Birds of a feather

There are two kinds of dogs here.  The lucky dogs and the rest.  The lucky dogs get cared for by their owners, get fed, bathed and sometimes are even let into the house.  Ive even seen some fancy dogs here - you know the type, pomeranian kind of dogs with their noses all in the air.  But mainly, Im talking normal, run of the mill dogs that are tended to.  Then, there are the rest - skin to the bone, very afraid and unfortunately, not long for this world.  Cats are the same way.  Lucky cats and unlucky cats.  Luckily I am told that rabies is not a problem here and hasn't been seen here in years.  I was surprised to learn that.

Anyway, I was walking home from work yesterday (work is about 200 meters from my house) and I saw something that caught my eye.  Two boys were walking down the street with what looked to be a dog on a leash.  I haven't seen leashed dogs here yet.  As I got closer I noticed that this dog had the longest tail!  Like his tail was over 2 feet long!  So, Im about 10 ft away and suddenly I recognize that this is no dog.... this is a pet monkey!  And not a little spider monkey, but a real black monkey with a long black tail!!   I stopped the boys right there.  "Thats a monkey!", says I.  The boys look at me and then to the monkey, say "Yes Sir" and keep walking down the road.  Amazing, the things you see.

On a related note, another thing I saw in the neighborhood the other day were these boys carrying doves.  About 6 boys, each about 10 in age, and they all had doves in their hands and they were walking down the street.  Odd.  So, I follow them.  They go a bit further and then, one by one, they throw the doves, like hurl them, into the air.  Well, the doves take a few seconds to get adjusted to their new freedom and then they fly away!  Some sport, huh!

Well, it turns out these doves are pets too.  They will end up back home in each boys house by the end of the day.  These doves are cared for and they know it.  Rather than choosing freedom, they choose security.  Fascinating.

I told this story to my group of friends and one told me that this "homing pigeon" ability is quite the sport in the Philippines.  Like a gentler form of cockfighting, men will gamble on which dove will make it to their roost the fastest.  They will drive/boat for hours and go to some remote location and then set the doves free.  Each dove has a device on their leg that will track their exact whereabouts and the exact moment when the dove returns to their roost.  The owner of the dove that makes it back the fastest wins the pot!!!  What fun!!!