The Shy Guests

We have guests in the garden. They are small, cute, and innocent.

On a very long and busy Saturday, we went home from two events; the closing day of Earth Day Festival and our friend, Caroline's house warming party. It was almost 3 am when suddenly we heard a sad sobbing sound in the garden. First, we thought it was Moka's, Mary's dog who lives next to us. But the sound came from the opposite direction of Mary's house. I was curious and then we searched the entire garden to find the source of the sound. But we found nothing, so we went back to the house and planned to go to bed. Just when we were inside the house, we heard the sobbing cry again. This time was even louder and sadder. I can hear it clearly that the sound came behind the bushes near the front gate. When Stephen went there to check it out, we saw it! Two little innocent puppies came out from the dark behind the bushes. They looked fragile and sad. We looked shocked and confused.




The puppies were crying constantly and we were wondering who and where the mother is. Obviously, they were hungry and cold, they needed their mommy. From their colors, one is all white and the other is black and white, we were guessing that the mommy might be the balinese street dog that often seen wandering around the neighborhood. The next question is, how can she drop the babies here, inside the garden surrounded by high wall and even higher gate? Stephen thought she might be climbing on to the padme to find her way in. But with two puppies?

We can't answer the question so we decided to unlock the gate and remained it open so mommy can go in and feed the hungry puppies. We were not sure what to do with the puppies for we can't take care of them because we have Miu Miu ruling the house. We decided to go to bed and deal with them in the morning.

The next morning we were awaken by a bang sound in the front door. It was 9 am and I still felt so sleepy. We opened the front door to see what is going on. It was Miu Miu, with a bird of prey between his sharp teeth. He wanted to brag about his success in hunting but I was too sleepy. We never approved his bird-hunting hobby anyway.

I tried to go back to sleep when I remember about the puppies. Stephen and I planned to call BAWA (Bali Animal Welfare Association) and make them take care of the puppies and the skinny mom. When I was making coffee in the kitchen, Stephen came in and told me that he had found the hiding place of the puppies. He will show me where with one condition, I can't fall in love with them. As much as I love dogs and cats, but right now I'm not in a situation to have another pet, especially a dog, Miu Miu's number 1 enemy. So I made the deal.

We have to stand in padme so we can see the two puppies hidden among the bushes. They were so cute and adorable, playing and cuddling together. We can't see them very clear for all the trees and bushes, plus they were too far from the padme. I was so happy to see they are alright and look healthy too. But the deal was made, I can't fall in love with them and we should call BAWA later.

After lunch, we saw them coming out of their hiding place and playing in the front gate, and calling for their mommy once in awhile. Together, Stephen and I tried to slowly approach them, because we didn't want to scare them. But they weren't scared at all, they looked at us with their puppies' eyes then ignored us by continuing playing with each other.




Later Stephen made extra effort by approaching them even closer and tried to touch them. I joined him and tried to be as soundless as I could and reached them as close as possible. I was glad that it didn't bother them at all. In fact, they looked more curious than scared. The white with black spot puppy approached me with a shy manner. I gave my hand to see her reaction. She looked excited and sniffed my fingers before tried to bite and chew them with her baby teeth.

I played with them for awhile and when the rain came, I moved them and placed them safely below the roof of ivy in the garden. Once I knew that they were dry and warm enough, I left them cuddling together behind the woods. I went back to the house and felt bad for them.

The next morning, I woke up at 8.30 and I immediately went out to see the puppies. I wasn't so surprised seeing them gone already. I tried to look in the bushes near padme where they hiding at the first time, but found nothing. I tried to have all the positive thoughts in my mind about what happened to them. The biggest possibility is their mommy came and took them out.

I told Yan Srik about this and asked her to let me know if she saw the puppies. She said that the mom had moved them to another place, in fact, she confessed, one of the puppies, the white one, is in her house now. She didn't know what happened with the other two (so apparently, they were three puppies before the mommy came and hid them in our garden), but she has the feeling that they are going to be just fine.

I hope for the same thing and also wish for the better future of Balinese dogs in Ubud.