Happy Birthday to all 3 of our dogs. They are all shown here last summer with their latest partner a young Tita.

All 3 dogs are rescues and on their initial vet visits the vets best guesses were that they were born some time in mid March. We immediately decided that St Patrick's day was their birthday.

The doberman on the left is Cuba who is 2 years old today. The one in the middle with the big, sorrowful brown eyes is Hombre and his sister on the right is Chica, they are 6 years old. All these pictures were taken this year, if I find some from when we found them I'll post them later.

Hombre and Chica, and another brother who is happy and healthy and living in Akumal (Happy Birthday Chico!), are typical Yucatan beach dogs from Akumal.

Chica was found by our friend laying in her carport, very skinny and dehydrated with a broken leg.

Karson carried her up to her roof under a palapa, fed her steak and water and hoped for the best. She disappeared on the 3rd day and Karson figured she had gone off to the jungle to die. Instead, she reappeared that afternoon with 2 other malnourished dogs.

As it turned out, they were her brothers and we think she could no longer keep up with them because of her leg. When she got stronger she left to find them and we've always said her dog-words were "smell my lips Bros, steak! I'm eating steak!"

They spent a lot of time at the vet those first months. Besides the broken leg which was probably from a kick, Chica had heartworms, was about to come into her first heat, and was terrified of any loud noise or quick movement.

Hombre was just skin draped over bone, his backbone and ribs protruded, and he was covered in ticks.

From the ticks, he had a disease called erlichea which is sort of a dog version of Lyme disease. He also had an infected penis which looked really large compared to his emaciated body and was red, swollen and wouldn't retract. That's how he got his name. Every Mexican man that saw him made that downward flick of his hand and said "¡Qué Hombre!"

They are 2 of the best dogs I've ever had. I think that first off, street dogs are often smarter than dogs bred for just looks. Second, they are appreciative, they don't expect life to be fair and they see every good thing as a gift. They are happy dogs because, really, they won the dog lottery. These two are well traveled and if you ask them how many countries they have been in, they will raise a paw and give you a Five!*

Cuba was the baby of the family until Tita came along. We had been talking about getting another dog when we got the house, one that looked more intimidating. We both agreed that a doberman would be perfect, we'd each had one before and loved their personalities.

As we drove into the RV park that day, Mimi saw a very skinny young dobie running around the bushes and said, "well, there's our doberman". She was frightened, malnourished, and coming into her first heat. The gardener said she'd been there a couple months and that he fed her left over tortillas.

It took a bit to catch her, we kept throwing treats closer and closer and it helped that she liked Hombre a lot. During our sneaky treat-giving we were sitting outside having drinks with friends and eventually she came up and took a drink from my Cuba Libre. Quickly, she had a leash around her neck, a new name, and a ride to the vet.

She appears to be a full doberman and her tail is docked. She too is a great dog, sweet and cuddly to people we introduce her to and very protective towards anyone else. The effect she has at the military inspections here is awesome! None of the construction workers will come into the house until we have locked her up. She has more than earned her keep.

That's the short version of how we got the birthday dogs, they are living the good life now.

*Actually, Hombre ran across the border into Honduras and took a whizz but I can't convince him to learn a high 6. He doesn't want people to think he's a Mexican illegal, he's got a passport and except for that one short indiscretion, he's crossed all the other borders legally.