This is all stuff I have written, or felt like writing about animals:

An anti horse slaughter bill I’ve been pushing for, an interview I did with the Oregon Human Society (in 2005) because Portland is DOGTOWN USA 2006.. and the interview I did is why I disagree.. I finally ran into some stray dogs here and fed one.. mistake. oh and something about cops.. that’s it.

The Stray Dogs Here:

So one of the things I came here to do was take photos of tray dogs living here and possibly write (yes write.. shut up) about their survival skills, adaptation to city life.. traffic.. finding food etc. but I haven’t been seeing any in my neighborhood. Last year when I saw them it was random and in several different areas .. you just kind of had to run into them. For the past month or so I’ve been walking for hours every day and even into the worst parts of my neighborhood possible with carrying my camera (good camera) and have seen only one dog and several stray cats. I was surprised when I moved here that I never saw any in this huge park next to me but last night while taking chena out a dog happily walked across the street behind us but without owner.. I looked around and no one was looking for the dog so I assumed it was finally a stray. It was skinny and hungry and had a big wound on its leg. It was interested in Chena but I don’t want her near them … as much as I do like them.. they could have ringworm, parvo, heart worms.. who knows what. So I shooed it away and kept walking.

Today I went to the park again and saw what I thought was the same dog but noticed it didn’t have a wound and was smaller and had no interest in Chena at all. I took Chena home and went back to the park with some water in a flask and a little dog food. Trying to debate the whole time I’m watching it eat if I should just take it home, clean it up, keep it on the porch and try to find it a home; which are not really options. I shouldn’t and can’t let emotions become a factor when I’m trying to study things about their lifestyle but its really hard to see while everyone else doesn’t even seem to notice them.. like they’re pigeons. I shouldn’t even have fed it but it was the first one I got to interact with besides the one with the gimpy leg a month or so ago. After it finished all it could eat and I was out of water.. I went on with some errands. When I came back I took Chena out for a walk again and the dog was sleeping in the same place I had fed it. I didn’t wake it up but knew it was there because I fed it there. Again tonight around 10 Chena needed to go out again. I decided not to take food but just some water in a soda bottle; being as water is more important for survival if food and water were to have a race… and then I wouldn’t feel like I was giving him too much hope.

When I got to the park I couldn’t remember exactly where it was he had been so I was walking in that general direction when I saw that a dog was sleeping under a tree; It was actually a different dog. This one was a husky Akita mix and looked like he would be a popular style of dog here so I couldn’t understand why no one had tried to take him home. I woke him up carefully.. knowing that he could jump up and attack me or just run away if I scared him too bad. He was skittish and wouldn’t come too close but I offered him water and he drank a bowl and went back to sleep. The other dog.. was right where I left him.. and woke up sniffing around for food. I feel terrible now that I fed him but I’m sure he’ll be gone by morning. He looks like an oversized chihuahua with a scruffy collar like a dingo… but I can’t take him home 😭. Now I know that feeding them is a shitty idea although the right thing to do .. its also the wrong thing to do? I don’t know.. its sad.

Cops:
After seeing the dog with the wound I walked into the park and saw 2 cops harassing people.. seems there’s a curfew I guess. One good thing about being a girl is that you can stare at cops.. or even glare at cops and they wont mess with you. I stared at them and even followed them a bit to see who they’d harass next till I realized it might be me and I don’t have ID, so I went home.

Horseys:
Most of you might not care but I do; Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503) by a vote of 263-146.
This keeps companies, foreign and domestic from killing wild horses in the US and selling them for meat to basically.. french people who want to eat the black stallion. They have ranches setup for adoption of the horses to anyone who want to own a wild mustang (some are still wild in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Nebraska, Arizona, New Mexico etc) and companies buy them at the ranches or at auctions posing as horse lovers/collectors but take them to a slaughter house instead. Totally unnecessary.. there is no shortage of cows to justify eating the horse. Donner party showdown!

