We have (had) a dog!

This is old news already, but about a month or so back we got a dog. Yes, she is adorable (though somehow I always call her "boy" and "he." Maybe a bit of chauvinism there). Her name is "toudao," pronounced "toe dow ," which means "peanut" in Taiwanese. He (she) is just a few months old. We got her from this woman who owns the pizza place near Yilan University (best pizza in Yilan, for real). We just walked in one day and toudao was on a leash by the front of the shop. Apparently, the woman who owns it is a sort of humanitarian (dogatarian?). She has already taken in three stray dogs and her husband told her, "enough is enough," so she had to keep toudao at the pizza spot. Mary, my lovely and spontaneous roommate, offered to adopt her (the dog, not the woman who owns the pizza shop). And so we did. Until our landlord found out and informed us that we're not allowed to keep dogs in our building. So we had to give her back. So it goes. Anyway, she was cute, and I was really getting into owning a dog. I took her for half-hour walks every morning, and we almost had her trained to the point where she didn't defecate in our kitchen. Next time.

On a side note, I've had some weird wildlife experiences recently. The other day I was riding my scooter pretty fast down this stretch of country road on my way to school, and a dragonfly flew into my helmet. Like inside. And he didn't enjoy it either, he just buzzin around in there tryin to get out all up in my ear and everything so i had to pull over and release him. And the other day I saw a woman driving her scooter with a majestic white parrot chained to her handlebars. Another day in Yilan.

Here is a picture of an adorable creature, holding his pet dog.