SHADEY (not Sadie). Rip - was the pup that adopted us, well, actually before Adam and I even got here. We knew he had a "real" home a little ways up the street, but he seemed to like it here. Then, one day, he turned up with a bright red collar -- which we understood to mean: "this dog has an owner." So the boys said no more feeding the dog, and we couldn't let him in the yard again. He also was bringing his very pregnant girlfriend/sister around and I think the boys did not want to be responsible for raising pups.

Not long after, someone dropped a puppy off at the community center. She was cute. But keep sneaking into the center and "going potty" in the church. That did not go over real well. So, the local staff were going to do what you do with dogs that you don't want -- take her to the biggest local town and drop her off so she would die from disease, starvation, or getting run over.

Mindy was fundamentally not okay with that. So the dog came to the team house.

It was soon discovered that the dog was not only scratching because she had flees. She also had mange, which would need to be treated, or we could all possibly wind up with mites burrowing under our skin as well.

The long story short is that they don't treat mange here. And they look at people who ask about treating mange like they just asked for directions to the moon. So, we looked a number of places -- the vet, the ayurvedic clinic, the pharmacy, the grocery store. Mindy got online and started looking up home remedies, which all required ingredients not available in a developing country. We eventually received word from a vet at home that coating the dog in motor oil, and leaving it on for a week, would do the trick.

So, we gave the dog a motor oil bath. Covered her in it. Which she promptly licked off. We figured that probably wasn't really good for her -- nor would it effectively kill the mange. So we tried again. Realizing that we would need one of those "cones" that dogs get after they've had surgery so they don't pull their stitches out or aggravate the wound.

Again - we live in a developing country. So, Dave and a I fashioned a bright yellow empty ice cream bucket for our new puppy to wear as an anti-licking device. (see below)

She was pitiful for a good hour. Running into things and whatnot, but eventually she adjusted to it.
We reapplied the oil daily for 10 days... to make sure that the mites were staying smothered. The FUNNIEST part of the whole equation is that we were very intentional in how we explained this whole ordeal to the housekeeper. And THOUGHT we were clearly understood. The other funny thing is the fact that we have neighbors. And because we're foreigners, there is already extra curiosity about every thing we do, anyway. So, of course, the neighbors stopped Phyllis one day and asked her, as you might imagine, why we forced our dog to wear a yellow bucket on its head. At this point in Phyllis's recounting of the conversation -- Mindy was quite proud of the fact that she had taken the time to explain the whole thing so clearly to Phyllis, even demonstrating with hand motions, etc. how the little mites burrow under the skin and it's very uncomfortable, and how you have to kill them, etc. So, we all nearly fell off our chairs when Phyllis relayed how she had told the neighbors that our dog was wearing a bucket on her head so that she wouldn't escape underneath the gate.

The good news is: it worked. The mange is gone. Shadey is now bucket-free and happily annihilating any shoe left within reach. And the neighbors have not (to our knowledge) reported us to the authorities for animal abuse.