Dog town: From the Oregon humane society newsletter; It’s official: Portland is the nation’s best city for dogs. We beat out 62 other towns to be selected by Dog Fancy magazine as Dog Town USA 2006. We’re celebrating next week, Wed. Sept. 13, with a Canine Block Party at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Too bad when I did an interview with the Humane Society a year ago to talk about the ASPCA program they basically said..
Human Society Rep: we don’t have one really.. we have 2 officers that we sent out of state to do disaster relief
Me: so who keeps track of animal abuse, dog fights, neglect etc in Portland?
Human Society Rep: the local police
Me: the local police aren’t trained to handle animals or trained to identify abuse and neglect.. they also wont bust down a door to save a starving cat.. the ASPCA are meant to have all the jurisdiction as a police officer but for the sake of animals
Human Society Rep: we just don’t think its a big enough of a problem I guess and don’t have the funding (her saying this while we are sitting inside one of the most decorated with art, manicured, new age, humane societies in the country.. although its mostly donated funds; they obviously spent their money somewhere )
Me: I can tell you 5 houses right now with neglected dogs, dangerous dogs, people who collect animals. This is a big enough city to have a problem.. any small town is big enough too but you’d think that a humane society in a city would cover this issue. (She started getting nervous and moving around a lot.. probably felt attacked .. which she kind of was )
Human Society Rep: The police are in charge of that here
*- It wasn’t the fact that they didn’t have ASPCA agents.. it was the fact that they DID have them and didn’t use them locally. They wanted the publicity of helping out disaster relief (this was before Katrina) and pretending like the problems at home were small enough to neglect.
Me: (changing subject) So how many adoptions were there last year. (she got all excited and smiled all proud)
Human Society Rep: 28,000, we had a really good year.. the most adoptions of any agency in the state combined.
*-made sense because every time I’ve gone to that human society there is a steady stream of people; apparently mostly lookers and not takers after I hear her next statement.
Me: and what was your put down rate (kill rate) last year?
Human Society Rep: 46,000 give or take.

Me: (trying not to look surprised) oh, that’s a lot.

Human Society Rep: it is but we just don’t have the capacity to keep them all.

me: can’t you give them to no kill shelters or put them in foster homes?

Human Society Rep: we put them in foster homes sometimes but we don’t give dogs to other shelters.

Me: why?

Human Society Rep: I’m not sure.
*- then she said she had to go and I took my little interview.. that didn’t go anywhere where I wanted it to and went home. I wanted to hear that Portland Had similar cases as were on the ASPCA TV shows on animal planet like ; Animal Cops; ASPCA Miami, ASPCA New York… The lady had never even heard of these shows. She wasn’t directly responsible for any of this.. there were many more people above her who had say on these things but as her being someone inside the company; you might thing she would give a shit about these things. So, I told her to go watch the shows if she gets a chance and see how much abuse there really is behind closed doors and tall fences.

I got a B on the paper.. because I had to change the subject of the paper from ‘ASPCA Portland Animal Police’.. to ‘Humane Societies Inability to Use Its Resources. ‘ and had already done months of prep work expecting to talk about the ASPCA.. who were obviously unable to be interviewed.. as they were helping after a tornado in Arkansas.

There is one pink tree in the park across the street covered in huge flowers. I took Chena for a walk and decided to find the pink tree to get a branch if I could. The closest branch was about 12 feet up. I took off Chena’s leash and balanced on one foot on the back of a bench that was luckily cemented down. I tossed the leash around the branch and pulled it towards me close enough to grab, then jumping off the bench with branch in hand, I twisted a piece till it broke off. In the US this would be a possible felony I think (?).. if someone really felt like an asshole.. stealing public property.. destruction of public property.. the chances of someone really making a fuss are near impossible unless your drunk maybe. This isn’t the US so I had looked around to see if anyone was watching. I gathered the branch and started to examine it as I walked back towards my house and noticed a man coming out of the dark. Yes it was a cop.; a south american “dont they all carry machine guns?” cop. I didn’t know what to do but I’m sure he had started walking this way seeing my acrobatics from across the park. I couldn’t even say hi, trying to decide if it was better to act like a foreigner (because I am), or like nothing was wrong. He wasn’t a ‘bright orange official renta-cop’ guy either. He had the bullet proof vest, guns, all of it, and it was a dark an ominous place to run into an armed Argentine cop.

