Molly was 16 when she died last year. She was a wonderful dog and we believed she could never be replaced but time and life go on. I have a friend who regularly sent me pictures of rescue dogs needing a home and I resisted for quite a while.
In August, we were driving back from Colorado when she sent another picture and I agreed to see the dog when we got back to San Carlos. It was a pure white male dog located in Empalme that looked like a Maltese. The local rescue lady was going to pick him up later in the week and bring him to San Carlos.
In the meantime, Bliss wanted me to see this smaller and sickly female. Susan and I met her and Bliss convinced me to take her home for two days until I could see the other dog. She came from a private shelter in Empalme owned by a lady named Matty Parra who rescues dogs. She currently has 160 to feed and relies 100% on donations. What an angel.I took this when we got in the car at Bliss’s house. Mitzi was comfortable already. It was no more than two hours and I was in love and never did meet the other dog. We named her Mitzi. There was no doubt Mitzi would be an extra special pet by how direct her gaze was and her calmness. Bliss had had her groomed and clipped the day before and had all the ticks removed as well as taken her to a veterinarian. She had close to 100 tick and insect bites on her back and neck as well as tick fever and kennel cough. We don’t know what mix of breed she is but I am curious. She doesn’t shed and she knew to do her business outside. I took her to the vet again and she looked at her teeth and saw that some molars were only partially in. She put her age at 10 months. For the first month Mitzi ate and ate and gained 1 1/2 pounds. She is 11 pounds now and not too big or too little.She didn’t bark one bark the first three weeks and Steve kept saying she must have been debarked. But once she was comfortable enough to be a co-owner of this house she has become a nice little protective dog without being an obnoxious barker. I should have named her Houdini because any time we leave her at home she manages to take her harness off and then puts it on my bed. I did find out later that Mitzi had been surrendered to Matty by a man whose wife had become very ill and he thankfully realized that Mitzi was being neglected.
have been very rough but it’s getting better now. We finally received our permanent residency three days ago and will never need to go to the immigration office again. Our exit document had to be stamped leaving and entering Mexico and that was an ordeal in itself. Thousands of Mexican Americans travel south in December and the lines at the immigration office are long. We waited in line 1.5 hours leaving and 3.5 hours entering Mexico.
And that’s just the Mexican side. American customs agents made us get out of the RV and thoroughly searched it including the engine compartment. We regularly read about stupido gringos who try to smuggle drugs into the US in their RV. We have been through this before and I am getting used to having a border policeman chat me up with lots of friendly questions while the others search. I think they are looking for nervousness or a lie.
We made the drive to Tucson two weeks ago and stayed at De Anza RV Resort in Amado about 35 miles south of Tucson. It’s expensive but most RV parks have raised their prices sky high the past few years and De Anza is about the nicest park we have ever stayed in, as far as commercial parks go. Our very favorite park overall is Catalina State Park in Oro Valley but it’s impossible to get a site during the winter unless reservations are made well in advance. Our doctors have all been in that far northwest part of Tucson but now we are changing doctors to get as far south as we can.
De Anza RV Resort is immaculate, quiet, and has so many amenities that we never have time to enjoy.Santa Catalina Mountains view from the Catalina State Park Campground
Nothing went right in Tucson. I had ordered a new camera lens for pickup at a locker and Amazon returned it three days before my expiration date of pickup. We were actually driving to the locker when I got the notification.
There was not one single Apple laptop in stock in all of Tucson. That means there is incompatibility between my phone and laptop and I can’t access my blogging site on my laptop nor the pictures that I take with my phone. It really stinks that Apple does this. It happened the first week of October. I am hoping laptops are in stock the end of January when we go back up for the never ending doctor appointments.
When we returned to San Carlos the visits to immigration began again. One person there had told us to come back for fingerprinting and so we did the usual take a number and wait. But no, the new supervisor said we have to wait for an email that never came. Long story short, we drove almost two hundred miles round trip to the immigration office in Hermosillo and walked out permanent residents.
But one enormous bonus to all of the hours waiting at the immigration office is that I met a well known woman named Rosa who helps North Americans with administrative matters. I told her about the iffy situation of taking the RV south of the free zone and she guaranteed that we could because we have a 10 year permit and it’s valid no matter our status now. And just to be sure, she went to the agency in charge of vehicle permits, Banjercito, and they confirmed her answer to me was correct. Fingers crossed that we will go south about February 1st.
I will leave you now with one of our phenomenal winter sunsets. I have so very many pictures to show you in the future.
Wanderlets 