Pets

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the pets

The nights are cool here, but not freezing yet.  I got busy with the chainsaw that Jhampa brought us, and cut up most of the firewood I collected in the spring.  I have a good supply now, enough to take the chill off the coldest nights, but not enough to be self-indulgent. Guy's visit has been pushed back a month. Jhampa tells me that Armando will be coming, but I have no idea when.  I wrote Armando and asked him to call me the day before, so I am sure to be here and not in Durango.  I'm going to work with him to find a good plumber.  He seems to have better access to the tradesmen in Canatlan. The leaky pipe from the water tank is getting worse again.  That whole piece needs to be replaced. Our neighbor to the right has two horses he uses for plowing.  One is a jackass, kinda wild.  We enjoyed having the horses foraging our fields for the past couple of months, but Juan moved the horses out when I told him I think they are finished cleaning up the place; I didn't look for them. I suppose they were down by the river.  But yesterday they were back again.  Blacky is in our field tied to Juan's fence, with not much to nibble on underfoot.  Jacky is roaming, having better luck at finding fodder.  Blacky was clearly happy to see me, whinnying until I went to him for a talk. I had an entourage. I picked up Peanut from Sylvia's on Thursday morning after returning from Ben's wedding in Georgia, as you know.  She was in heat.  The black dog had waited for her the full five days, as far as I could tell, and he got first crack at her.  The next door neighbor Lalo's two big dogs also took up vigil, hoping against hope.  Soon the house was in full siege. They jump up on the doors and windows to keep an eye on the object of their lust.  Peanut is no longer free to roam and romp as she used to.  I carry her in my arms to the car and take her up the farm road.  The small black dog follows us afoot, but the other two do not.  She runs freely there.  I let him mount her a few times, but not anymore.  I think the deed is done.  We'll have puppies between Christmas and New Years.  My clothes take a toll.  The big ones jump up on me while I carry her to the car, and tear my clothes, and muddy them if there's been any moisture.  I do a lot of laundry these days. Even when she remains in the house, they follow me.  Now that her desire has wanted somewhat, I walk her on a short leash here on our land, and carry a four-foot long pole.  When she needs privacy I swing the stick 360°, until she is done.  It keeps them at bay.  Gradually I am letting the three of them get closer to them.  She wags her tail and enjoys ‘kissing’ them.  But as soon as one gets close to her tail, I poke them with the stick. I had to turn to the internet to find hope.  How long will this last?  How long is gestation?  The answers were vague and conditional, but I take comfort where I can.  It could last a few days to 21, but the average is 12.  Okay, seven down, five to go.  Actually, I think she is coming out of it.  She no longer seems so eager to receive the males.  Gestation is nine weeks, which brings us to the end of December.  At least I know that the puppies have only one father, so they won't be so varied.  I don't know how that effects size of litter. This is all an experiment, a learning experience.  She'll be spayed after this.  I have midwifed many kittens (and a couple of puppy litters too, but only the delivery phase), so I was curious to round out my midwifing experience with domestic animals. I am slowly putting in a bed of alfalfa.  I've removed the corn stalks from the 6 by 8 ft plot.  Next I will till and level it.  Apparently November is the month to seed alfalfa, so I'll get it done.  Then we can have green smoothies.  You might look up some recipes for healthy drinks, and join in.  Here they like alfalfa and cucumber mixes.  Yummy on a hot hot day!  I want to have seeds for alfalfa sprouts, but YouTube videos tell me they are very hard to collect, being very small.  Still I have to try.  I think I mentioned that alfalfa is a perenniel crop, so we can cut it and it keeps coming back.  The horses will like hands full of that; easier to keep on hand than carrots. Would you believe, some animal likes to eat peat moss!  That 55 lb  bale had been broken into, and an eighth of it was gone.  I thought it was the horses, but I checked the next day and more had been eaten and the horses are gone.  I repackaged it and stored it more securely. The rototiller blade got bent, I don’t know how.  I had it straightened, and now I can do the last tilling of the peach ‘orchard’ (if 12 young trees constitute an orchard), and the alfalfa plot. It is pleasant working on these cool days, although the sun can still be intense at midday. Peanut seems a bit stir crazy, so I’ve opened the front door (and locked the screen door) so she can visit with her entourage a little. She sits there, in the pool of sunlight, still casting pleading eyes my way.  Just another week, Sweetheart; hold on.

Retire to Mexico

It's been a long time in silent exile.  Maybe not long to you, since I am out of mind, but for me counting the hours, days, weeks, months without familiar social interaction, three years since arriving here has seemed like forever; a lifetime.  A prolonged time of waiting for the other shoe to drop, as I try to build a home in a wilderness..

