Sweet Mother’s New Paradigm
As is the case with many people who have mental disabilities, Sweet Mother learns by example. Like a child, she impersonates the behaviors of those around her.
Now, Sweet Mother is obviously interested in the dogs around the house. Mus has even described her as obsessed. Whenever I’m interacting with the dogs or puppies, she always wants to talk to me and ask me questions about it. We have these long, drawn out conversations about them; unfortunately, since we don’t speak the same language and I’m the only one of us that understands that fact, these conversations consist almost entirely of her rambling on and on in Twi or Ga and me simply nodding my head.
But apparently she’s been watching me closely.
See, before I came none of the dogs would allow a human to touch them, and so there were only two interactions in this house between human and dog. A). The humans fill bowls and set them before the dogs or B). The humans use their hand or a broom to shoo the dogs.
These were the only two ways Sweet Mother knew how to interact with the dogs, and she did both religiously, hoping to forge a connection. She fed the dogs every night, and washed their bowls and filled their water dish every morning. And every time she walked outside, she would shoo the dogs, even if the dogs were all sleeping 30 feet away from her. But she didn’t really want the dogs to go away from her; she just wanted to interact with them, and I think the dogs knew that, because they generally paid her no heed when she shooed them.
Now she has a new paradigm to use in interacting with the dogs. She sees me calling them, she sees me petting them, she sees me picking them up… And now I’m starting to see her copying these behaviors. She’s even trying to impersonate the sound that Mus uses to call them (which in turn is an impersonation of the call their mothers use.)
Of course, she’s afraid to drop the puppies and so she squeezes them a little too hard- but the good news is that the puppies are sturdy enough to take it, even if they do whine from discomfort.
Chicken-Pot-Pie
This was just such a Kodak moment, I’m so mad I didn’t have my camera handy….
A few weeks ago Mus and I were making a big pot of popcorn. He burnt the bottom of the batch, and so he took out the good popcorn and left the burnt stuff in the pot, setting it aside.
A few minutes later, I look down, and the chicken that lives in our courtyard was actually seated inside the pot, pecking at the popcorn at it’s feet. Apparently the sides were too tall for her neck to stretch over, so she just hopped right in.
Hey, I got the hint. She was ready for supper (Yum!)
You know what they say about when you assume…
You’re gonna think I’m making this up…
Our neighborhood Catholic Church is actually named “Our Lady of Assumption.”
I want to know what she assumed, man.
Scooby-Doo Debuts as Mary PoppinsSo the puppies have grown bigger and more mature, and everyone adores them now. There’s been a truce called about the porch, and they now sleep through the night (unless someone walks into our courtyard- then they start barking. Which is actually perfect, because if someone is entering our courtyard unannounced at 1am, we would like to be informed of it).
The mothers are trying to slowly wean them. This means that the puppies are continuously trailing after the mothers in a long line, hoping to sneak a quick sip of the good stuff. Of course, the mothers find it particularly obnoxious that they can’t stand up without being assaulted by 10 hungry and very toothy mouths.
This means that the mothers are gone as much as possible, leaving Scooby-Doo to babysit. And I must say, she’s doing a stand-up job of it.
She’s been working hard teaching them all the stuff they need to know to be real dogs. She’s taught them how to wrestle and chase, how to groom each other, how to dig holes and eat dirt (I don’t know why they do it but all the dogs here lick dirt), how to take your prey and shake it until it’s neck snaps (using leaves as the prey, of course, but they’re getting the idea. I don’t know that Scooby-Doo has ever actually caught prey in her life, but in case the opportunity presents itself, she and the puppies will be ready). Why, the other day, she even broke up a fight. Two puppies were fighting over something or another, and the mothers just tried to move out of the way of these viciously snarling and tumbling pups. Scooby was alarmed, however, and quickly rushed in to head-butt the two combatants (this is a signature move. When a stranger tries to touch the puppies, she head-butts their hand, too). Well, the puppies were so surprised by the blow they forgot they had been fighting at all.
Kill-Me-Quick
Certain bar establishments (usually the shadier kinds) serve a certain kind of local moonshine called “Kill-Me-Quick.” This stuff is extremely strong (think Everclear) and very cheap (going for 10 cents a shot, as opposed to 90 cents for a pint of beer.)
Why is it called Kill-Me-Quick? Well, once someone starts drinking it regularly, they usually die within a few years.
Now the crazy alcoholic guy who lives in our compound has been drinking it for years. And let me tell you, this guy is not the picture of health. But the strange thing is that he seems to have recently lost his mind. He now thinks that he can use his fist to talk to people in Japan.
We’ll be sitting on the porch, and this guy will come around, talking into his fist- “Yes, yes, I’m in the house… Where are you? Oh, Japan… Well, I could go to talk to them right away…”
And the whole time we’re watching him, we see his hand is empty. And sometimes, he does this when he’s not even drunk.
Thieves in the Night
So darling old Poos-Poos was a magpie in a previous life. She goes around stealing things from the courtyard and then hides them in this gravel pile in the corner of the courtyard. She keeps all kinds of thing there- bones, tin cans, plastic bags… The puppies have recently begun copying her behavior, except they haven’t caught on to the pattern that all of Poos-Poos’s treasures smell like food.
Last night, Hamida’s boyfriend came over to visit. He set his sunglasses down on a bench and… well, let’s just say it took he went through several curse words and a good hour before he found his shades perched neatly on the gravel pile, undamaged.
