Expat Diaries - The tale of my Korean dog named Sobe

Welcome to the Expat Diaries! I'm glad I get to be a co-host with Chelsea and Rachel and I am looking forward to reading other people's stories. 

Today I'm going to share with you about how I stole rescued a dog in Korea. It all began on the daily walk to work as Alisha (my roommate in Korea) and I would walk past this odd building. The width of it was concrete but the length was glass giving us full view into a room full of little dogs. At first we thought they were food for the restaurant nearby but we quickly learned that they were too little of dogs to be eaten (apparently they only eat the big dogs...). The dogs belonged to the owner's of the nearby restaurant and those same owners also owned our apartments. 

The owner began to let the dogs out for a bit in the mornings. Some were nice and some were vicious (one snipped at my ankle .... scary!). Either way it was fun to see them and to interact with our apartment manager. One day we came out and there was this nice little white dog. She was so friendly and after a few days she began walking us to school. She immeditaely stole our American hearts. but I'm not a sap for pets and there was no way I was going to bring some foreign dog into my apartment. Alisha knew this too and I think we just had an understanding that we couldn't bring the dog home. 

After walking home from a late day at work I couldn't help but look at that little white dog stuck in the tank with the little mean dogs and ... you know, I brought her up to our apartment. I'm not sure who was more surprised that I actually brought her home. No biggie though and it was just a visit, right? One visit turned into more visits and before we knew it the dog had a name - Sobe (Sobe was the name of the city we lived in so we thought that was appropriate). 

You all know how it goes - occasional visits quickly turn into moving in. I mean how could we not let her? She was so cute and so well behaved. Also, there was no need to discuss it with our apartment manager because little Sobe willingly would come all the way up to our 3rd story apartment and scratch on our door. It wasn't like I stole her ... she just decided to move her life up to the 3rd floor. 

Apparently, while we were at school, Sobe was out meeting other dogs. I think she must have met a boy dog because Alisha noticed that her stomach was getting bigger. Um ... we have a pregnant dog? She wasn't looking too big so we figured we had some time before she busted out some puppies. One Saturday I was holding Sobe and holy guacamole she peed on me! Not ok, dog, not ok! BUT guys, it wasn't pee her water broke. Alisha and I didn't really know what to do so we put her in our tiled bathroom with a towel and let her do her thing. Let me just say seeing a dog birth a puppy will make you freak out and want to barf. She also only had one puppy, which I guess is rare in dog land. I'll spare you the 'right after birth picture' but look how little this pup is! We named her 'Rea' (short for Korea). 

Flexible Korean Yoga Dog

and then she grew

I'd love to say we kept them both forever but one day before school I saw our apartment owner come into our office. Him and the VP were talking in Korean and I was asked if we had a dog in our apartment. I looked at her and said 'two dogs'. ha ha! They had no idea that a puppy was around. The owners told us they wanted her back because they had homes for them - which was great! Apparently 'home' was that darn dog tank. I immediately took Sobe back out and up to my apartment but the puppy was already gone. The apt manager did not love this and she told me in Korean over and over to not let the dog out. She even did some charades for me. What did I do? I gave her the 'I'm a foreigner and am confused and can't understand you look'. They soon moved Sobe away too and as much as I tried to find out where they took her I never could. They told me she was on a farm so I'm just imagining her happy and running through some green rice fields. 

It was sad when the dogs were gone but I would do it all over again. Those two little dogs made our time in Korea all the better. So, the moral of the story is this ... if you live abroad you should definitely take in a nice dog from the streets / dog tanks. You won't regret it. =) 

Would you take in a dog? Am I crazy?