Once again we have arrived at rainy season.  It is late this year.Some crops have failed, including my own experiment in farming, a crop of oats.  My fields are green with weeds.

I had been chronicling since arriving here three years ago.  I have profiled for you a number of the most familiar local characters.  I was waiting to polish each one before posting it.  Two years of writing about Mexico have vanished, digital code wiped away by computer malfunction.  Three more years of the book on my bakery experience, plus all the files of recipes from the bakery, all gone.  The Cosmos is telling me I am not to bother my silly head with authoring a book. No one cares about my quirky life; it is just one of millions.

Two years ago the rain was so plentiful that the flat bridge that crosses our 'river' at the entrance to our village was overflowing with maybe two feet of water.  Villagers have to cross that bridge to get to the highway and the bus stop.  The old people hung back, waiting and hoping for a kind neighbor to stop their truck and offer a lift the twenty feet across.  The river was swift and scary.  This year, in spots across our valley the creek has dried up completely.  The driest I have seen it yet.

I came here to join a community of meditators, others following the path of Buddhist compassion and lovingkindness.  No one else got the vision; I am alone.  The village is about two kilometers away from the tiny village of El Pozole.    I am in the midst of orchards and pasture land.  My companions are the birds,  dogs, cats, horses.

One dog in particular is worth remembering.  She died only yesterday.  Petunia is mostly pit bull.  A guy tried to foist her onto me, as just the protection I needed on my isolated farm. He had found her in the street all skin and bones, and 'rescued' her.  But he was not interested in adopting her. She is a kind, gentle, affection playful senior of 8 years.  As much as I loved having her around, she saw the place my little Maltese mix had in the home.  The little one sits on my lap, goes in the car with me everywhere, is generally pampered.  And so Petunia tries to climb on my lap, when I am sitting in my recliner watching TV.  One night she came home with a lame hind leg; we never discovered the nature of it.  It could be a sprain, or arthritis, or who knows.  It makes it harder for her to climb up onto the recliner. At 55 pounds, she makes a large impact on my small home.  She tracks mud in, jumps on blankets, rubs against clothes, causing more laundry and mopping.  After about a year, the limp equally mysteriously disappeared.

She is a vagabond, a nomad.  There is a home in the village that maintains kibble for her.  This home is the home to a number of dogs; people bring their puppies to Sylvia.  She always finds homes, except when her own kids or grand kids adopt the puppy. Petunia would lie in the sun in front of the house.  She would protect the little dogs against the big digs.  She is very protective.

She would roam.  Across the street from Sylvia is a house being renovated.  In this village family properties are in clusters, so the three houses across the street belonged to her three aunts, only one of whom is still alive.  One empty house is being renovated by a son-in-law of the deceased sister.  He lives in LA.  He is an alcoholic, a retired person who never quite grew up emotionally, being the pampered youngest child of a large brood.  He escapes from an unhappy marriage by coming to El Pozole many months at a time, supposedly to remodel the house.  When his wife comes to visit her cousins for a few weeks a year, she is sad at how he has destroyed her childhood home.  These two love Petunia, and try to care for her when they are around.  Petunia feels adrift.  She comes to me for chats, and to just lie unmolested in the sun.

About a year ago she had an ulcerated mammary.  After Jose returned to LA, I took her to the vet.  He cut the mammary.  He also took out her uterus, saying that we were dealing with cancer and that the cancer originated in the uterus.

Last week Petunia came to me to show me her wound.  An ulcer had erupted, between nipples.  As soon as she came in the door, after looking me dolefully in the eye, she laid down and showed me her wound.  It was leaking like a sieve.  Blood was pouring out.  I cleaned it up, tried to bandage it, put antibiotic cream on it, but it bled all night soaking through her bed.  I took her back to Jose and Marisela and suggested they get medical attention.

Later in the day we texted; they said they had an appointment three days away.  I was beside myself with this news; I saw it as an emergency.  But I do not have the money for Petunia's care; this couple from California does.  I was helpless to intervene.  When the appointment came I went with Jose to keep the appointment.  It was a new vet; Jose said it was a cousin.  We waited an hour.  We phoned. There was no vet.  The phone number written on the wall was a Durango number.  I suggested that perhaps the vet's main practice was in Durango, and he came to Canatlan certain days.  From long experience with Jose I know that he is about the worst communicator I have ever known, one of those who talks but doesn't listen.

