They shoot dogs on Wednesday . . .

After a near-perfect week in the village, I learned an alarming bit of news last night:

They shoot dogs on Wednesday.

Not just any dog, mind you. But dogs that are running loose in the village. The city pays $25 per dog, and the shooter has to bring the bagged corpse to City Hall to prove the deed was done.

According to the missionary, loose dogs are a real nuisance--and even a hazard--in a village. What seems inhumane to us (after all, we are from Portland, the land of equal rights for animals), makes total sense here. Not to me, especially. I recently spent nearly two grand on my dog Scout, trying to diagnose her strange ailment and keep her alive. It boggles my mind to think of shooting a perfectly healthy pooch.

But again, I'm from Portland.

It's hard to find dog-shooters in the village, apparently. Since everyone here knows each other, and are probably somehow related, the shooter risks stirring up the ire of his community members. But it's good money, and dogs should be tied up, so a few brave souls have offered their services. And, it's only on Wednesdays.

Once the dogs have been captured, they are shot and then placed in trash bags (to avoid traumatizing village children). Then, the shooters take their prey by City Hall to prove he'd earned his pay, before taking the remains to the dump.

I am not making this up.

KIm, the missionary's wife, works at City Hall and has the role of dead dog inspector. She told us that one day the shooter brought by his bagged dog for her to inspect, but as she went outside to check it out, the bag got up and started walking away. I will leave it to your imagination to figure out what happened next.

I won't be bringing Scout to this village any time in the near future . . .