Art of Conservation welcomes GOLDIE to our Sunday morning kid’s class.

Goldie, a Vizsla, accompanied Dr. Magdalena and her daughter Kasia to Nyabigoma Primary School to help share with the kids the importance of being kind to animals and how to care for domesticated dogs.

(In my limited command of Kinyarwanda, Rwanda’s national bantu-based language, one of the first things I insisted on being able to express was…
BE KIND TO DOGS, BANIRA NEZA IMBWA.)

My two dogs, Umulinzi and Ibyiza, are almost as well behaved as Goldie, although my friends may not necessarily agree!

The regional headquarters of Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project
(Art of Conservation’s partner) is located in Ruhengeri/Musanze Town and is often the recipient of stray dogs and/or puppies that have been snatched from new litters born from the surrounding population of feral dogs. The vets spay and neuter the dogs that show up and try to find homes for them. I am impressed with Dr. Asuka Takita’s (Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit) vaccination work she does in Trans Mara. I wish her continued success - and lots of luck getting her car!

Valerie translates for Goldie…and Dr. Magdalena.

Most of the kids are frightened of Goldie, although they do not scream and run like I’ve witnessed many times before. I’d say perhaps 5 out of the 50 children felt comfortable to pet the dog at the beginning of class.

So as Dr. Magdalena speaks about how she treats an ill dog, I invite any child who is willing to come up and sit next to Goldie and touch her.

We hear gasps from the kids as Dr. Magdalena shows how Goldie acquiesces to getting her teeth checked and, when need be, allowing the doctor to place a tablet deep in her mouth for her to swallow. Yes, I’ll have to work on that one with my dogs.

I rarely see domesticated dogs in people’s compounds here in the Northern Province of Rwanda. On a few occasions I saw children running down a path with a dog. The kids carrying a stick. I asked my friends what was happening and they suggested the kids and the dog were ‘hunting’ perhaps for small rabbits. I also recall seeing dogs in pre-colonial monochrome photographs displayed at the National Museum of Rwanda in Butare. The dogs are seen surrounded by the royal families of the time.

Towards the end of class, we clearly see a wonderful comaraderie between the children and Goldie!

During the night, with Umulinzi and Ibyiza next to me, we often awaken to the feral dog’s howling in the dark distance. Before settling back to sleep and assuring my dogs that we are OK, I contemplate on the sobering matter of feral dog populations and also the gut ache I get with the thought of people being horrible to dogs. We should have the compassion to treat other people and all animals with mutual respect and mutual consideration.

I’ll be sharing a lot more about my two pooches, Umulinzi and Ibyiza, but for now here they are at home with Phocas, one of their best friend’s who is part of the house staff of Art of Conservation. Phocas and many of the neighborhood children take the dogs for walks every day. Just mention the word PROMANADE, (to go for a walk in French) and Umulinzi and Ibyiza race to the gate and wait to get their leashes on and then step out into the neighborhood!

Until next time,
Julie

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