Valentine’s Day

I am writing this by candlelight. The power goes out about twice a day for a few hours sometimes. So best to have your candles ready. Mags is eating grapes and trying to blow out the candles, saying, “wow, cool!”

We had another busy day. Fill up the dog’s water and food bowls outside of our house, breakfast, cows, rickshaw, grocery store, pool and then off to Jessica and Andrew’s for a play date. Mags fell asleep on the floor within 10 minutes of getting home.

We’re moving to Joseph’s tomorrow for 2 weeks. We don’t want to move, but Mags is doing well on a routine and our roommates come home tomorrow. They are working on a big project and like to practice their music during Mag’s nap time, so we’ll get out of their hair for a bit. Our rickshaw driver, Swami, is coming at 10:30 to haul all of our crap up there. It’s about 6 blocks from here and about 3 blocks from the shala. We have the whole downstairs of a house now, so we are losing a bit as we’ll have a bedroom with a shared bathroom down the hall. Luckily we won’t be sharing at this time as we are the only ones there now.

One of our other stops today was to the Gokulam vet. Really nice guy. We talked about the homeless dog situation and he has been so kind as to offer to spay and nueter the homeless dogs for 1000 rupees each. That is about $21. A few of the yoginis have offered to take up collections and help with getting the dogs into the vet and watching over them for 3 days after the surgery. I figure we can maybe get to about 12 -15 in a month. Maybe the great Indian deities will shine upon us and we can get more than that done.

Why have a I taken this on? Well, 1) they are literally starving to death and 2) I found out yesterday that Gokulam’s animal population control is to find the puppies and the moms and poison them. My friend, Jessica, has lived in an apartment building 1/2 block down for the past year. She said puppies were crying at nite in their complex, so “someone” comes by, finds them, takes them away and poisons the pups and their moms. I am very saddened by this as I am pretty sure the mom was one that we had been feeding. She is sweet, literally skin and bones and very shy. Her pic is on my Facebook page. January/February is puppy season here and every year this is how they control the population. There’s a reason for everything and that I believe this is my dharma and why I am here. This is my yoga off the mat.

We skyped Ray this morning to wish him a Happy Valentine’s day. I miss him so much and wish he was here with us. He seems a bit sad and lonely and I keep saying please just get on a plane and come out. I keep hoping he does.

We’re off to bed now with candles in hand. Sunday is led class and not Mysore, so I have to be at the shala at 5:25 to not have to practice next to the toilet. I also have to get the sanskrit cowels and consonants from the shala wall as my homework is due Monday for class. Happy Vday!