He looked like he was going to keep walking then he stopped to take a look at Chena. I though “this is where he pretends to start a casual conversation and asks me if I know what the punishment is for stealing a branch”. He didn’t ask. he said something to Chena that wasn’t the usual “oh what a cute dog” statement and walked on. Maybe he didn’t know what to say either having already figured out that I wasn’t from here, probably hearing me tell Chena to ‘come here’ or something else I say to her non stop. We parted ways, and I still was a little freaked. When we got to a clearing 20 yards away we ran the rest of the way home. My branch is pretty and in my window facing the park. Maybe he’ll see it next time he has to walk through the park at 2am on a Sunday night.

ok. so its not stealing a park bench or getting caught for throwing that kid down the stairs but it’s something haha. I haven’t had any excitement in weeks (since I got robbed). Now its a Sunday(ish) tradition.

I made coffee at 9pm tonight with intentions of enjoying it while watching streaming HBO Singapore and reading my jazz history homework, instead I got un-spicy mexican rice flavored coffee with a hint of tomato because I didn’t wash my only pan well enough. I drank it anyway. *shame*
I took Chena to the park this afternoon and for the second time saw a woman sitting outside the veterinarian below my apartment bawling uncontrollably. This time the man that was with her was crying too; or at least he was pretending to. It’s extremely sad to see someone lose a pet, but it gives me a little satisfaction seeing that someone here loved their pet so much. I see so many people with trophy pets, ignoring the homeless cats and dogs or showing no regard or concern for their pet’s actions as they run fully across the park, following other dogs across major intersections with insane Buenos Aires bus drivers at every light. In my neighborhood its hard to see the people who would jump in front of a bus for their dog or cat. I’m a little extreme when it comes to my dog I think.. or I feel I am … compared to people here. I lift Chena up over the ledge at the zoo so she can see the goats or flamingos and she fully understands why I do and what she’ll see on the other side. I bend down and talk to her face to face when im telling her something important or trying to get her to understand that cars will kill her if she just walks out into the street.. I dont think she’ll ever get that one. She just gives me an impatient look and blows a big breath of impatient air while waiting for me to step off the curb and say ‘go’. Shes not a big city dog. She wants to play with other dogs but the preference for males in the society seems to have leaked over to pets as well. I’ve seen about 20% female dogs, if even that. I can remember 2 specifically that she has met. The rest are all untrained un neutered males who try to molest her every day. Then I get yelled at for bringing her to the park. They should make cock muzzles for male dogs here if they don’t want to neuter them or keep them on a leash once in a while.

I watched Star Trek: First Contact twice in 12 hours an loved it both times.

Today’s quote:

“sometimes them that wants the bible have less bible in their hearts than them wno don’t”
– long john silver

I’ll make this one user friendly:

I uploaded all my crappy pictures form last time I was here; I claim “how the fuck do I use my new camera” “what is aperture priority and does that mean I don’t have to do anything?”, “I’m not wearing fucking glasses on vacation or spending my money on contact lenses that work correctly” and I also blame Gardner. but in reality its just that I can’t take photos.

so I’m here to try over.. and do a lot of things I didn’t get to do last year.

I found him in my “kitchen”. Him and his children bite me while I sleep. He was killed execution style soon after this photo was taken.

I call the food I make hobo food but I realized today that its actually gumbo… it seems that its genetically encoded in me to make cajun food.

And this is what happens when I’m forced to wash clothes by hand (yes that is my hand.. they are designed for kicking ass and holding large cups).

good night.