We went to the vet who did the cutting a year earlier.  The qualified vet was not there; only his father was in attendance.  He cleaned up the wound and sewed it up. I was startled when a spurt of blood came from the wound.  At this point we were still thinking that Petunia had impaled herself on barbed wired; this spurt made me question that scenario.  We were yet to learn that the cancer was still active inside her.

A few days later they texted me that they were taking Petunia down to town to have the ulcer cut out.  I texted back, "Get a second opinion" 

Within the hour we were in my car headed to Durango.  We found a vet.  He explained that she probably needed a complete mastectomy on the right side of her body.  To ensure that it would not spread further (we had no measure of how widespread the cancer was) she would need chemotherapy. To do nothing would be to allow the cancerous ulcer to grow until it killed her.  It was just a matter of time, and a lot of pain.  Because Petunia is a quiet dog, using barking only to communicate to dogs, not to humans, the humans presumed she was in no pain.  But when she would visit me she would look into my eyes for minutes at a time, trying to tell me about it.  Our choices were to spend hundreds of dollars on a now nine year old dog, in a situation where she could not get adequate hospice care given her nomadic ways; let the disease take its course until she died; or a mercy killing.

I held my own counsel and let them talk it through.  I knew it would be easy to find a gun back in the village, and quickly dispatch the situation.  Jose was of the same mind, but Marisela was in tears thinking of the dog's termination by whatever means. 

The next day Petunia was put to sleep in Canatlan.  Early in the day I visited them to drop something off they had left in the car.  Jose tried to persuade me to come with him.  The job did not need the two of us, he was a chicken.  Marisela was no better.  I offered to take her on my own, but Jose did not like that.  It is just as well, because I had a lot of work to do on my farm.  I said my goodbyes to her, and that is the last I will see of my good friend Petunia.

Because of the topography, I guess, there is no cell service in homes.  If someone wants to use their phone they must go outside into the dirt street.  This prevents me from developing closer relations to the other seniors in the village.  No casual chatting by phone.  None of them drive, so none has ever been out here to visit me, or see what a house I have built.

The exception is Berta, but she is worthy of her own story.

I did eventually manage to get a wifi box from TelCel, the main cell provider in Mexico.  Through that I get to watch Netflix and Prime Video.  I also have a satellite, dish, that dishes up old movies and old NCIS.  I see adds for Bull, but this shows after I have gone to bed.

I am so desperate for companionship that I have continued to talk to my boyfriend in Chongqing, China to come live with me.  He is a city guy; he would be miserable isolated on the farm. He would also have to give up all his government pension and benefits.  He professes his undying love for me, but is no fool.  He would treat me well if I moved there.  It is tempting.

My home is beautiful and comfortable.  I have a guest bedroom and bath.  In a narrow valley being bordered on the east and west by hills, the views can be breathtakingly beautiful.

Exiled in Paradise

Mexico permanent resident visa process

I write this because during the process of obtaining permanent residency in Mexico, I have relied on the internet to inform me of what I need to do.There is a lot of information out there, yet it failed me in the end.  Blame it on my poor internet skills, if you will, or because I enter the country by car instead of by plane.  What follows is the process I followed.

Caveat:I have only crossed at Laredo and El Paso.   Each of them have a few bridges, some are more suitable for passenger cars than commercial trucks.

Driving across the border is effortless.  At certain times of day the line is long, at other times it is only an hour.  The Mexicans ask for no papers.  As a tourist, one has permission to stay six months.

Problem is, no one stamps your passport when you drive across. 

You have to park your car and go inside a building to get your passport stamped.  At Juarez/El Paso the road  at the entrance to the border is short, narrow and crooked.  There is a yellow building on the left, with its own indoor parking lot.

At Laredo/Nuevo Laredo there is a very busy government building with a large parking lot, that deals with many services.  Your car needs a permit to enter the country.  This is where you obtain it, and get your passport entry stamp.

I suppose once you have your resident permit, this is where the paperwork is processed for 'importing' your car.

My car (2002 VW Passat in great shape) was too old; it was undesirable by the Mexican government.  I could continue to renew its permit year by year, but I could never get rid of the American license plates, which act as a red flag to the local police seeking 'morditos', bribes.

Any cursory search reveals that you cannot apply for a residence visa from inside the Mexican borders.  The application must be submitted at 'your local Mexican consulate'.  [Since I moved from China to Mexico I had no locale; I went to the consulates in Texas.]

The requirements are simple.  Bring along two passport photos. and your bank statements for six or twelve months  Laredo asked for six, Austin asked for twelve.  If you are receiving a social security pension, you receive an annual notice at the beginning of the year telling you how much you are receiving, net.  Make sure you make one photocopy of this. You must demonstrate that you have enough money to support yourself.  It is supposedly based on the average salary of a worker in Mexico City.  You can find this information online fairly easily.  I will try to include links here at the end. I think a savings or investment account showing $20,000 should be enough.  Print out the summary page, all six or twelve months.  Not necessary to make copies.

