4-Footed Friend

In addition to adjusting to life with the new Crib, the Bamyan Forward Operating Base (FOB) has just grown with the addition of an unexpected member, Kiwi Shir. (BTW, I have tried yet again to add a picture to this blog, this time of me and Kiwi Shir, but blogger.com will have nothing to do with it.)

Kiwi Shir is a 9-month old, 55kg behemoth of a puppy. His paws are HUGE. I bet he grows another 20 kilos, easy, and we're not talking an overweight dog by any means.

I don't know exactly when it happened, but the Kiwi patrol which covers the northern districts of Bamyan Province (populated predominately by ethnic Tajiks, which makes them minorities here. This is a role reversal from the rest of the country, where the Tajiks and Pashtos are the ethnic majority, and the Hazaras are the minority trodden underfoot.) adopted this tiny little puppy at their base. With the onset of winter, the patrols may not be getting out as much, so they felt they should bring this little guy back to the central FOB so he would not be lonely.

I had a puppy, a sweet golden retriever puppy we nicknamed "D.A." (no, not district attorney -- figure it out) for a few months when I was in high school. My mom's exaggerated and unreasonable fear of dogs in general, and of this puppy more specifically (D.A. liked to jump up on people to show her affection) meant that any time as part of my family would be short-lived.

He's got less energy than I thought initially, however. I was kinda surprised when I took him up PT Hill that it was so much work. I've always had dogs that dragged me along when I walked them. This lazy puppy, when I went uphill, I had to drag him with me. It's hard enough hiking that hill as it is, think about dragging another 50 kg of dead meat. Nuts!! Down hill, now that is another story -- would've been more fun running at top speed like that on icy paths with no grip if I was not worried about sliding off the path, where we think there may be land mines. (Afghanistan always brings you back to reality, you know?)

All in all, I like Kiwi Shir. A lot. He's a great puppy -- playful, energetic, fun. Just what a puppy should be, in my mind. He needs some obediance training, but that can happen. I have been half thinking, how can I get this dog home? I want to adopt him. Of course, he would have to have not my mom's, but now my wife's seal of approval. She's actually scared of anything with fur. Somebody traumatized her as a kid, wrapping her up in a fur coat and not letting her get out for a while. Kiwi Shir is already larger than my wife now. How is she going to handle a dog who nibbles (not hard bites yet), jumps, and generally scampers around like you would expect from a much smaller animal? I'm probably completely out of luck. Stinks to be a dog lover only to find that the love of your life is someone petrified of animals. Oh well.