In Bolivia, mangy street dogs roamed the streets in abundance. Like Lloyd Christmas says in Dumb and Dumber, hairless, ugly, mangy street dogs “flowed like wine, like the salmon of Capistrano.” I’m sure many of you observed the same phenomenon.

Most of the time these dogs were only a minor nuisance. But when female dog was in heat, watch out! The male dogs would chase the female in a pack of 10-15 dogs sometimes, and would stop at nothing. And that poor female would be running for her life. Rarely did you see just one male dog and one female paired up.

Well one day my comp and I were walking down the street early in the morning to buy some breakfast. We came around the corner to find two dog lovers stuck together. The male dog was about half her size and his hind legs were hanging a few inches off the ground. His tongue was hanging out and he looked at us with such a smug smile like, “Look what I pulled off!”

I remember thinking to myself, “where are all the other dogs?? And how did this little fella pull this off?” Like literally, how did he mate with her being so much smaller, and how did he find her alone?? No sooner had I thought that when I heard some growling and barking and looked to my left and saw a pack of at least 10 dogs running towards this pair of lovers. The female dog started to panic and run at about the same time the pack of dogs arrived and started attacking the male dog. She dragged him at least 20 feet before the pack of dogs arrived to meet out justice, and his howls were unbearable. I kept thinking they would separate, but they stayed stuck together the whole time😬

The poor pain that little male dog must have felt as he was being dragged from behind by his nether regions with his hind legs off the ground while being attacked in front by 10 dogs simultaneously was awful. His howls of pain still ring in my ears to this day. The pack of dogs quickly made their way into some tall grass and we went the other way. I never saw what happened to that tiny dog, but I still hurt for him today.