The town of Luperón, as seen from Gringo Hill
Halloween this year fell on a Friday, one of the last days we were house sitting. We had been having problems with power for days, getting only anywhere from 2 to 6 hours in a 24 hour period. This was not really enough to keep the house battery bank charged, so we had been rationing our TV, internet and washing machine usage. Fortunately, throughout the day we managed to have enough to keep the water pump running, which kept the housekeeper happy.
One of the last things she does before leaving for the day is to sweep the “ranchito,” a deck with a corrugated metal roof next to the house. We saw her hurry from the ranchito to the house, very perturbed. She grabbed Gray and insisted that he come with her. He couldn’t make out much of her rapid-fire Dominican spanish, but the word “gato” (cat) was repeated several times. We hadn’t seen him since early in the morning, but that wasn’t unusual. The big 18 pound tabby typically only came around when he was hungry or wanted to come in from the rain. He was normally a bit shabby looking, having lost all of the fur off his hind end due to some sort of allergy. But what Gray found when he looked where the housekeeper was pointing was beyond shabby. The poor cat was laying under a chair, clearly in pain, with flies circling around him. A closer look revealed maggots digging into his inflamed bald legs. It is no exaggeration to say that we were almost as distressed as the cat!
We bundled the cat in towels and placed him in the old empty battery box. We quickly lined up a an appointment with Dr. Bob, the english-speaking veterinarian and Nino, the taxi driver. Since Nino has a hard time getting his taxi up the hill to the house, Gray drove to town and met him for the 90 minute long trip to the vet. The housekeeper left and Cindy settled in to man the phone, trying to reach the cat’s owner and fill her in on the situation.
One of the nice things about living on top of a hill is that you can see the weather approaching well in advance. While big black storm clouds gathered, Cindy took care of the chickens and brought the dogs in to the house. By this time, the power had failed completely – no TV, no lights, no water, no oven. Cindy gathered all of the candles and flashlights she could find and got ready for a dark and stormy night.
Goats lounge on the sidewalks of Luperón on a much drier day
Meanwhile, Gray and Nino had reached the vet. The vet said that even though the maggots were disgusting, they were not a big deal to fix. The vet technician went to work on the cat. First, he used a razor to shave the hair from around the wounds. Next, he picked the maggots out of the wounds with tweezers. Finally, he packed the wounds with gauze. The vet was more concerned about how the cat got the maggots than the maggots themselves. Usually cats groom themselves thoroughly enough that flies never get a chance to lay eggs in their wounds. Other animals, particularly cows and sheep, get maggots in almost every wound. Ick. The vet recommended that the cat stay in his clinic for some additional tests and to keep an eye on the wounds. Gray wholeheartedly agreed and left with Nino to get some groceries before making the trip back to Luperón.
The clouds were so heavy with rain, it got dark early. And then it rained. Hard. Cindy picked up her flashlight and read a book while the dogs shivered in a pathetic heap nearby. Around 7 the phone rang. It was Gray calling with his report.
The hard rain was not limited to Luperón. It hit Gray and Nino as they started back from Sosua. In Puerto Plata, the largish city between Sosua and Luperón, traffic was bad but not unexpectedly so for such a rainy day. Once they left Puerto Plata, the road conditions deteriorated rapidly. They passed fields that were under several feet of water and several flooded homes. Every bridge along the road was awash since the streams were all swollen above the level of the road. Several times, water leaked in around the door sills on Nino’s taxi. When they finally reached Luperón, Gray transferred his groceries and the cat carrier to the Burro Pass car and tried to make it up the hill. A large group of Dominicans told him to turn back since the bridge to the hill (not the hill itself) was impassable due to a flooding stream. Gray went to visit friends that lived on high ground and waited for the rain to subside. About 3 hours later, the stream was only about 2 feet above the level of the road. Gray watched tensely as another vehicle crossed the bridge without incident and then followed. Once he was over the bridge and climbing the hill, things were much smoother except for a few deep ruts carved by the water flowing down the hill. Gray and his groceries sloshed in around 10:30PM.
The bad weather really brought out the community to assist each other. Large groups of people were out in the streets to help with stuck cars, assist elderly people and children on their way to high ground, etc. Since government services are often very limited, the residents of the outlying communities really look out for each other.
Some time in the night the rain stopped. When we went to check the rain gauge, we found that it had overflowed. So there had been at least 5.5 inches of precipitation that night. If the water in Cindy’s rainboots that she left sitting outside is any guide, it was probably more like 8!
The power was still off, but there was nothing wrong with the car, so Gray drove down to the dock to bail out the dinghy and start another day of boat projects. The dinghy was full to the gunwales with rainwater. Unfortunately, this made it much less stable, as Gray found out when he reached his bucket down to start bailing. The dinghy flipped over, motor and all. Submerging the motor did nothing good for it, and Gray’s subsequent attempts at repairing it did even less. To make a long story short, we will be rowing the dinghy until we can get parts in Puerto Rico.
The story has a happy ending though – if you like cats. Kitty will be fine. The vet found that the infected wounds had been the result of a dog bite (probably not one of the house dogs – who knows where the cat goes on his evening rounds?) and were easily treated. The cat is now being coddled by his owner, safe at home on his hill.
–Cindy and Gray