Another ‘un-intersting crap from my day’ blog:
More and more walking today but it was freezing so we’ll call it “walking .. wiping snot on ones arm.. then walking more”. I went the opposite direction I usually go which is another neighborhood.. first time I’ve left mine since I moved into this apartment. I haven’t been in a rush really.

I found this amazing building, all post modern 70’s south american architecture and pretty damn fantastic. It was top heavy, almost upside down looking and supporting the large overhangs were concrete arches rather than pillars like most building who attempt that. It was covered in graffiti and vines and had beautiful stairs and round little windows with pissed of people looking out them as I took their pictures (and they could do nothing muahhahaha).

There was a spiral staircase with walls covered in painted names and phrases. Me and Chena went up the stairs slowly.. not knowing what the building was.. a huge corporation guarded by men with guns?… a private school or art university?.. we finally made it up and Chena thought the barrier that separated the walking area from the a 12 foot drop would be a really cool thing to try to jump on.. she likes walking on walls. She wasn’t on a leash so I look back just as she’s trying to keep her balance from a nasty fall. Scary as hell but it kept me laughing for about 5 minutes though.

We then found a floating plaza like area with more post mod fixtures and ‘seating like’ giant flowerboxes with plantage (mostly vicious thorns) growing inside them. It was seemingly unused in years but probably just since last summer. I ran out of film and start to just look around and see what this vast, expencively designed building is. ITS A LIBRARY! I suppose if there is an international contest for kick ass libraries.. this one has been winning since the 70s. Ill be back when its sunnier out to take more pics probably.
We then went to a market where Chena was stepped on by many a person. The market was set up really poorly, there was only room to walk in front of the stands.. and no room to stop and look. If you stopped you got stepped on…. well not me so much, but Chena. poor dog.. she had a long day. After I left the market it was about 6pm and I realised I had not eaten since the day before. I am eating now; quiche and ice cream to go.

p.s. I have now seen public urination 3 times now in broad daylight.. today was on the side of a building right on the sidewalk while people walked by; and it was the newsstand owner 5 feet from his own news stand. funny stuff.

The Library

I discovered today that a lot of people in Argentina are absolutely fascinated by crappy mimes and clowns and those people who paint themselves like statues and sit still.. while pained… like a statue. I don’t think that’s something I really care about one way or the other.. their liking of them that is.. but there was a mime at an intersection in Recoleta.. doing nothing but harassing cars as they drove by.. pretending to be hitchhiking, acting like he almost got hit.. um.. walking funny?.. there must have been 200 people.. sitting standing at the lights and on the sidewalks for a half a block in each direction trying to get a view of his “hilariousness”. I tried several times to see what I must be missing.. and each time he would do something not funny.. and everyone would laugh hysterically. Maybe it’s that I hate mimes and clowns and that sort of humor.. I need men dressed like women and people hurting themselves horribly.. or farting?.. I guess.

I found the Hard Rock Cafe Buenos Aries today.. I’ll have to go there sometime.. to say I’ve been to at least one. I’m sure the food tastes like Denny’s or its all Argentina food but we’ll see.. maybe. I went to go talk with that guy again to practice my talking and it seemed …wrong.. of course I’m stupid and naive about that kind of “wrong” .. either way. he didn’t show at this cafe after 15 mins so I left. He buzzed my door over an hour later at which point I had walked in crappy weather for an hour and didn’t feel well. I was glad he didn’t show but pissed I bought a coffee and waited even that long; I have blisters on my feet from my new shoes, hadn’t eaten, and it was 4 pm and a I had a headache (waa waa waa).

