My Latest Love Affair

I'm publicly admitting to the fact that I am having an affair.

I am completely, hopelessly, and pathetically in love.

With Brigitte Bardot.

A dog.

Who, at the moment, is homeless. Here in Sedona-miz. She is about a 4 month old puppy who is cream and browny-orange, with a scrunched up little nose and adorable - yes puppy dog - eyes that have been asking me to take her in since I got here.

I am in a serious predicament for the following reasons:

1. My biggest issue with my new country of residence is the treatment of animals, or lack there of. I even had a discussion with my host-sister last night about this, and even she is slightly repulsed by the lack of respect given to animals here. Dogs roam the streets at night looking for scraps of food, usually from the souq, to stay alive. It seriously breaks my heart everty time I see one of the dirty, and potentially adorable, rabid mungrals, searching for their next meal. And the thing is, they aren't agressive at all. In fact, quite the opposite, they cower, tail between legs, assuming I'm going to swack them or throw a rock at them like everyone else does.

2. Which brings me brings me to point number 2, the fact that they are Haram, or Islamically Illegal, to have in the household. This point was brought up last night when my host-dad was like, um, you're crazy, you can't do that. And I was like I need to see some proof here buddy, and he was like, well it's not in the Qu'ran actually, but it is in the Hadith, and I was like can you find it for me? And he was like crap, this girl wants proof. He said he would look and is now asking the Imam on clarification about this 'rule' of no puppies.

3. The nearest vet is probably in Marrakech, which is indeed pretty close, but let's just picture the blonde girl taking public transport for a little over an hour with a freshly washed puppy in, most likely, a box (at least its not a purse). Like I didn't attract enough attention before.

Anyway, that's my story. Ah right, I forgot to mention, the puppy was originally named Linda (why they picked a mid-thirties soccer mom name for a freaking adorable doggy, I will never know), but when I got home last night whining about how cute she was, my host dad was like ' You're like Brigitte Bardot! She loved animals!' She may have been a vegetarian hottie, but she was also sort of a racist and got fined 5 times for 'inciting racial hatred' in France. ... Brigitte it is!

EDIT: After discussion with some local friends, turns out keeping dogs in the house is not so 'haram', it is 'something that begins with an 'm' that i can't remember right now', ultimately it is more 'frowned upon' than it is 'illegal'. A lot is written about the subject in the Hadith, including reasons why and why not to have them around. There are apparently four different exceptions that do allow someone to have a dog in the house: hunting, herding, land protection, and blindness. Muhammad ordered that they all be killed, back in the day, especially the black ones as they nullify prayers, stop angels from entering the household, and rewards for good deeds will be deducted daily from those who keep dogs as pets. Utensils that had been licked by dogs were to be washed 7 times and rubbed with soil the 8th time in order to be properly cleaned. Around the time of the prophet, obviously modern medicine wasn't functioning so almost all were rabid and feces was deposited at will. Also, a biggie, Gabriel wouldn't enter the household of the Prophet on one occasion, siting the reason as the presence of a dog.

After researching a bit online, reading quite a few articles, and speaking with some Muslim friends I found the subject really interesting as it is indeed quite close to my heart. In the end, I guess I can understand their stance coming from their point of view. From my point of view, however, I couldn't love Gustav and Killer more! (Or little Brigitte for that matter.)