A Life Off Leash
“Oh those poor dogs . . . “
That was my first thought upon seeing all the stray dogs roaming the streets when I first visited and then moved to Panama. It broke my heart to see the scrawny ones with mange, the females who were clearly nursing puppies and the ones who approached me, hopeful for a morsel of food.
I had a bag of scrap food in my car I’d been keeping in the freezer on a day when I was driving to meet friends for lunch. I figured I’d see the usual suspects, the group of three who lay in the road at the entrance to the Malibu residences, the stragglers who hang out near the dog rescue or the tan one that naps at the police station. No dogs. On the day I drove around with chicken scraps and corn arepas, there wasn’t one darn dog to be seen.
My friends who’d been here longer and knew the lay of the land told me it was midday, the dogs were all taking siesta. Of course! Animals are usually pretty smart that way, in sync with their natural surroundings, unlike me, who on occasion exerted the most physical energy during the heat of the day.
Not sure when the transition happened, probably just dog-by-dog, but I started smiling when I watched dogs sprinting along the water’s edge at the beach, rummaging through the trash piles or gathering in a pack at an open field - planning their days activities. These dogs were happy! I swear I saw them smiling as they pranced with anticipatory excitement about the adventure they were embarking on (pun was not intended, but sure, I like puns).
It brought me back to my childhood summers when all the neighborhood kids roamed the streets looking for whoever might be around for a game of kick the can. I’d pedal as fast as I could on my banana-seat bike, my long hair flying behind me, all the way to the street with the dead end that seemed too far to walk, but on the bike, was achievable.
Freedom to roam. That’s what these dogs have. They’re living the unleashed life many of us desire but may be too afraid of the risks. Skinned knees, flat tires, skidding in gravel. And yes, when I see a dead dog on the side of the road, it’s heartbreaking. But dogs getting hit by cars isn’t exclusive to Panama. Death happens everywhere. And so does life. Am I still so naive to think any living creature would transcend the limitations of the physical body?
The Panama dogs have taught me quite a bit about the assumptions I make, the stories I create for events I see. While I’m heartbroken to see a dog that was killed quickly by an automobile, I’m also heartbroken to see a living dog that is suffering to the point where the animal may be more at peace in the non-physical realm.
Driving down the side road in Nueva Gorgona one morning I had a cleaning person and her son with me in my car when we had to slow down for three dogs meandering in the middle of the street. It’s typical, but usually they move to the side of the road. Not these dogs. And it looked like two of them were moving in unison.
Upon getting closer, these dogs were actually stuck together. Some of the construction guys across the street were laughing and I quickly made an assumption that some very drunk person must have tied the testicles of these two dogs together.
Again, my heart broke for these two dogs, obviously the object of some cruel human prank. The image stayed with me; the heaviness of how someone could do that and how the construction workers were laughing so loudly.
When I rounded the corner toward the apartments where I was bringing the cleaning woman, I saw a familiar face in the group of volunteer dog walkers with the rescues on leashes, ready for their morning walk. I rolled down the window, so thankful I could tell someone to get those poor stuck dogs some help.
“Can you let someone know there’s two dogs up the street that are stuck butt-to butt. I think someone tied their testicles together.”
“Oh no.” He muttered. And I raced off.
Later that night, I still couldn’t get that image of those poor butt-to-butt dogs out of my mind and I went to Google. Imagine my surprise and absolute delight to learn it’s a natural occurrence that can happen when dogs mate. It’s called tie phenomenon. I was so relieved! They were just stuck together from sex, nothing sinister, no cruelty at all whatsoever.
It was an assumption I made based on my past experiences. Because I’d never seen that before, my brain couldn’t file that vision into the mating dog folder. And so my brain worked hard and fast to come up with an answer for what I was seeing. That’s what the brain does, it tries to give us answers based on all the input we’ve had in our lifetime so far. This is how humans can become closed minded. If we only ever expose ourselves to the same input day after day, month after month, year after year - anything different will be perceived as a threat or bad, because it’s unfamiliar. And it’s the old part of the brain, the Amygdala, that tries to keep us safe.
The lesson for me is that I’d like to continue to detach from the stories I project onto the unknowns. And life is plentiful with them.
And perhaps an inspiration for you might be to take off the leash and roam free for a bit.
Living a life off-leash means freedom to explore, to meet friends you haven’t met yet, to take risks. Yes there are potential dangers when we take risks, but the greater danger is not taking any risk at all.
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I am looking for Beta Readers who are willing and interested in helping me shape my upcoming book The Freedom of Resiliency based on international volunteer trips to Thailand, Dominican Republic and Romania.
Involvement would commence around February/March 2020. Please email me if you’re interested patty@pattybluehayes.com and I can send you the details of what the commitment looks like.