When he called, he tried to make it sound like I didn’t show.. and then when I said I don’t feel well and I just want to go home he started bitching me out basically. He said I was lying about being sick.. that I’m lying about not understanding everything he says.. and the pity party ‘you just don’t want to hangout with me’ type of statements.. so I confirmed in my shitty speaking..”if you think I’m a liar.. I don’t care.. I can’t control what you think and I’m going to do what I want anyways.. if you had been at the fucking cafe when I was there over 1.5 hours ago I might have felt like talking.. but now I’m sick and tired and you’re calling me a liar, so I’m going home”.. and I went. WTF would make a stranger think he could tell me I was lying to him.. a stranger who didn’t change his clothes (nasty dirty sweats) has no teeth and yells at people who hardly speak his language.. let alone speaks at 100mph when he knows I’m trying to pick up the accent. I also mentioned to him that he has no clue what its like to learn another language and that just because I can speak some and understand some, doesn’t mean I understand everything, and therefore must be lying about not understanding what hes saying? plus with a headache, I can concentrate about 5% on translating at full speed, so trying to talk to me was pointless.. anyways…this is why I don’t talk to people.. if anyone was wondering.

In other news…. I used to draw but then I lost my soul and found a camera. I still want to make a stupid comic one day.

Took Chena out to go to the bathroom and on my way back this older women wanted to share the elevator. She startes talking to Chena and asks me her name and keeps talking to herself after turning her back.. speaking quickly of course… I say that her name is Chena and none of her other mumblings sounded like questions. So of course with me speaking one word she should assume I don’t speak spanish and ask “what language you speak”.. I just give up and say “English”. She says “Is that the only language you speak? ” and since theres no point arguing that I do know enough spanish to talk to her but she has not even given me a chance to speak.. I just say “…and 2 years spanish” .. she didn’t hear the spanish part and started bragging profusely.. “well we speak English here too and I speak Russian and French” then she leaves the elevator and slams the door a bit.. and asks me through the door “American?” and I say “yep…” and she kind of gets the look of realization as if that must be why I’m so stupid. *Keep in mind this is the Bush era and everyone HATES Americans, and I felt it often.

You’d think that if she spoke so many languages she would know what it’s like to learn one and when someone just splurts out shit quickly it either takes time to process, or for them to repeat it…. but no.. people who learn languages at a young age have no clue what its like to start a fucking language at 24.. your brain doesn’t absorb things like it does when your a kid. It’s also not my fucking fault that my country doesn’t encourage speaking other languages.. it’s not even available in school till your 13 or 14 and by then your mind is occupied with other more important things than school.. if you really want to know a language you are either a high school student who’s fairly dedicated to studying, or you take college classes with your own money. I took 2 years of French and 2 years of Spanish in highschool and don’t remember much, so I started over. So I’m here to get used to using what I’ve spent the last two fucking years of my time and $1000’s of dollars on learning (Spanish) and so far its been very discouraging to even open my mouth. So fuck it.. I’ll just pretend like I don’t know any Spanish and be another toursit I guess. At least when I’m treated like an idiot its because I’m acting like one and not accualy trying to communicate like I have been (to no avail). 🥱

Look at this craziness.

I had just come in because it started to sprinkle while I was in the park. imagine if I was in the middle of the park when it started.. I would have had to run like hell.

And these pieces were partly melted and had gotten broken hitting my roof or walls.. took me some time to get to them.. My friend on the other side of town says his friend’s car is ruined.. when they came form the sky before hitting anything they were the size of fists. I got lucky I think haha.
Holes they caused.

