11.198
21 (Tue) July 2020
Spaghetti alla Ragù
2.5
by me
at home
-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-
with the Family
Our dog, Louis Le Pieux, has been through a lot, still just a puppy at over 6 months old.
Soon after we got him, exactly 128 days ago (see 11.070 Chicken Nuggets with Chili Sauce), we made the decision to leave the Philippines and go back to Korea, which raised the challenge of how to take him with us. Brachycephalic (short-snouted) dogs have difficulty regulating their temperature in warm conditions, so they’re prohibited by airlines from being transported in the cargo hold of a plane, lest they overheat and die. Korean Air allows for dogs in the passenger cabin, but only up to 10 kg, including the carrier. A quick projection suggested that Louis would likely be 10 kg or more, plus another couple kg for the carrier, by the time we were scheduled to fly out at the end of May. So I kinda starved him for a few weeks up until the day of departure – the vet said it would be okay for a short while, no permanent damage to his development. At the airport, he weighed in, including the carrier (the flimsiest/lightest one we could find – thanks Kat!), at exactly 10.4 kg (the guy behind the counter shrugged off the excess, thankfully).
On arrival in Korea, however, Louis was detained at the airport and had to stay in quarantine – a small cage – for 10 days until he could be tested for rabies antibodies, which we hadn’t had time to do while still in Manila. We were also in quarantine at the cabin during the time of release, so he was picked up at the airport by a former WHO intern of mine (eternal thanks, JHL!) then taken to my cousin (eternal thanks, JS!), who works kinda near the airport and kept Louis in the corner of his office all day, then drove him to us at the cabin later that night. Louis’s hair had fallen out due to the stress – poor thing looked like a stray that had been living on the streets.
Last week, as we were beginning to feel settled in our new home, including a routine that included morning and evening walks with Louis, he broke his leg. I wasn’t there when it happened, but the boys and the dog had gone down for a postprandial stroll and came up a short while later crying hysterically, all three of them. Reportedly, Louis was just jumping down from a low curb when he suddenly began to shriek. X-rays at a local clinic showed a major fracture, so we took him to a university hospital for surgery. They inserted two screws. After several days recovering in the ICU, he came home today. The cast will be on for at 5 weeks.
(For more details about the food, see WHAT)
(For more details about the venue, see WHERE IN KOREA)