Doggie Bags

Doggie Bags

Walk around the older parts of Havana and you'll conclude that Cubans spend lots of time sitting on their front stoops. It doesn't matter that the front door is open, as most of these houses don't have air-conditioning. So the door and most of the windows are open, and the owner sits on the step up to the front door with his feet out on the sidewalk.
And the family dog? He's inside unless it's time for him to go out. Then he just lets himself out. The owner doesn't worry about the dog getting lost because he knows the dog will show up at dinner time when his food is set out or even sooner when it's time to get in the shade to avoid the hot sun. So the whole thing about keeping a dog is a pretty casual affair, both on the owner's aprt and on the part of the dog.
Dogs in Cuba almost always get the table scraps from the family's dinner table. You can't buy commercial dog food there unless you're very rich or have CUC's (tourist money) to spend. Neither CUC's nor riches are common in the hands of Cuban people, so table scraps it is for the dog. A few lucky dogs are fed a cooked down mixture of rough rice and slaughterhouse waste (fat, scraps, brains, eyeballs, etc, etc.) That's what the eight dogs who live at Aniplant's headquarters get.
You may already have asked yourself how you can tell if a dog on the street is a family pet or a stray. I'm sorry to say there is no certain test, as Cuban dogs seldom sport collars or ID tags. One not very accurate test is to look at his body. If the ribs are not easy to see, it might be someone's pet, just out for a little pit stop.
No Cuban leaves food on plates in a restaurant, and when I'm there I don't either. You ask for a foam plastic box or perhaps carry a supply of plastic shopping bags like Nora does. Cubans define "doggie bags" better than anywhere else. Here is a country full of animal lovers who share their scant provisions with their animal companions.
When I walk away from a restaurant with a plastic box full of leftovers, I immediately look for a hungry animal, but then I'm faced with the question, which dogs are pets being fed, and which are truly needy street dogs. And one should not make quick decisions in that situation. If I see a dog near a stoop sitter, I ask if that's his dog. I wouldn't want anyone feeding my dogs something, and he probably wouldn't either. I'll offer the owner some of my leftovers if he wants, but I'm really looking for an animal whose ribs are showing. When I find one and no apparent owner is near, there's little difficulty in getting him to eat.
I'm thinking , "Good, now I don't have to carry this box of leftovers around," and the dog is thinking, "Good, now I don't have to be hungry all day."
Les Inglis