::A Geek in Korea::

As my wife was out walking Yoshi one day when I was busy, she met a foreigner with two dogs out for a walk. We are always looking for information about our dog, so she struck a conversation up with him. It turned out he was looking to move into our apartment and was out looking at locations near the park we use to walk our dog. They talked for around twenty minutes and set up a "play date" for Yoshi with one of his dogs today.

We gave him a call, and he brought over a cute Pekingese dog. He was full of lots of information about pet care, and knew Daejeon very well. He’s lived here longer than I have, and was actually in Korea teaching English pre-1997 Financial Crisis! He teaches at a respectable college near by and seems to enjoy his life in Korea very much. Turns out that the two dogs my wife had seen, and the dog he brought over were only half of his "pack". He had six dogs total, and had two cats as well. 8 pets all in a smaller apartment than we live in now. Wow!

With his extended paid vacations he had the time to look after that many pets. We’ve got our hands full watching our single pet with our schedules. He explained how he managed to keep stumbling onto more pets that needed care, or got pets given to him as gifts. Sometimes seeing a sick dog can be rather heartbreaking once you are a pet owner. We have a struggle walking by the pet store every time we go shopping. If a certain rationality about our situation and allergies didn’t keep us in check, we’d probably be living in a zoo.

His biggest concern when considering his move was if pets were allowed in the building. We filled him in on the current on and off again battles with the enforcement of pet rules in our apartment complex. If he moved into our building, there might be a rallied effort to push for a pet ban since he’d be walking all of his dogs nearby in the park. He’s stated that in his current apartment everyone knows, but no one complains. He’s befriended his neighbors, so perhaps that’s the key. He’s also got a collar that uses scent to prevent dog barking, so all his dogs are well mannered and behaved.

It was nice to have someone over that could teach us about our dog, and also knew about the city. We’ll be taking up some of his training tips and recommendations about local hospitals. If we ever want another dog, we’ll also know where to go first.