Marimba

                                                                      

A realistic drawing I made years ago, my best friend with a tail Marimba.

  

  

      To honor the memory of my friend Marimba I decided to tell the story of when this incredible character crossed my path and changed my life. from now I tell you that this story doesn't have a happy ending and the followings events are told as they happened I will omit the identities of third parties so as not to create conflict.

       Well I remeber the fisr time that I saw Marimba,was maybe 12 years ago in a rainy season ,one day later of this heavy rains that we got here in the tropic, I go out to walk around the town and not to far from my home saw this dog wandering around,I try to get close to him but he was extremely shy so he run out of me.Remember a couple of days later my cousin (who unfortunately is not physically with us anymore) saw him close home, and he,my cousin,my little sibling as me and some members of our family have a kind of big love and respect for animals,so we try to reach Marimba (at that point we dont know if was a male of famale dog ,he was extremely shy as I said) but we don't give up in triying to approaching him, so we offrered him food, it took us several days but we managed him to accept us (and of course we understand him he was lost,hungry and helpless and invisible to most people, how can he trust in humans ? ) it was when we approached him that realized his abandonment. 

 

Marimba in his favorite summer outfit !!!

 Little by little we were gaining his trust,feeding and giving him affection,he was so skinny and malnourished that in side-view he seemed like a marimba (the typical Costa Rican instrument,kinda big xylophone) his ribs resemble this instrument ,so we nicknamed him that way,in the end that would become his name , I know that can be very cruel it's not a funny joke the origin of his name.One of his peculiarities is that one of his ears was hit probably by a motorcycle or a person,which was very swollen but was deflating over time,clearly his cartilage was shattered and his ear never got up again,the good thing is that he did not feel pain,he looked funny and that was what made him charming.

 He settled in front of our house,on an uninhabited "kind-farm",crossing the street,we tried every means to keep him in some house,but he became in a "road dog"there was no way that he would stay in a house,he felt free, he wanted to be free,after possibly going tied all day,FUCK NO !!! he didn't want to go back to that,so I build him a dog house(well I try,It did not look at all like a dog house but almost he has a place to not get wet from the rain(but was something that don't bother him,) Here I am beginning to highlight his strange characteristics,he likes to get wet from the rain for any reason.

Once he settled in his new home he began to own the neighborhood,almost 800 meters os street,for which he walked peacefully,there were dogs in the neighborhood, I had dogs and the neighbors too,
but he never had problems with any of them,on the contrary, he got along very well with them, and they played a lot,he was not an aggressive dog,was very friendly possibly too much,but of course ... he was very territorial and defended what belonged to him,if an unknown dog entered his perimeter he was going to take it out at all costs,that happened several times,he became the pet of the neighborhood,people greet him by his name,Hello Marimba they said while they were looking for something to feed him,I have to be honest (because that's the way I'll be throughout the story) Marimba's feeding wasn't the best,he ate what humans ate,and he was disinterested in dog food NO WAY that he eat it,at least he didn't go hungry,he gained a lot of weight,but he was not obese because was very active,and he did not eat the same shit forever,and never got sick,I'm telling you this guy fucking rules!!!.

 One of his "devilry" was stealing the bread from a small supermarket that was at the end of the street,(hahaha I keep laughing every time I remember it) he did this continuously,the clerk of the supermarket was already angry but how is it possible for a dog to enter and steal the bread from the counter ha?,anyway she was not very alert person cause there is another parallel story that says
that a dog came in and stole the money she had counted and packed ready to send it to the local bank and believe it or not this happen twice TWICE ,but no my freinds Marimba wasn't that wrongdoer dog ( people thought to blame me because a month later I showed up with new shoes and bought Marimba a dog house with air conditioning,but that were lies,jealous people, hummm).

I also remember that Marimba's fame had spread throughout the town,and from time to time he liked to walk around and explore the town,he fought with other dogs or better he runs away,on one of his trips I remember that I had come from work,I saw him in the distance,but he was stinky in mud,I knew he was going to pounce on me,I was wearing my favorite shirt,and he was going to ruin it completely,I try to go unnoticed,and failed in the attempt,he saw me,picture that moment ...he came to me running in slow motion,with his tongue partially out drooling,his broken ear moved to the swing of his run,just to jump on me with her muddy big paws and ruin my shirt, oh boy,nothing to do with the shirt so I started playing with him,when suddenly an old lady shouted "help him some one help this boy is being attaked by a dog,then I had to say that I knew him and that we were playing,but this happened to all those that Marimba love it,my brother and others, he was happy that someone went out for a walk,he always accompanied on this walks but with the risk of doing some mischief.
  
In other of his adventures I remember that he take care of my little dog Luna (a chihuahua that we as a family adopt her time after Marimba will arrive) we had not decided to castrate her yet,so
on one of those days of canine reproduction she escaped, we went to look for her,I remember that my sister came home and found Luna in a old garage sitting on an old sofa alone and a bounch of dogs
surrounding her but no dog approached Luna because Marimba took care of her they were very good friends,the next day Luna again escaped but we didn't find her,it was until the afternoon when she arrived,she came through the door as if nothing happened,I take a look towards the door with direction to the street and there came Marimba,he walk slow some steps and them collapsed,was tired,bloody and beaten,he fought with the other dogs for Luna,but luckily were only superficial wounds,the next day he was running again,.from that day Luna was castrated,something curious is that even when I called Marimba she gets alert I think she still remembers him :,(.

