A Dog Day of Summer (We found the ocean)

Today began as the most perfect day of the trip. Even weather-wise, and even with the outcome of the day... still a great day.

I let myself sleep in, didn't set an alarm and slept gloriously. I've had my window open since I've been here and I love falling asleep a bit chilly, so it's nice. I went to mass by myself and it was so nice to be alone. the mass was quite possibly the most pleasant I've been to. American Catholics have it all wrong.. they draw the mass out and blowbag, they drive the point home way too much. Don't get me wrong, there was still some whisper singing, but it wasn't bad. I heard that at the earlier mass there is a huge choir that's even better.

The priest was so cool and his homily made me cry. After mass I shook his hand, but I really wanted to give him a hug. I only felt like a stupid tourist once... when the Our Father was spoken in Irish, rather than American.

After mass, my roommates and I took the 3 km walk to Salthill, which is Galway's beach area. On the way there, a nice scrappy border collie befriended us. At first we thought he was with a man, but we soon discovered that he was either lost or a stray. The way he zipped and meandered in and out of traffic made me think that he was a long way from his home. And the image of him getting on a bus and making the trek to Galway made me laugh out loud.

He was kind of following us, in an urban, but small area/street. Everytime someone new came, he went and sniffed them out, but returned to us. Then would promptly zip in and out of traffic some more. At one point he nearly got hit, another time he entered a pub and came out slightly swerving.

I make light of this, but it was truly a sad event. After he followed us for about a half a mile, we named him Paddy. We named him Paddy because it was a nice irish name, could work for a girl or a boy, and because as my roommate Katie realized, he/she responded better to Paddy than he did Woofy. We thought that Paddy most be a guy because only a guy dog would be stupid to keep almost getting hit by cars and keep running into traffic. But Paddy didn't have a weiner.

After a couple near misses of tires screeching, Paddy crouching in fear, he/she was hit by a car. We all saw it coming, everyone but me looked away. A couple people on the street paused, but no one really did anything. Katie cried, the rest of us stood around like stunned idiots and Paddy made the saddest whimpering sound I have ever heard. He/she stumbled over to the side of the street she was headed to and tried to walk more, but couldn't. Katie ran to someone's door for help and I, doing the smart thing, reached out to touch the injured and shaking animal...


later I knew this wasn't smart, because hurt dogs bite and act out to defend themselves. Plus he was a street dog and could have rabies...






Paddy didn't bite me.




She sniffed my hand. She had no tag, just a collar. She had something written on it, but we couldnt decipher it. We thought it might be the area code to the start of a phone number, but we couldn't find any matching area codes in Ireland. So we think Paddy might be from Scotland. Like us, Paddy was a tourist. We could have easily have been hit by that car. My roommate, Dianna, said after the fact that we should get a camera to put around Paddy's neck, and I suggested a fanny pack... just so locals would know Paddy was a tourist and to be nicer. But this was all after the fact.

At the time, Katie went and got help from a nice lady who brought water for Paddy. And me, Dianna, and Carrie stood around like stunned idiots. The worst part about the situation was the person who hit him didn't stop. We yelled at them and called them bad names but they kept going.

Of course it was a Sunday, so no vets were open and the ISPCA wasn't answering either, but the nice lady called a vet on call who was birthing a calf but would call her back. So, the nice lady, feeling bad for us and Paddy locked up her house, brought a chair over and read the newspaper with paddy... both legs broken, to wait for the vet. This incident both negatively and positively affected my view on mankind. the nice lady restored it, the jag off and all the people who didn't do anything did not. They must've never had a pet.

Along our way to the beach we knocked on the door of a closed vet, the vet came to the door and said he'd try to stop by. He didn't seem to care about Paddy, even thought it was his job to.

The beach was nice, and the weather was perfect. Sunny, 75 degrees and no humidity! Still stunned, we walked along the ocean and back to the city center of Galway. It would be easier if they called it downtown Galway. We took in some landmarks, had some fish and chips and the famous McDougnah's. I don't even like fish, but I ate it and it was good. Except we had to pay extra for the ketchup.

Then we headed home, did our prospective reading, and drank some cider out in a meadow.
No joke.

Well, I am off for some pretty intense reading, but it's all good. It doesn't get dark here until midnight, so I have all the time in the world.

Poor Paddy Cakes.