26.07.14

morning run:
Posey
Elewah
Luna
MoMo
Xmul
Steve McQueen
Hazel
Tori
Murci
(9)

The hidden trail: ~8k. In spite of the long layoff everyone was pretty good about getting out; Elewah was a little loud and Murci had the muzzle on until the shrimpery. The majority of the run was uneventful. I had Tori on the leash a couple of times in the first few kilometers for various reasons but she settled down by the time we were far out north. Coming south towards the tortuga sign I noticed several of the dogs rolling in something up on the beach away from the water and I could smell death and decay in the air so I went up to investigate. What I found horrified me: a dead sea turtle, with four more dumped nearby, all within 50 meters of the wooden sign on the beach proclaiming this area a protected turtle zone. They were obviously killed, gutted and dumped there sometime in the last week. They were all roughly 3-4ft long and 2 feet across. It looked like there had been a sixth one but the shell was gone and all that remained were a few bones. The first one I found was the most complete. It had been cut open underneath so when I lifted the top of the largely dessicated remains fell out. This was an intentional act and a highly illegal one. I was really upset by the time we left the beach. The dogs were all great about it but then they aren't the problem; it's the people. As we neared the shrimpery on the coco trail I saw two small shapes in the road next to it; Luna ran up to them to investigate and it was clear from her reaction that they were alive. It turned out they were two kittens; very small, their eyes filled with goo and having a hard time seeing. They were quite young, probably still nursing (although they could eat solid food). Either their mother dumped them or some human did; it could be the mother left them to hunt and never came back I guess. I could do nothing for them with the dogs around but I went back later to look in on them. We can't really bring more cats back here, especially ones that might easily have feline leukemia or other communicable diseases, given that we're already dealing with an influx of cats. I put some water and food for them inside the shrimpery and took them in there so they weren't sitting ducks for a hawk. Very depressing, both because it sucks and because there's not much we can do. That seems to be the theme for the day. In spite of that it was a nice run and everyone was good.
GRADE: A