Now you need to make your appointment.  I found this to be the hardest part of the entire process.  If you live near the consulate, in Austin it is easy to walk in and make an appointment for the following week.  In Laredo, not so easy.  Laredo is a small office with overworked staff.  Austin, by comparison, seems empty.  In Austin there is a receptionist at the entrance, who will direct you to the window you want.  I'm guessing it is easier to find someone on duty in their office in the afternoon, rather than at the 8 a.m. opening.

On the internet you will be given a phone number to call to make an appointment.  This seems like a waste of time.  The person answering the phone says that she can only make an appointment for someone seeking a Mexican passport.  She says she cannot help you if you are seeking a visa.  Yet at the Laredo office they gave me that number and said 'everyone here' got their appointment that way. (It is probably true that 90% of those present were seeking a Mexican passport, but he overlooked that detail).

That Mexican office, in Mexico City, is listed under MexiTel.

However it is that you obtain your interview, the visa should be issued and placed in your passport within hours.  No need to sweat the interview; just have your papers ready.  It is conducted in English, of course.

Now, with this passport visa you have six months to enter the country.

Once you have entered the country, you have thirty days to present it to your local Instituto Nacional de Migracion, commonly called the Migracion Office.

You should arrive with a filled out form (printed from the internet), the INM formato basico**.
The photos you need are tiny, called 'infantil, 2.5 x 3 cm , two front view and one profile.  Once you have shown your passport, they will print out a form you must take to a bank to pay the fee.  At the moment, temporary resident pays pesos $4,148 MXN.  The permanent residence costs pesos $5,056 MXN.  Depending on the exchange rate, it is somewhere around  .  US$200 ~$250.

Where I made my mistake was when I crossed the border, I forgot to get out of the car and enter a building to get my passport stamped.  Technically I crossed the border and had 30 days to register near my Mexican home.  But actually, because the passport was not stamped at the point of entry, I still have six months to drive back to the border and get it stamped.

For the Permanent Residency the process is the same at the local Migracion office.  I fill out the INM formato basico, bring photos, run out to the bank to pay, and return with the receipt. 

That local office will email you when the residence card has been issued.  The first time, two emails arrived on the same day.  One was to confirm that I had submitted my application, the second was to inform me that my card was ready.  I did not read the second one closely, just assumed it was a duplicate confirmation, and waited a month before going back to ask where my card was.  They greeted me with, "Oh, there you are!  We were wondering when you come in to get this."

This time I will be more conscientious in reading my emails.

Once you have either temp or perm residence card, you can deal with TelCel to get the better phone and internet deals.  You can open a bank account in your name, so that you can wire yourself money.  You present it at the medical facility when you have medical needs.

Your CURP number is printed on that card.  However, you still need to go to a local government office to geta peice of paper identifying your CURP.  I don't understand that, someone did it for me.

With a temp residency, you cannot get the senior discount on bus travel.  You need the permanent one for that. 

To register with DIF it is difficult but not impossible as a temporary.  You must go to the local mayor's office, to the Secretary of the town, and request an ID card.  With that you might be able to register with DIF Desarollo de Integracion de la Familia.  If you are living on the margin financially, there are certain benefits you can receive.  No problem registering with the permanent visa, I think.

The very amiable official at my local Migracion office told me that with the permanent status I would have all rights and privileges same as a Mexican.  He said I could vote, but other literature I've read said that is not included.  I only mention that because when trying to maneuver in public spaces, like registering a car or subscribing to Satellite TV, I am asked for my IFE.  That is the voting card.  I have registered my new car and subscribed to TV without it.

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to try to obtain an appointment by phone, for a Mexican Consulate in the US, you will be sent to this site and given a phone number. The Laredo Consulate offers this site on a handout.: https://mexitel.sre.gob.mx  I have found that using contact information given online by your local consulate is pretty useless.  No one answers the phone, no one answers the emails.

This is the official instructions for obtaining a residence visa.  https://www.gob.mx/tramites/ficha/expedicion-de-documento-migratorio-por-canje/INM811
This page has a link for you to apply online; it would not work for me.

This one is for Mexicans only: https://www.gob.mx/tramites

This page offers information to foreigners interested in living in Mexico
https://consulmex.sre.gob.mx/montreal/index.php/en/foreigners/visa  
Even though it is for Canadians, I think most information applies to US citizens as well.