Vivace, the Dog who Lived
Vivace is a puppy who lives on our site and like Harry Potter, he somehow lives. He is named after a flavor of spicy potato chip, but his name literally means “vivacious,” and thus fitting for the small pup. His parents don’t seem to be taking care of him, nor have we seen any of Vivace’s siblings. Vivace is really stinking cute, and loves to play with us during the dig hours, and occasionally get treats from us during lunch and snack breaks (alright, probably more often than “occasionally”). The poor pup was not doing so well when we arrived, however. One of his eyes was red, gooey, and seemed to get worse every day. One of my fellow diggers took pity on the little guy and decided to try to attempt to take him back to the US with her, but first he needed some sprucing up. She and I went to the vet together to see what the heck was up with his poor eyeball and to get him fixed up so he could enter the US. After a ridiculous search for the vet’s office, which was, of course, not at the actual location it said it was (there was a sign by the door that said it was the vet’s office, but it wasn’t actually there… why not take down the sign? It’s another Sicilian mystery), we finally found the office and plopped Vivace up on the table for his examination. The vet was fantastic and quickly began taking in Vivace’s many issues: fleas, ticks, worms, his funky eye, and checked his teeth. At first Vivace was not having it, but quickly gave up fighting his exam, probably because he was so tired from fighting the first few minutes, as well as being out in the sun with us all day and scavenging for food otherwise. He was the perfect patient, and was even pretty good when the vet pulled a giant thorn out of his gooey eye! Apparently this thorn was the culprit and had been making the poor pup’s life miserable. It was disgusting - I will leave it at that. Vivace endured a few more proddings and mouthfuls of deworming medicine before his visit was over. He was too tired to move, but I think he knew somehow that what we were doing to him was for the best. He didn’t shake or shiver, just promptly fell asleep on the vet’s exam table. The vet was also a pleasure to meet and was great with Vivace. We decided to give Vivace a middle name, Filippo, after the vet, who was delighted (or at least pretended to be for our sake) at the prospect of being called Vivace’s own personal saint. After getting instructions on eye drops for Vivace and making appointments for a microchip, passport, and rabies shot, we were off with our little charge, who was later dropped off at the site again.
The next day we arrived to the site to find a brand new Vivace! He was so energetic and his eye looked much better. He almost immediately began making attempts at our shoes and pant legs to play with us and spent the day running around the trenches. It was clear that due to my friend’s wonderful (and semi-expensive) act of kindness Vivace was going to live. Without her, the infection from the thorn in his eye would have probably caused him to go blind in that eye, and may have spread elsewhere. In addition, he is now worm, flea, and tick free! I remember pulling ticks off of him on the second or third day and nearly throwing up when I saw how large the ticks in his ears were. Gross. No more ticks for Vivace!
Now, nearly a week after his first vet appointment, Vivace is still as vivacious as ever, and getting more so every day. He had grown considerably since I first saw him a week and a half ago, and especially since his vet visit. He has also been getting real dog food (courtesy of his amazing future owner) on a regular basis, his eye drops, and has even gotten to sleep in the dig apartments over the weekend (shh, don’t tell the landlords!). He’s been living the sweet life. Vivace is one incredibly lucky, very spoiled little pup. Without the help of my digmates and his selfless future owner (go Mev!) he would probably not last long after the dig.
Cheers to Vivace, the dog who lived!
