My apologies to everyone for leaving you all hanging in suspense over the past month and a half regarding Scabby's fate!  I believe more or less where we left off was that Scabby got fixed at the clinic and we were hoping he could travel with us back to the US to be adopted by Erin.

WELLLLLL things didn't go quite according to plan, here is what happened:

Scabby and Pipa both came home from the clinic and settled in at Palmar to recover from their surgeries and be spoiled with lots of treats and love while their wounds healed.  Pipa did great. Scabby's recovery, on the other hand, did not go quite as smoothly.  Remember how we wanted to bring the beach strays to the clinic with us? Well in the preceding days none of them were anywhere to be found. The day after the clinic ended, however, we found that what we came to call the "dog gang" had decided to make the beach at Palmar hump-central--Dracula had gone into heat and there were now about 4 male dogs that followed her EVERYWHERE. (She was not pregnant before like we though but she definitely is now....) 

We had never really gotten serious first hand experience with the whole chemistry and play by play of a dog being in heat and being pursued by a bunch of males.  All these dogs were under the spell of her scent and more were showing up every day--I swear the could smell her all the way from Bastimentos Town as we were surprised to see that Dante had even come back from his new home there to join the fun.  We were having to chase the gang away with sticks because they were running around like crazies at Palmar and sneaking into our house to try and steal Pipa and Scabby's food!

So how does Scabby fit into all of this?  Since he had been fixed only 2 days earlier, Scabby's hormones hadn't quite caught up with the physical fact that he could no longer be a baby daddy to Ms. Dracula.  I woke up in the morning to Chris yelling up to me, "Kristin! Bring the camera! Scabby is stuck in Dracula!!" and when I went out to the beach there they were, stuck together butt to butt with the other dogs all laying around just waiting for their turn.  So while it was great for Scabby to get some (and great that we had just gotten him fixed so he wasn't actually knocking her up) it was a bit too soon for sex after his operation and he managed to rip open his stitches and cause some other problems which I'm sure you don't want me to go into detail about, it is quite graphic and gross.

I took him to the vet for what was SUPPOSED to be the appointment to get his medical forms signed for travel but turned into more of a consultation for what the heck we were going to do with poor scabby and his troubled nether regions.  United Airlines apparently won't accept dogs with recent evidence surgery (I guess people smuggle drugs through pets??) so while Pipa was basically already completely healed we were back to stage one with Scabbers.  He went to spend a few days with Dr. Nick in Changuinola to heal up (he wanted us to keep him in a sand free, clean environment which was NOT happening at Palmar!) and came back to us looking much better but unable to travel with us. 

It was a roller coaster ride of emotions trying to figure out if he would stay or go but the little guy got to stick around Red Frog and keep Pipa company while we were home for 5 weeks.  The dog gang ultimately left Palmar and went back to their respective homes or sections of beach once Dracula was finished.  We haven't seen her yet since returning but she should be having the puppies sometime soon!

The latest plan is to send Scabby on a direct flight from Panama City to New York where Erin will meet him on the other end, hopefully we'll be able to plan this to happen sometime in June!