Amigo

by Sara Syed (United States of America)

I didn't expect to find Costa Rica

A man and I once fell in love. But not with each other. We fell in love with a puppy we saved together. One summer, on a volunteer stop in Nicarauga during our backpacking trip from Mexico to Costa Rica, we were given a puppy. He was but a week or two young. We had fallen in love with another stray dog previously in Mexico, that, although we tried our hardest to rescue, still passed away before our eyes. He had a typical, neurological street disease that slowly rotted his brain. We gave him the best week of his life; we cleaned the fleas and gnats off of him, we fed him and loved him, and then helped him pass away. We were blessed to be given this new pup in Nicaragua, who we believed to be a healthier incarnation of the first dog. We named this puppy Amigo, for he was our friend who gave our trip purpose and meaning. It was not the surprise of receiving Amigo that made this story special, it was in our decision to sneak the puppy back into the United States which made our experience unbelieveable. We formed close bonds with Amigo in Nicargua. Our flight was leaving from Costa Rica in the following weeks. We knew nothing of international travel with a newborn animal so we did what we did best: we snuck him through international territory to bring him back to the United States. You see, this man I was traveling with was always notorious for sneaking into movies, closed down amusement parks, waterparks, and into hearts. Why not sneak a puppy into Costa Rica and then America? So we did. We boarded a charter bus which would take us from Nicaragua over the border into Costa Rica. We did not declare we had this puppy since we had no paperwork or shots for him; he was too young for shots and shots were required for international travel. So we put him in our backpack and prayed. We sat in the back of the bus. Luckily, he knew so he slept most of the time. At one point, all passengers had to exit the bus so police could investigate the bus for hidden passengers. We had one. He was on the bus alone in our backpack (a mesh backpack with access to oxygen, under a blanket). We waited outside of the bus for two full hours waiting for the police to clear. We were sweating outside the bus in the Nicaraguan sun, praying, not sure if the police would come out and say they found a hidden puppy. We would either make it over the border into Costa Rica, or be in trouble for trying to sneak a dog illegally, I am sure highly frowned upon behavior. By Go's grace Amigo did not make a peep or move for those two hours and the police left and we entered Costa Rica. The next part of our trip was preparing Amigo and ourselves to back to our home, the United States. We spent days getting whatever papers we could get for Amigo but it was not enough so we had to smuggle him home. We barely made the flight to the United States from Costa Rica. We had a rental car that we had knocked the bumper off by driving in the tough, Costa Rican roads. We had minimal time to repair the bumper, our flight was leaving soon. We ended up repairing the car the "Tican way," or local Costa Rican way; we used zip ties to hold up the bumper. By some miracle the car rental company accepted our car return as if it had not even a scratch. Phew, we saved a few grand there. Now, on to the airport with an illegal puppy. Upon arriving at the airport, we strategically filled his mesh bag with food and blankets. We placed a blanket over his entire bag as I carried it on my back. It was no problem entering TSA; they asked if he had papers and we lied and said yes. They said the airline would handle the dog. We did not tell the airline either.