’t know if I could go in because they only allowed small dogs. I am NOT a small dog! But then when we went in the owner looked at me and said, “She’s not that big” which I thought was insulting. I’m 45 pounds which is the perfect size for a girl 10 months old. But then his dog friend came out from behind the bar. Mom called him a great Dane but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t Danish. But he was pretty great as it turned out. His name is Gilligan. He was huge and I was a little nervous, but he was about my age and he liked me. He took me out to his beach – their bar was right on the sand – and we ran and ran and jumped and played in the sand until my mom made me stop. It was really fun even though I’m not used to getting knocked down so much. I told Mom I wasn’t really tired, just resting, but she made me stop anyway. Then they sat down to eat and I guess I fell asleep. When we left it was pretty dark and there wasn’t much sun left.

One day we went to Puerto Vallarta, which is a city on another beach. There are lots of different beaches here. My dad and I walked on the Malecon which is just a Mexican way of saying a sidewalk on the beach. They had lots of big statues and lots of kids with ice cream cones. The streets there are all little stones rather than smooth white stone or black tar. They feel funny on my feet. We also saw horses which are way too big, I don’t see why they have to be so big, even bigger than Gilligan my friend. I politely sniffed them. And we even saw a statue of a horse or maybe a sea-horse.

Later back in our town we saw horses that danced in the street, very fancy steps and their hooves made a clomping noise. The people that rode those horses wouldn’t let me sniff those horses, but I bet they smell similar to the beach horses.

But now the virus is here so we can’t take as many trips. But we can still go to our own beach sometimes as long as there are not too many other people there.

Yesterday I helped my mom get the groceries. We always walk into town to get them at a little store but they won’t let me come in so usually my mom has to tie me outside. I can see right inside the store since there isn’t a door, but I still howl helpfully so she doesn’t forget I’m there. This time both she and Dad came because of my “heat”. It’s hot every day so I don’t know what they mean. For some reason that meant they couldn’t tie me up, which is fine with me, I just hung out with Dad. There were so many cute dogs on the street today, more than I’ve EVER seen before. This one with a white face and black and brown back was really really cute. I could tell he really liked me, too, but Dad was being a spoilsport and we went home right away. They don’t want me to have any fun.

All over our little fishing village people are all wearing those masks on their face and it looks strange. At first I thought they had to wear them because they were bad people that bit other people, but my mom says it’s not a muzzle, just a mask to protect from the virus. My mom and dad wear them too now. I’m glad I don’t have to wear one, it would make it hard to sniff other dogs.

That’s all for now, the sun is going down and it’s getting cool and time the twilight bark and then for sleeping. Hasta luego! That’s Mexican for “see you next time”.