Lola pups

So even though my puppy napoleon is still in the states, i had the company of some surrogate pups at lola. Remember Mystique from last year and her puppies zooey and zoro? zoro now lives with Claudine in Kinshasa and zooey is already a mother herself. Mystique stills hangs around covered in tics (which we pick off and burn dutifully each night). and of course, she is still as sweet as ever...this is the unshakable 'please just pet me for a minute' look.
Despite being pretty much a puppy herself, zooey is a great Mom.

and this is the runt of her litter. She is literally less than half the size of her brother.

Unlike mystique, zooey lives a relatively undomesticated lifestyle despite the fact that she comes by for food each evening. During the day she heads into the forest and often up the road to one of the nearby chicken farms. Her kids go with her too and and if they're lucky, return with a badge of scattered chicken feathers.

But they don't discriminate of course....table scraps are always welcome too.

Just as we were leaving the puppies were shipped off to Basankusu where they will spend the rest of their lives. We were worried that zooey, who stayed behind, would grieve the disappearance of her babies. Strangely enough though, she shifted completely out of her maternal life and became a puppy again herself. It was really strange to see...she went from lying around tired, nursing all day, to chasing us around with her tail wagging desperately trying to initiate a game of chase.....I'm glad shes happy.