The week of Ayo

For many years we have had dogs, first there was Charlie in 1991, our giant Bernese Mountain dog and then we got Sam, our Polish golden retriever. Sam passed away April 3rd this year at the respectable age of 14,5 years. We were at peace with it, nevertheless the house feels very empty without a dog. We weren't sure whether we wanted to have a dog in our life again or not. Rob and I are together now, so we can go anywhere we want, whenever we want.

With a dog you have to find a place where he can stay. To cut a long story short a little doggie was abandoned after a baby arrived. He was not longer welcome in this family, weird but unfortunately true. I already read about it in a Lagos WhatsApp group, but this week Marleen told me the whole story and I decided to have a look at this poor dog.

I went on Thursday with Ali my driver, and Ali was totally in love with this little white fluffy terrier called Mylo and  so was I. Now Rob, due to his length, is not a fan of small dogs, that is why on Friday I decided to take Glory and her daughter Elisabeth as well. We saw Rob at the compound and he thought what the heck………he smiled and said that this was an anniversary gift. The next day, September 1st was our 28th wedding anniversary, what a special gift. I married the best man on the planet! The guard of the compound took care of Mylo for the last three weeks. I wanted to give him some money, because he of course had made some expenses and he does not have a lot money. Marleen and I asked the guard what he wanted to have and without a blink he said 250.000 Naira. This is 610 euro. The dog wasn’t even his dog, he had guts to ask for so much money. I told him 25.000 Naira is maximum what I wanted to pay, this became 30.000 Naira in the end. He didn’t know what to do, but Marleen told him , "now you let this dog go to a new home, you take this money, that’s a lot of money. If you won’t accept the money, you’ll keep the dog, but he’s then not allowed at this compound anymore. Give the dog’s pasport and give the dog to the lady otherwise you have a much bigger problem". She was crystal clear! And so we drove home with our new 1,5 years old "West Highland White Terrier" or something like this breed, not sure what "brand" he really is. It's not important.

Yinka, Ali and Rob were chatting about names; they came up with the idea of a local name. There are more than 200 languages in Nigeria and many tribes have their own language. The biggest tribe in Nigeria is Yoruba, then you have Igbo and third biggest is Hausa. You also have local Pidgin English in Nigeria, this is a mixture of English and I don’t know what….. Ali said Tani, this is a name they give to street dogs, it means "what is his name?" Rob liked Ayo, this means happiness. I liked Cooper, because he came from Cooper road. After a night sleep we gave him the names Ayo Cooper, we use only Ayo, it’s also most similar as Mylo.

How is Ayo doing, in one word GREAT! He’s cute, he can dance on two legs, his hair is a mess, just like my hair I learned on Facebook. On Saturday we bought him his little bed, some toys, food, and a  new leach. He sleeps next to my bed and he follows us everywhere. It’s a delight to have a dog in the house again.