It's nothing new that people dump their dogs at the campground because they know its full of people and food. I'd say about 5 dogs show up each year, and luckily they get along great with some campers and often find a home. It's sad for us to see how people could just abandon a part of their family as if nothing. I't also causes some problems for us because the dogs eat the campers food, and since chileans are sneaky they say they will not pay for staying at the campground because of a situation that goes beyond our control.
So my grandma had been thinking of getting a big dog to guard her house because little Pauly is getting old and, well, not many people are afraid of small dogs. So the day one of the workers said there was a big dog under the campground bathrooms, boy was she glad! We asked the boy to bring the dog up to the house and tie him up with food and water so we could take a look at him. Wasn't he the cutest dog ever?! He was black with brown on his face and was very smily! Grandma inmediately decided his name would be Capitán (captain in spanish). We decided he should be tied for 2 weeks so that he would get used to the house, and obviously we would take him on a walk everyday. On these walks we realized that he would flinch when we tried to play fetch and he made it obvious that he had ben beaten in the past. He was so funny! He would shake our hands and run with us, he would come check on us every now and then when he would run around, we had a blast with him.
So the two weeks flew by and we started to let him loose during the day. He was so happy running around and jumping up on everybody, getting us dirty and almost knocking grandma down, but after a few days we discovered the problem that might have got him kicked out of his old house!
He plays with the chickens! The neighbors chickens! I hope those poor chickens had a fun ending. Grandma knew right away that poor Capitán could not stay, so i helped her find him a new home. Sadly, no one wanted to adopt him, so we started to think of options... Hmmm, my house in LA was not an option because we have 4 cats (he likes to "play" with them to). We looked and looked, and thought and thought, but we couldn't find a solution. My poor grandma was starting to think that the vet might have to put him down because there aren't big shelters here for animals and no way would she just abandon him!
Finally one day I got a lightbulb! haha. I remembered that recently my dads office's guard dog had passed away and I knew Capitán would be great for that. So I took him over to the office and told the guard about him and how he was such a cool dog. The guard said he would try to bond with him and see how it worked out, which by the way was excelent.
So today Capitán is an official guard dog of a big company in Los Angeles Chile and is dearly loved.
I'm so glad we didn't give up! It's amazing to see what you can do for an abandoned animal and how it completely changes them. I wish he could have stayed in my house, but that was off limits so I just have to respect that.
Anyway, I couldn't be happier for my dear Capitán!
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