Thoughts of a Procrastinator: India Opal, The Weasel? The Second Installment in a Sob Story About Dogs

So after the Buddy ordeal,

We moved back to Russia, this is 2005, only this time we moved to Krasnodar Russia, before this, we had been living in Moscow, the City of Always Winter Never Summer.

I came home from a friend’s house one day, and the first thing I’m asked to do when I walk in, is to go flush the toilet because my little 5 year old sister was still potty training and had forgotten. Groan, Cady and Aubrie grinned at me elfishly and giggled (yes elfishly, just play along ok?). And they all followed me as I trudged to the bathrooms, Why doesn’t she just flush it herself?!. I open the door, and there sliding all across the floor on wrinkled up paws is a little Dachshund, aka wiener dog. I've never been a very big fan of little dogs, what can I say, I like big dogs and I cannot lie. But this thing was still a puppy, absolutely precious.

And of course I wanted to name it coconut. Umm why, I don’t know, go back in time and ask 9 year old me. So after a big family discussion we all agreed to naming her India Opal, after the main character in a book I’d just read, Because of Winn-Dixie.... mom made me read the book before I could see the movie...up that's how it works in this family.

For the most part she was a joy…..that is until she decided to eat 3 bags of butterscotch chips, yes the lovely kind from America that you can NOT get in Russia. She threw up everywhere. Mom to this day cannot eat butterscotch anything.

I have this friend, and he used to call India, “My little weasel!” yeah I think he liked her…. I have to admit though in a way, the name fit. After all we did discover that she was also part Toy Terrier, the Babushka who sold her to us seems to have said purebred on accident, I’m sure.

We lived in a duplex, which meant that our landlord’s house was connected to ours, so we all shared the same yard. One day while us kids were outside on Plum Patrol (that’s another story) the landlord decided to let Genevieve off her chain, now she was a huge Saint Bernard. So my sisters and I are going crazy because we think that this mammoth of a dog is going to eat India. We are yelling our heads off, Cady is crying, and Genevieve is slowly meandering towards us. We’re flailing our hands about totally freaking out; the thought of running inside didn’t even cross our minds. Then dad runs out screaming, “WHO’S HURT?! WHAT HAPPENED?” Yeah, he’s standing there in his towel; apparently he had heard all the screaming from the shower and thought one of us had fallen off something and broken our neck. He wasn't too happy.

I used to make India dance, we could have started our own act, all you had to do was hold something edible over her head and she started dancing! Speaking of edible, once on Cady’s eighth birthday we set the cake a little too close to the side of the table, India managed to jump up there and eat half the cake…..Happy Birthday!

Before we were headed back to America, end of 2007, we were moving out of our second house in K-dar, another duplex. And a new American family, the Gardners, were moving in. So like a nice family we were showing them around and of course, the one day we have nice American guests who want to rent a nice none rat infested house, India does something obnoxious. She catches a dead rat, and places it in the middle of the carpet……

Wait maybe the cat did this….

I don’t really remember….

I just thought it was funny….

Anyhoo, to wrap things up, we went to America for what was to be a year, and a few months into it, we got an email saying that India was bit by a snake, her nose swelled up she couldn’t breathe, and soon after died. Yes, very sad. There were many noses being blown in our household that day….