a little help for our friends

my skinny friend Tiky and the dog-loving Canadian

I went out to the west coast last week. I wanted to check on a friend of mine I'd seen a couple of weeks ago. She wasn't looking very well when I saw her then. The photo above shows her lapping up some affection from a dog-loving woman from Canada. I think the woman was worried about her too.

My friend's situation is this: She belongs to a woman who spends a lot of time at Restaurante Castelejo. This woman has 16 dogs. They aren't completely free dogs, nor are they collared dogs. They're free to come and go but they choose to stay with the restaurante woman. And she cares for them more or less. Anyway, I went out again last week to see if I could do anything for my skinny friend but she wasn't there. Three of the other dogs were, but they didn't know where my friend was. One of the three there that day was Old-Man-Eyes, a dog I'd met a few years ago. She was pretty skinny then as you can see in these old pictures, and she had a couple of scabs from where ticks had been picked off, so she was looking a little worse for wear.

Old-Man-Eyes, 2008

Old-Man-Eyes, 2008

You can really see why she's called Old-Man-Eyes. She looks old and worn out by worry, but really she's only about six years old, and she doesn't do that much worrying. Her eyes grabbed me so much that I had to do a painting of her.

Old-Man-Eyes,acrylic on canvas, 20cm x 20cm

When I saw her last week she was actually looking quite healthy. She was even a little chubby.

Old-Man-Eyes looking good, 2011

She told me that life has been treating her well these days. I hope the same can be said for my other friend. Maybe I can get the dog-loving Canadian to help me check up on her. I'll be sure to post any updates on the situation.

Tchao-wow,
ruca