The Joys of Pets

Last week I posted “Somebody’s Sick, But Who?” which was about the mysterious blood splatters on our floor from one of the animals.  The mystery of which animal was sick took a couple days to figure, but in typical fashion my imagination of potential illnesses had been a bit extreme 😉

Turns out that our dog, Yeager, does not have cancer and the cats don’t have AIDS!  Yeager had a little cut on the side of his ear that no one had noticed. He kept scratching at it and every time he did it would reopen the cut and blood would get splattered on the floor from his fast foot scratching action.  So thankfully it didn’t even require the vet and our pets do not have incurable diseases 🙂

I heard on the radio the other day that pets can actually lower your blood pressure just by being around and making us happy.  My pets have given me some very good laughs over the years. I will never forget the time our old dog, Onyx, had gotten in the habit of jumping on top of the hot tub and chillin up there. Well one day my brothers and our friends were all in the hot tub and Onyx came running full speed from across the room and launched into the hot tub. Poor thing! He went face first into the hot water and the look on his face was priceless when he came up!  It was of complete and utter shock…haha! He never really liked going on top of the hot tub anymore after that.

Here are some great clips I found.  Hope they make you smile.

You don’t ever have to feel unloved with a talking dog like that 🙂

I love this cat conversation, neither of them would make the first move..haha!

This is the best cleaning crew that I have seen yet!

Have a great one,

Jessica

Coyote Card

Immigration in the U.S. is quite a hot topic lately and many people have strong opinions on the subject.  Being married to an immigrant I have gotten into many discussions about the matter and last night one came up.  At our friend Bernardo’s birthday party, my husband, Emmanuel, and I met a nice guy from the same state in Brazil as Emmanuel.  It just so happened that this guy also had lived in Virginia for several years, which is where I was born and most of my extended family still lives.  He is a veterinarian here in the U.S. and he shared with us a story about a wedding he went to in Virginia.

When he was doing his medical internship in Virginia he became really close friends with one of his American colleagues.  A few years later, his friend asked him to be the best man in his wedding party.  The bride-to-be was the daughter of a former mayor in Virginia and the wedding took place at a huge mansion with a well-to-do crowd.  During the reception, our new friend was enjoying himself at the party when two ladies approached him and the bolder of the two said, “We heard your accent.  You’re not from here, are you? Where are you from?” So, he told them that he’s from Brazil and that got him the response of “Oh, well what do you do here?”  When he told them that he was a veterinarian they both got a little wide eyed and said “Really?”

Now, it must be said that this could be seen as normal small talk between new acquaintances, however, the tone of voice and facial expressions used lent themselves to being interpreted as either someone with an “anti-foreigner” mentality or one who had never been around many foreigners to even consider the thought that they could be seen as rude.  Perhaps because he is a tall and handsome man who looks European they felt it more acceptable to be openly curious.

After a brief pause, one of the woman said, “So, you have a Green Card?”

Our friend smiled and said, “No, I have a Coyote Card.”

“A what?”

“A Coyote Card. You get it in Mexico when you pay the guys that escort you across the border in their van. When you get to the U.S. side of the border they give you your card and you have to run as fast you can.  When I made it without getting caught, I decided to come to Virginia because it’s well known that the people don’t like to work hard here. So, I came here and I worked hard and I became successful and I make a lot of money and I send it all back to Brazil to invest in my country.”

The ladies eyes got huge as saucers and their jaws dropped.  He gave a little laugh and said, “If you’ll excuse me ladies. It was nice to meet you.” With that he walked away.

I am still giggling about this story.  I can only imagine what those two women were thinking!

I am not a politician and maker of policy. I just think that every person has a unique story and cannot be simply placed within a simple categorization system.

But a little humor often helps to open peoples eyes to new things.

Cheers,

Jessica