"Socks"

Hi there. I"m back home again after a great week in Lubumbashi. I hope to give you a synopsis of my experience there soon. Since I had this story on file, I thought I'd use it for today. I wish you all a wonderful Second (already!) Sunday in Advent. Even though I miss my home church, I'm really enjoying attending the International Protestant Church of Kinshasa. It's in English!

Let me introduce you to Socks, best friend of Dean, the previous renter in my home. Socks, sadly, was the product of an incestuous relationship and is genetically predisposed to being "unique." When I arrived, Dean moved out into a nearby guest house, but couldn't take the dog with him. For two weeks, every afternoon, Dean would take his daily walk up the hill to feed Little Socks and give him a little attention. He never put the canine on a leash because, “Socks isn’t really the type of dog you’d want to put on a leash.” Read=African Dog. Socks got a kick out of nipping at you as you walked from the car to the house, and had an unlimited capacity for barking at the frequent sounds of the night.

Dean was down to his final days. He investigated all the requirements for taking an animal on the flight back to the States. He even considered boarding a ship in order to avoid Socks being in cargo for two days of flying. But that idea wasn't realistic from here, so he determined to fly. He hired someone to build him a dog cage out of wood and chicken wire. On the day they were scheduled to leave he lured Socks into the new cage with cooked chicken, then chauferred him to the Memling Hotel, where cage and dog were weighed in. So far so good, just a couple hundred bucks for a dog-shipping ticket.

After a couple of hours of waiting at home, they reloaded Socks into the cage and left with Pierre, the chauffeur, for good. My last words to Pierre were, “I don’t care what you do with him, but whatever you do, don’t bring "le chien" back here!” When they arrived at the airport, they were informed that the wooden cage was not acceptable. Dean would have to purchase a metal one, which conveniently was available. For a fee, of course. Dean obliged. Dean finally got the go-ahead for boarding and was asked to identify his luggage. He does so, but fails to target Socks and the cage. Fortunately, Pierre did not leave his post and was watching as Dean boarded. He saw all the luggage except the lonely dog in cage get loaded. Poor Socks! Pierre, as he has done many times, rushed to the rescue and asked the attendants to get Dean back out of the plane to load the dog in.

I’m happy to say that Socks survived the ordeal. However, you can take the dog out of Africa but you can’t take the Africa out of the dog. Dog gone.