Two Stinky Pilgrims (and a way to help)

Wow! Money really IS the hot-button issue! I have never had a blog entry with more response. Maybe I should shift my focus. Forget about dogs and foggy mornings and fiestas, and keep on about the decline and fall of the donativo?

But no. I love my foggy mornings way too much. And fundamentally, money is boring.

Speaking of Hot Buttons, look at the column to the right of these words. After much consideration I have now installed a PayPal button, for your consideration. You can help us feed pilgrims and other strays if you like, using the currency or credit card of your choice. Please note we are NOT a registered charity, we have not met any official standard of honesty or accounting excellence, and you cannot write off your donations on your tax form. (not that you can´t try.) Your contribution may be used to buy anything ranging from lentils, wine, manure, truck tires, a roof, or a new leg for a busted cat. Just so you know.

Since I wrote the last blog Patrick and Kim and I have had a very thoughtful week. We read every bit of posted advice carefully, and discussions are ongoing. A beautiful (and BIG) Donativo box was done-up and duly installed in a prominent spot in the kitchen, "salted" from the outset with a 50-Euro note. We´ve had a few pilgrims since, and we´ve told them up front this is not a free house, that they´re expected to put money in the box or contribute some labor or other commodity. And so they´ve done. We won´t get rich this way, but we won´t feel completely exploited, either. And those who don´t have money have donated some other interesting things:  a kilo of lentils is my favorite, exchanged for a cup of coffee and a muffin. (No, he did not put the lentils in the donativo box.)
"This is your food," I told the guy. "You could eat this for a week!"
"It weighs a kilo," he replied. "Got to lighten my pack."

Can´t argue with that. And we like lentils. These are super fine ones, too, from Pardiña. Divine Providence.

The most interesting pilgrims we´ve hosted this week are two starving runaways Una found this morning in a drainage ditch. We took them home and set them up in the kitchen, where they don´t mind sleeping on the floor. They curl in on themselves, their bones all angled out like a game of Pick-Up Stix. They stink worse than any pilgrim I ever smelled before, but I am not ready to send them to the shower yet. They´re just too scared and cold.

They are a pair of galgos, brindle greyhound dogs, probably lost last week from a hare-hunting party. They´ve been drifting ´round the villages and along the highway for days, looking more and more skinny each time they´re seen. Today, on our morning walk, Una rousted them out of their hiding place, and the littlest one let herself be caught and collared. The big one followed along when we walked home.
These are beautiful, elegant dogs. But we already have two of those.
Paddy is smitten. This evening he hand-fed them rice and bread and boiled eggs, which they promptly puked back up. When I go to bed, I am directed to wake him up, so he can sleep downstairs and keep an eye on them.  Una and Tim aren´t sure about all this. They are keeping a distance. Murphy is shut in the barn. (I understand that Greyhounds love cats. For lunch.)
Stray dogs have washed up before on our shore, so we know what to do. The Guardia Civil officer came this afternoon, and said he´ll send a special wildlife agent round tomorrow to see if The Girls have ID microchips. If no owner can be found, we can keep them. Or hand them over to Esteban the Mayor for "disposal." Yikes.

All this and three Italian guys moving in on Friday,  so work can begin on the new albergue. Two hospitalero trainees are also set up for Saturday, when I will try out all the new Federation hospitalero materials on them. I need a haircut. I need to put  my office in order. The writing project is coming right along -- I do it late at night, because it won´t let me sleep any more. (That is a good sign. Long as I get my afternoon nap.)

Thank you all for your kind support and advice. Next time you come and visit, you will see the outcomes.