A few days ago I had in my hands the book The Wonderful World of the Veterinary Clinic of Dr. Irene Joyce Blank Hamer, in chapter V entitled "The pension is opened", tells with emotion a passage where on the one hand you feel very happy because the construction of his pension facilities were completed and as his first pensioners were the xoloitzcuintles that Norman P. Wright brought from the Balsas region, it is a little known passage in the history of the Xoloitzcuintle race and I allow myself to transcribe some lines:
"... The bell rang, the dogs went to bark and Jacinta, the cook, appeared to inform me that a man wanted to see me. So I went to the door of the huge and wonderful hall (four times centenary) and upon opening I found an obviously foreign man so tall that he had to tilt his head to enter, which never before or after happened. Without further ado, he asked me to see the pension, he examined it carefully and he said "Yes, it's okay, I want to reserve everything for my exclusive use" and saying this he takes out his wallet and hands me a wad of bills; "It is to reserve it, then we do accounts", went out the hall and said goodbye to me: "You will fill it with dogs Xoloitzcuintli on Sunday, I will hunt in Guerrero", without more he got into a car and disappeared, leaving me with the idea that perhaps the episode was a dream and would soon awaken.
Sunday came and the hours passed without news of the mysterious Mr. Wright; I did not know where to locate him and I thought maybe he was crazy and had to return the money. His accent was an English gentleman, as well as his brown hair, plus his coat that the English always reinforced elbows with skin, so calmer by the analysis he had done, I thought to speak to the embassy of the Great Britain the next day and inform them of what had happened.
The timbre and the dogs that barked got me out of my thoughts. It was after eleven o'clock at night and Jacinta had already retired. I went to the door and there was Mr. Wright accompanied by a driver who got off a pickup and a jeep full of xoloitzcuintlis!
Immediately, Mr. Wright instructed the driver to help him lower the dogs and introduce them to the boarding house. The driver obeyed while the English gentleman selected which dogs were going to be in that kennel; One hour later, all the "xolos" were already in their respective kennels, and when this was finished he told me that they would be with me until they were healthy and I could give them to people who loved the race.
They spent several months with me before being healthy, beautiful and friendly, since when they arrived they were covered in ticks (the least of them were 80), in an advanced state severe malnutrition, with dry, dull, lifeless skin. But once they were like exhibition dogs he took them to give them away.
In those months, he had dewormed them, vaccinated them and by putting oil on their skin and without ticks and with a very good and adequate nutrition, he had made his skin alive and soft to the touch.
The benefactor of the "xolos" was a famous anthropologist who had written a wonderful book "The enigma of Xoloitzcuintli" in which he proves that the "xolo" is native to Mexico and not brought from China to the ports of Acapulco and Mazatlan as claimed by scientists Mexicans and until then the Mexican Canine Association, confirmed had seen and studied the bald dogs in Cuba, Peru, Argentina, and in Africa, in the Congo and Ethiopia.
The bald dogs or Canis africanus were his specialty and even his obsession, so he was called by the Institute of Anthropology to help his study. The pension dogs brought from the state of Guerrero, precisely from Arcelia, Poliutla, Teloloapan and Iguala were given to people who lived in Las Lomas and Teotihuacán, several of whom I later saw as patients of mine.
My first contact with a Xoloitzcuintli was at a dog show in Puebla, I was ten years old and when I saw and touched the skin of the only specimen of the exhibition, I told my mother in horror: "I feel sick, I never thought I would see a dog as ugly as that dog without hair ".
I received a reproach "do not feel so Mexican until you read, know and admire the Xoloitzcuintli, is an important part of the history of Mexico." Thirteen years later I cried when my xolos left the boarding house.
I thank Norman Wright for the privilege of having had such close contact with our Mexican race. Mr. Wright years later went to Australia to study the animals of that region and died there. "
What an opening for a dog pension!
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