Here is the dog that adopted us when we first arrived - with an additional 10 lbs or more on her bones! Gregg walks her around Ajijic and throws tennis balls for fetching several times during the day, so she's in pretty good shape now. She may also be pregnant ... which really concerns us. Over a month ago she came into season and although the male shepherd here has apparently had a vasectomy, the staff weren't careful to keep her inside the gates of the compound. We took her in to see a vet a couple of weeks ago, who said it was "too soon" to know if she was pregnant (?) but that it was "likely". The property owner here owns this dog and the 3 shepherds on the premises

but shows no interest in any of them when he visits. They are possessions, in his mind. Apparently she (Leika) is purebred - possibly from a pedigreed line of Weimaraners that his father had. The owner has his own vet who makes personal visits several times a year for shots, etc. For the day-to-day, the gardener here throws food out on the ground for all of the dogs and they have to bully their way in to get it. They drink water from the pool and only the children pay any attention to them at all. The irony is that he doesn't want the dog spayed, so we are told, yet if she were to have "mutt" puppies, he would be VERY upset. Go figure. We thought briefly of kidnapping her and taking her home with us in April, but quickly abandoned the thought as we don't want to end up in a Mexican jail!

I like to keep these posts fairly short, but have fallen a bit behind, so I'm going to add another element to this one. A week ago was the 36th Annual Mexican National Chili Festival which incorporates Chili, Margarita (my favorite) and Salsa competitions as well as entertainment and sales of artisan crafts and other local vendors into 3 days. There is also a parade which runs through the town to officially open the event. The competitions had more participation in the past, and some years the entertainment is better than others. This year I was most excited to see one of the

participants that had been rained out a couple of years ago. They are the Voladores de Papantla or the Papantla Flyers. This is a very old, Mezoamerican, traditional performance which is a request of the god of fertility to bring back the rains, and thus the crops, to feed the people. It is astounding to watch. Just last December their "foreman" died after falling 22 meters from the center post. He had been performing for 30 yrs with the group. To best appreciate them, go to You Tube and watch the whole performance.