Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them

Hello there!

Like I said here, throughout my trip in Chile, I kept bumping into the good-est of all fluffy bois and least conspiratorial meow-ing fur balls. Now, I would like to spend some time on giving brief character sketches and behaviour of all the ones I can recall from the trip, and the memory of my encouonter with them, while also giving them a fair rating. So here I go.

Gordita, Santiago

Christened an honest name, Gordita, the young dogger and I played the game of fetch football for hours. Extremely demanding of bellyrubs, the drooling Gorda was the goodest of girls. 16/10.

The Trioka, Arica

The troika of Katarina, the timid doggo, Willka, the alpha catto and Emma, the friendliest of all pigeons - all lived in harmony at the Willka Kuti Hostel in Arica, heedless of the universal mandates dictated by the food chain. Katarina is too restless (Squirrel!), and if you try giving pets to Willka, her meows roughly translate to "Franky, my dear, I don't give a damn". And Emma? Emma is just fabulous, with her bright shiny wings and her melodious "Coo"s. 15/10 to the trioka.

Palomo and the motley crew

The outdoor campsite in Pisco Elqui that I stayed in, had a gang of cats lurking around. For the fear of this becoming too detailed, I will not go into the group dynamics between these cats, and for the sake of simplicity I am going to call them, Palomo and the motley crew, named after Palomo, a white fur cat, the proclaimed queen of the gang. Palomo and the motley crew is extremely demanding of attention and can go on for hours sitting in your lap, purring. I spent most of my time in the Pisco valley drunk and petting these purring cats. 17/10 to Palomo and the motley crew.

Okupa, Valparaiso

A cruel joke to name a cat Okupa, although the cat, luckily, doesn't understand our language and the complex world of etymology, and hence, is saved from the erosion of self-respect that usually follows when one's literally named a Squatter. Okupa doesn't like a lot of pets and goes mucking about the town, before returning to the hostel for food and warmth. 15/10 to Okupa.

Raiz, Pucon

The most majestic of all cats, with the most glorious gait and the softest fur, Raiz loves the pets as she warms herself by the fireside against the extreme cold outside in Pucon. Raiz had an incident with one of the neighbouring pet dogs and is recovering from a small wound. Speedy recovery, Raiz! 16/10 to Raiz and only 11/10 to the pet dog who gave her the wound.

Unnamed cat, Hornopiren

Staying in a room a Hornopiren all by myself, I got drunk on some Kunstmann Miel Beer (Highly recommended) and invite over this unnamed cat who kept caterwauling outside the door, looking for pets and scritches. I had to keep her away from eating my dinner (a huge completo), but her purring kept me engaged for hours. When it was time for me to sleep, I let her out but she kept meowing outside and I ended up letting her in again and spending some more time. 17/10 to the nameless cat.

Dogs of Santa Lucia, Villa Santa Lucia

I was standing on the highway, at Villa Santa Lucia, trying for a lift till the next town. A couple of huge dogs came right over, lunged with their forelimbs onto my chest and reminded me of their right to be petted. I had to oblige. The two dogs were competing for my attention and I had to apportion my time and use both my hands to give them belly rubs together. 16/10 to the duo.

Unnamed Parapet Kitten, Coyhaique

On my way to finding the bus timings for the airport for the next day in Coyhaique, I found a small, white and furry cat stuck on the parapet of the gate outside, of what looked like a vacant house. She responded to the pspspsps-es and seemed to be enjoying the pets. After petting her for what I thought was a long time, I got up, turned the other way to resume my walk when I heard her meows and wondered if she was stuck at the parapet and required being rescued from the parapet. So I did. She was extremely scared of the stray dogs nearby (heckin good bois themselves, I'm sure), so I let her follow me for a while, and when she went into another gate through the iron bars, I was fairly assured of her safety from the street stray hoodlums (heckin good ones). 17/10 to the tiny cat. 

Fabián's Doggos, Punta Arenas

Fabián Abarca (one of the best hosts for me in Chile, and ever) had 3 dogs - Laika, Jack and Jack Junior(Jack's Son). Extremely energetic, the dogs couldn't get enough of head scritches and started knocking on the kitchen window from outside when they heard commotion from inside the window.

Whenever the trio would sense us close to the window, Laika would stand on two legs, without any reason really other than wanting to impress us, and Jack Jr. would immediately jump up with his paws on the window-sill, expectantly looking for food in our hands with his big watery eyes. Jack, the middle-aged dog, would be rubbed by the enthusiasm of these two dogs of the yard and follow them to the edge of the window, wagging his tail at all the action.

18/10 to all the good bois and Laika.

The emotionally needy doggo, Puerto Williams

Puerto Williams, the land of furry doggos, was also the place where I had a scary encounter with a dog who was so insistent on playing with me, that he kept jumping on my chest and biting my trouser. The tenacious doggo had little knowledge of the concept of consent and would not let me walk even a few metres without biting my trouser. It took a log of wood and a good ole game of fetch to send the dog far away, and use that time to escape from his sight. 14/10.   

The "Fetch!" Doggo, Puerto Williams

I was walking back to my hostel, minding my own business when this furry doggo in on the promenade street of Puerto Williams came up to my side and dropped a stone out of his mouth. I picked the stone up and threw it a few metres away. And hence, began the game of fetch, at 10 pm in the cold of the night, where the dog kept bringing me the stone, wet from his drool, and I had to throw it away, sometimes mixing it up with a few decoy throws. Tired after a couple of hours, I walked to my hostel and went in. A few minutes later, I heard some panting from outside and looked out from the window, and sure enough, it was the drooly doggo with his stone. We played for a while again. 19/10 to the committed dogger.

Lum, Puerto Williams

Lum, a housecat in the hostel in Puerto Williams, loved the scritches. But only so much. After the requisite levels of scritches were reached, she would turn over and wave her paws towards you and make bloody scratches on whichever body part came in the line of that wave. Puzzling and perplexing. Would 15/10 pet her again.