I dreamed that I came back to the US but decided to leave all my things here and just send money to pay for my rent here.. it put me in an even worse situation and everyone was trying to convince me to let the apartment go and all my things with it because I couldn’t afford another ticket to go back for a while. So .. I felt worldly.. having an apartment in Argentina while I lived in the US but really I was just pretending to be something I’m not… which is a rich person. People have that impression about you when you travel.. especially when you rent an apartment in another country. …but as most of you know I have no money and whether I’m here or there.. I’m struggling to make ends meet.. so I figured.. why does it matter where I am broke at? Why be broke in my own country when I can go be broke in another and see new things at the same time? I hear Manila is the cheapest country in the world for Expats to move to.. although I speak nothing near anything javanese or Tagalog, any other language spoke in that cluster of islands. I seem to get by ok here, and even if I spoke less Spanish than I do.. I’d get by. anyone who can point at maps or food and show facial expressions can get around in a foreign country.. but I’m only speaking from my own experience.. and from a country in south america. Maybe people in Estonia wont understand if you point at a loaf of bread and hold up 2 fingers, but I doubt it.
I went to Blockbuster tonight and rented a movie.. they are everywhere here. Almost as common as McCraphole. Rented Bewitched.. don’t laugh.. I’ll rent something better later; I like Will Farrell most of the time.
So in the meantime I’ve been trying my ass off to get some work and pull up some money. I have about 1/3 of my rent for next month after I buy Chena’s insulin and dog food tomorrow. I have a pinched nerve in my neck which is oddly enough most irritated when I’m on the computer. I now am going to use the floor as my office. and I’m complaining but.. that’s why I write blogs.
Seriously I can’t help it.. blogs make me want to vent. So if you want to talk about positive things. I do have a Portland phone number still that you can call anytime 😉

I’ve been searching through web tv stations all day and I found a tv channel that is only online called ManiaTV and Tom Green has a “Tom Green Live” show that is absolutely terrible. Tonight he had Dave Navaro and they’re sitting next to each-other like its a David Letterman talkshow, taking calls from random maniaTV viewers.. it’s not funny at all. He looks really sad, like his career is about as low as humanly possible.. even though his show does get people like Dave Navaro, he’s still hiding out on some crappy internet only tv channel. How weird. I’ve never been a big fan but noticed his disappearance since his divorce. He plugs myspace constantly and talks up internet TV like its cool and not a bitch to stream for the average user in most cases.

I also found a TV channel in the Netherlands that’s just like the Truman show. Right now there are 3 camera angles of a couple sleeping and one of the outside of their house. I wonder what happens during the day and if the cameras are all over the house. ..another channel I found that I really feel bad about is a German station that is a 24 hour German American Idol.

Luckily I found HBO Singapore, a cartoon channel with banned black and white cartoons (smoking and racism etc) and Hollywood TV.

I got robbed in the subway station on my way to another neighborhood.. why did i leave my neighborhood? I don’t know… but it actually wasn’t as bad as it sounds except that they took my digital camera.. which i think I sufficiently broke while fighting them off.

At first there was only 2 little 10 year olds. I was on an escalator going up from the subway. No one was in front of me, and no one behind.  I had just taken my camera out to take a pic of the people who had been in front of me going up the escalator and then I took picture of one of the kids as he came down the stairs towards me. Thay asked for money… one on each side, already unnerving.. and I said I don’t have shit, which I didn’t. Putting my camera back in my purse they were suddenly joined by a much older teen, and they all simultaneously grabbed for my camera. I of course held on like death grip and pushed them away, but one of them had the strap and when it broke my hand flung and so did the camera. The batteries flew out and it fell a few stairs lower and pretty hard.. hopefully breaking (Now remember this is all happening on an escalator so its like an action flick). Well this frees my hands up and I go to get the camera when one of the little fuckers climbs down and grabs it while the older one tried to keep me stopping him. The other young one is kind of in my way at this point so I grab him by his hood of his coat and fling him down the stairs. By this time we were at least 90% of the way up the escalator, and he flew just about the whole way down. The older one looked at me shocked like no one had ever defended themselves or fought for their shit. He ran after the kid who fell… but as far as the camera, it went the other direction with the little one who crawled under us to grab it. By the time I got to the top I didn’t even see where he went. It was pointless to tell any cops.. pointless to be mad about it really. I didn’t really like that camera anyways… only 4.0 megapixels, but it was really worth throwing a kid down the stairs and getting in to a scuffle on an escalator. I buy these little shits hot dogs every time I have money when I’m downtown, never give them money, partly because I have little and also because in most cases it’s their parents who are putting them out on the street every day to beg. They need food, not money… and apparently broken cameras and all my photos on the SD card. It’s something most people will never experience and at least I have that thought to hold onto…

Today was one of the good ones, I came here to experience shit, and I am.