Dusk had come and gone by this time and the mountain air was quite chilly. Even so we elected to eat in one of the four outside (dining) gazebos. A big mistake because Olya fell in love with an adorable stray female puppy who also fell in love with her. The two were inseparable all evening, running and playing all over the area, up and down the steps and in and out our lodge. Everywhere that Olya went, the puppy was sure to follow. I don’t believe I have ever seen such immediate and close bonding between a child and a puppy.
We suggested to Olya that perhaps the puppy was owned by someone so she should not let the pup sleep inside our lodge. So Olya brought a towel and placed it on our balcony by the door, then rubbed the puppy’s belly until she put her muzzle down and fell asleep; Olya left and closed the door silently.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
The following morning Olya woke up very early and rushed out to see if the puppy was still there. She was and so the courtship continued.
We racked our brains to find a way to get the little dog back to Miami. There just is no way. At breakfast Ron told Olya that we just couldn't take the puppy back to Miami. The puppy probably had an owner. We couldn't keep her in our Kiev apartment for three weeks. We couldn't fly her back to Miami...
Olya covered her face with her hands to hide her tears. I cried too. She understood that we couldn't take the puppy but was still heart broken. Ron made us laugh saying we were both the same. We would take in every stray we found.
As absurd as it sounds I still had hope but kept my mouth shut until I did more investigation. I asked around and found out that the puppy belonged to no one. She just showed up one day and that all the staff “sort of looked out for her”. Everyone said we were welcome to take her. Okay, one obstacle down. Next the whole dog in the apartment issue. Well we could leave her at the hotel and hire Vasilly to drive back for her a couple of days before we headed back for the States. Vasilly, our driver, loves the mountains and would probably go for this. Two obstacles down. I just didn't know about the airlines restrictions. Without an internet connection I couldn't reach Cheryl to ask her to figure this one out. Later.
After breakfast we walked across the road to ride the horses we had arranged for the evening before. But there were only two horses. After a lot of Ukrainian language back and forth before any translation, we finally decided on forgetting about more horses and just let Andry and Olya ride. Actually the two Carpathian cowboys (young guys in tee shirts & jeans) just led the horses on a long walk along the highway. To make it more interesting I convinced the cowboys to at least let the ride wind through the forest near the road.
They gave each other a long look and with a shrug, lead the horses, kids on top, through the forest. It was as if the idea had never occurred to them.
We noticed Andry was quiet through the whole ride. Olya had told us that he was in a bad mood since he woke and that he said he didn’t want to stay any longer at this place because he didn't like the dog. We hoped that his mood would change during the day. We doubted very much if the puppy was the real reason for his silence.
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