Claudiaexpat tells us about a birthday party for dogs in Peru.
The invite
I swear I thought I had seen it all, but I missed this one. After fifteen years of glamorous birthday parties, baby showers, birthdays of children with celebrations that I cannot even start to describe and even doubtful ceremonies such as a party to inaugurate a DOOR in Honduras, I thought nothing could surprise me again in Latin America. But I was wrong.
One evening my husband came home with an invitation. A small Winnie the Pooh card that said, “I invite you to my birthday party.” Rather surprised to see such an invite in the hands of my mature husband, I thought it deserved closer inspection and there it was, the invited guest was in fact Mitch. My dog. Expatriate, of course.
The birthday dog
The “cumpleañero” was no one else but my husband’s secretary’s dog who was celebrating his first spring. Now I don’t know whether it was him who required a party with cake and balloons, or if his mistress was the only promoter of the initiative. It doesn’t matter. Mitch told me he would not miss the party for anything in the world, so I took the opportunity to take some pictures and tell you about what seems to be a fairly widespread custom in Peru…
The dogs’ gang
The birthday party for dogs took place in the ideal spot: a park located about twenty feet under the main road and on the waterfront. A perfect ocean view for all dogs and their owners. But I believe none of the representatives of the two species had time to look for dolphins… There were at least a dozen dogs of every breed, size, color and degree of sociability, all keeping their masters busy separating those who wanted to flirt and those who tried to bite and snarl, it was quite a bustle of people who called, every now and then in loud voices: “Carbon!”, “Mitch!” (in fact), “Linda!”, “Pequeño!”, “Luis!” and so on.
Koddy, the birthday dog, was in a black mood. Despite a rather smiling expression on his face, no one could approach him… he growled furiously and stared threateningly at everyone who tempted to congratulate him.
There was a table laden with sandwiches, pastries, soft drinks (for humans), and a large suspicious looking rectangular cake. The tree behind the table was decorated with colorful balloons and the effect was very nice, although I doubt that the dogs noticed it.
The cake
Basically, the party developed into controlling the canine crew and trying to chat between barks. The fact that it was such a special event, however, put all humans in a mellow mood and they indulged in affectionate comments about their canine creatures and profusely thanked Koddy for the invitation.
The basket to collect presents
The present
At the appointed time, Koddy was crowned and had to blow out his first candle. With a little apprehension I watched his master cut the cake, as I tried to figure out what it was made of. I was reassured when they began to put the plates on the floor, realizing of course that it was a canine cake (Mitch appreciated).
Mitch and I
After the cake cutting ceremony people began to say goodbye – I’m sure that the dogs would have been more than happy to stay longer. They left in high spirits anyway because they all received a party bag as they departed. With Mitch, we opened his at home and it contained: dinosaur shaped biscuits, croquettes for dogs and a yellow ball. Mitch told me that I could give it to the rabbit because she hadn’t been invited to the party!
Claudia Landini (Claudiaexpat)
Lima, Peru
December 2005
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