I promised pics of Bonita weeks ago. Here she is! Her name has been a bit of a challenge. (Marsha, this one is for you!) A name is a very important thing. When she came to live at the SPCA in Windhoek they didn’t know her name, so they named her Bonita. But it was never really her name. She doesn’t answer to it. When you say, “Bonita” she looks around like you are talking to someone else. Not to mention I feel like Bonita has too much Spanish flair to be an African dog’s name. So we tried to give her a Lozi name: Naleli which means star, but it also didn’t stick.
While we were sorting this whole name thing out, Klepto just sort of stuck. Given her proclivity to steal things it seems fitting (klep·to·ma·ni·ac [klèpt máynee àk]: somebody with an obsessive urge to steal). And she seems to like it. So really there is no argument. Now she’s more X-Men than Hispanic.
Since coming to live with us, when she’s not busy stealing our socks, she is digging to Hawaii in the front yard. I seriously expect her to pop out of her hole wearing a lei and grass skirt one of these days. While she enjoys stealing and digging, her true joy really seems to come from barking at men, especially Namibian men on bicycles or playing soccer. Seeing that’s something we have a lot of around here, we’re trying to break her of that habit. She and Mordecai, the boerboel puppy that guards the school, have become fast friends and joined forces to rid our compound of any suspicious intruders. On the other hand Cassie, the full-grown boerboel that lives on the other end of the compound, has not been so friendly and tried to eat Klepto.
Right now she’s sitting by my feet looking at me with those sad-I’m-dying-of-hunger-from-all-that-digging-so-feed-me eyes. So I’m going to give her a treat before she faints. I’m sure this isn’t the end of Klepto’s adventures in Africa. Stay tuned…
While we were sorting this whole name thing out, Klepto just sort of stuck. Given her proclivity to steal things it seems fitting (klep·to·ma·ni·ac [klèpt máynee àk]: somebody with an obsessive urge to steal). And she seems to like it. So really there is no argument. Now she’s more X-Men than Hispanic.
Since coming to live with us, when she’s not busy stealing our socks, she is digging to Hawaii in the front yard. I seriously expect her to pop out of her hole wearing a lei and grass skirt one of these days. While she enjoys stealing and digging, her true joy really seems to come from barking at men, especially Namibian men on bicycles or playing soccer. Seeing that’s something we have a lot of around here, we’re trying to break her of that habit. She and Mordecai, the boerboel puppy that guards the school, have become fast friends and joined forces to rid our compound of any suspicious intruders. On the other hand Cassie, the full-grown boerboel that lives on the other end of the compound, has not been so friendly and tried to eat Klepto.
Right now she’s sitting by my feet looking at me with those sad-I’m-dying-of-hunger-from-all-that-digging-so-feed-me eyes. So I’m going to give her a treat before she faints. I’m sure this isn’t the end of Klepto’s adventures in Africa. Stay tuned…
1 comment:
Naming is indeed important. I have had the recent naming challenge of keeping up with the growing number of stray cats that have come to nibble on the food I set out for them -- you feed one, and word gets out! (So far: Midnight, Jingle, Smoky, Mangy-Cat, and Patches...)
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