He was very special dog,he knew how to give the pow(without tranning) he liked to play soccer with us,he was not afraid of thunder storms,rather contrary to most dogs that fear of them he came out in the middle of the storm running down the street barking at the thunder so bad ass dog,he was not afraid,it was incredible to see him face the thunders,or in the typical end of the year partys
people often go outside their homes and turn on all kinds of pyrotechnics and I don't understand if Marimba hated or liked them because he took the pyrotechnic artifacts in his mouth and ran down the street,It was quite a show to see that (it's a real pity that I could not video record that) fortunately, he never ends burned and we removed the pyro in time,I really miss this guy,he had that ugly habit of biting rocks off the ground and if someone took one from the ground and threw it he would go for it,a normal dog does it with a wooden stick ahhh but not Marimba,and when he found the rock
he was carrying it under his favorite tree where he had a "rock cemetery"all the rocks that people threw at him was there,it was almost a rock floor,for the amount he had collected,the other funny part of these was when he took the rock behind the tree,out of sight of people,he wallowed over the rock   (I suppose to scratch his back) and he made a weird sound when he wallowed over the rock like if he was dying,and the people passed through that place at night and couldn't see what was going on,they thought that were killing someone behind that tree,he walked with sun glasses,sometimes we dress him in a cape like a superhero he was my superhero, people stop their cars at the street to take pictures of him and he enjoy it all this attention,There are so many more stories but I don't want bother you more.

 Maybe you're wondering how all this ends,this is the sad part,as I said at the beginning this doesn't have a happy ending,this is the hard part fo me to tell, still affects me,in march 2010
a person who recognized by the amount of money her family owns in town (it's almost the town owner,with many properties and businesses in their name) that person with her car of the year run over Marimba leaving him lying in a sewer,you can think it was an accident, the dogs cross in the street all the time but this person has a reputation for killing dogs every year on this same street (is
a true fact I'm not mint this) and at least you're stupid or have a crayon in your brain you know that if you killed dogs on the same street before you need to drive carefully,it's not a highway is a it is the street of a neighborhood,when this happened I was at home,I ran out to see Marimba,and what I saw broke my soul,my heart, my brain,whatever the fuck you wanna call it, I was completely broken down emotionally but Marimba was broken down physically,he was in much pain, and what he least deserved was to feel that pain,it was not fair that he ended that way, and that's why I was not going to allow Marimba to suffer(or at least under the circumstances avoid him  all the possible suffering at that moment) ,I tried to get it out of the sewer, in his condition it was difficult to do because of the level of his injuries,I knew that the situation with him was not right at all, his pulse was very fast,and his gums were turning purple,I had to act immediately,I didn't have a car in which transport him,but there were people who had cars,but his ego was so high that they couldn't put a dog in his car, this little pxxxx xx xxxx called humans, they could see a dog dying, but they couldn't get him into their car so that he could be helped,so I call my old friend,someone from whom I learned a lot,someone who had more power and money than the person who ran over marimba or ,but his attitude towards animals was one of the most humble I had ever seen,I learned from my old friend high degrees of responsibility with dogs in this case,he didn't hesitate to get marimba to his car and take him to the vet,he knew marimba as well,and he knew what a good dog he was,he did not care about dirtying his car with blood and mud,he did it for marimba and he would have done it for any other dog.

 When we got to the vet I was hopeful that he would get well,I told the vet that the only thing I did not want was that he felt pain,it doesn't matter what will happen,I told her(the vet) that administered to Marimba a strong sedative,and that she did her best to help him,(clearly she was going to do it),I remember hugging him and wishing the best,the next day I remember the phone ringing,somehow I knew it was not good news,and my mother came to give me a message,with trembling voice and tears in his eyes, she said that Marimba passed away(for those who don't know my mother well, she did not like animals and she was not moved for any dog until that day),I cried too(I am not the kind of person who cries or expresses their emotions in front of othes but this time happend) the vet told me that he did not suffer(to this day I keep asking myself if she said that just to I would be calm) and she offered to bury him,but I told her that I preferred to do it myself,we buried him in his favorite tree,my brother, my cousins, and my old friend were present,it was the closest thing to a funeral for a dog it was sad but kind of calm.

 To this day the person who hit him didn't apologize for leaving him lying,I do not blame her for killing him I already got over it , I blame her for her indifference,vanity,I confront her days later politely waiting for an apology but NO !! she only made excuses (haha nothing new from humans) Then I told her that I had nothing to talk about with her in my life (she was a "friend" of the family and gave me a ride every day to my work) not until that day,since then I preferred to walk to my work and I did not speak to her again because I'm not interested in talking about anything with her(my siblings say that I still do not get over it,but what they don't understand is that since that day a dog never died in our street).

 And to finish ,I had a strange dream with Marimba weeks after his death,he was in a white van sticking his head out and feeling the breeze with his tongue out,while me ,Luna and and the rest of the dog gang ran after him,while we seeing him enter in a white fog at the end of the road,I hope I have done well,have given a little dignity to his life,I will remember him whenever I can and please adopt a dog but adopt him responsibly and I draw his portrait because when I hug him for the last time I didn't thank him for what he did for me. MISS YOU BUDDY !!!

PD : Matter doesn't die, it only changes perpetually.