cock fight

so i forgot to tell you. i went to a cock fight, it is the national sport of the philippines so they have them all of the time. there are cock rings everywhere -- every barangay has one. i was a little scared going into it, but it really wasn't as bad as i thought it was gonna be. we went in and its this big dirty ring and there are hundreds of people everywhere yelling and betting. they have hand signals (which i am now a professional at), that they use to bet with other people. i bet 50 pesos and won -- the funny thing is, is that i didnt know that i won, because all of the roosters look alike. the fights only last about 2 minutes, becuse they really do rip each other to shreads pretty quickly. They both have a big talon sized razor attatched to the back of their left leg and they jump on each other cutting and slicing each other. Usually in nature they do this when they are fighting over a hen to mate, but in real life they don't have razors, so they just bruise each other a little. but they eat the looser, so i guess it's ok, because they were probably gonna eat him anyways. at least this way he gets to go out like a gladiator. outside the window of my bedroom, live about 40 roosters. at first i thought i would never get used to the cock-a-doodle-doing at 4am. oh and it lasts until about 7am, 40 of these things outside my window -- and at first i couldn't sleep. now i don't hear them at all. we have lots of chickens running around our house, we eat 1-2 a week. we also have a dog, her name is dora. she is short, long and blonde --and it looks as if someone cut off half of her tail. she is a cool dog. she had puppies last saturday, 6 of them. my family is going to keep 1, and what happens to the rest. thats a good question. well dogs here just roam around on the streets, they are pretty street savy too. i see dogs all the time look both ways before crossing the street -- it's definately something you have to see to believe. i show people my pictures of gracie-lou, my dog in panama city, and they laugh that i brought pictures of a dog, and in a frame nonetheless. a dog in a frame is the funniest thing i think that they have ever seen. they think that i am rich to keep a dog like that.