La Habana, Cuba (2008)

Taken at a public park dedicated to Lenin. He looks like Colonel Sanders.

My wife had returned to RVA for maternity leave as she was not allowed to travel by airplane if she was close to giving birth. I was there by myself so I took our two dogs, Piggy (Pit Bull) and Dip (Black Lab) out to this park that we’d previously visited before.

The Cubans loved to go there and throw big barbecues in its open fields. They’d just set up some tents, build some fires, and put on the music.

These parties lasted through the night and I’m pretty sure people spent the night out there.

There was also horse riding and I don’t know if this was a tourist attraction or the people were so poor they had to use horses as transportation. Regardless, wherever there are horses there are large piles of horse poop.

If you know anything about dogs, particularly terriers (like Pit Bulls), they love rotten smelling things, like dead animals. And shit.

If they find something particularly gross, it drives them crazy.

They roll over on their back and writhe in ecstasy in the pile of stank, reveling in the stench.

Guess which white dog found a big giant pile of horseshit and covered herself in it?

Guess who had to try and hose her off before riding an hour back to our house?

Guess who rode home in the trunk?