It all happened so quickly I am not sure where to start. The abstract for those of you that do not have time for the whole story, we currently have a foster dog named Rue.

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We first met Rue when we moved to Marrakech in August of 2019. We were trying to find a good place in this busy concrete oasis to walk our dog Sesame for exercise and excrement purposes (lol) when we first met. Rue would be laying in the hot Moroccan sunshine or shade just adjacent to our apartment building when we would be out walking Sesame. She was always so personable. She was injured with a pretty bad limp, but a happy dog. She would hobble over to us to say hello and walk with us until she got distracted by a cat to chase. She always seemed so excited to see us, but once we were back at our apartment building she would turn around and go back to her street.

I instantly loved her, but I was fresh off the plane unsure about what the protocol is for these types of situations and homeless dogs. Let alone know where the nearest vet was. We came from Taiwan that has a similar street dog problem and our way of coping with the sadness of the situation was to adopt one, but in apartment living you can’t really take home all the dogs. 

We would see Rue off and on for the next six months. Her limp was getting better and it was clear that she was well fed, so I thought maybe  someone had adopted her. I even spotted a water dish put out in one of the entryways of a nearby riad where she liked to snooze, so it was reassuring to me that she had someone looking out for her. I had myself convinced that maybe she had an owner who just let her out all day to roam.

I tried to get D to adopt her a few times telling him that Sesame needed a friend, but I had to agree with his logic, our apartment building and the varied attitude towards dogs here in general did not make it easily justifiable. There is lots of traffic and next to no grass options for bathroom trips.

Then like everywhere else, Covid hit and with it the lockdowns. Due to the lack of tourists and limited dumpster food at night you would sometimes see packs of dogs roaming the streets. One day we had heard a rumor from one of the neighbors that they read on facebook there was going to be a big roundup and cull of the street dogs. One of our neighbors was worried about the brindle. Rue as I call her now, at that point was just known as the beautiful brindle, the friendly one, who just wanted your attention and love, not your food. My neighbor spent that week looking with no avail for Rue.

We are no saviors really. We are expats in a foreign country in the middle of a pandemic. What could I do?

Fast forward to Friday night. We are sitting down eating dinner and watching an episode of Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home (because I really do just watch cooking shows these days) and D receives a text message from a woman about a dog we might know. Our neighbor, the same one who’d looked for her all those months ago back in June, had passed our contact information on. She’d left for her home country over the summer, but thought that she knew this dog she saw on facebook and explained that we would be able to confirm if it was really her.

The pictures sure did look like that friendly Brindle from our old neighborhood. Apparently, she had been in another neighborhood about 3 months ago just sitting and waiting. They assumed that she had been abandoned. She disappeared from there too and just three days ago reappeared in front of the mall. We confirmed that yes it really did look like the brindle we knew from all those months ago. I wanted to know if she was trying to adopt her? Unfortunately, with 4 street dogs and a three year old it did not seem like an option, but if we knew anyone who could foster the dog she could probably get her adopted. 

I knew that I have been unsuccessful in my past attempts at taking this dog home with me because the logistics just did not make sense. The difference this time was this lovely woman had contacts and experience in finding these animals forever homes. We have also moved into a different apartment, this time with a little yard which has revolutionized dog ownership in this city (I know, I know… blog post about our new apartment in the future at some point. I want to finish decorating first). Maybe, just maybe D would agree. Clearly, he did or I wouldn’t be telling this story.

I arranged to meet her for coffee yesterday morning to chat about what I knew about the dog and that if they could find her we could probably house her. That was 10 o’clock in the morning yesterday. We wandered the neighborhood for a couple hours to see if we could find her and had no success. We bid farewell and promised to keep in touch and off I went homeward bound. No sooner did I turn the corner did I find Rue, a homeless gentleman, and his dog companion. She greeted me straight away with tail wags and her doggy friend wanted some pats too. In broken French with a little Darija I asked the man if she was his dog. He explained to me that she was from a different neighborhood and is friends with his dog. I then called my new friend to explain I ran into the dog. By 13:30 we were at the vet, checkup done, vaccinated, and by a quarter to two we were in a taxi headed home. It is clear she’s had an owner at some point! There was no fighting with the vet, snuggles in the taxi, and just a general look of contentment.

Once we made it home, the dogs were reintroduced in the yard outside to keep it initially on neutral ground. Lots of tail wagging ensued, which was an encouraging sign. Then, they hung out on the roof for a little bit before we braved bringing her into the house. She is very affectionate. There is a sadness in her eyes that I feel like comes from being abandoned, but she slowly followed me into the house. I even attempted to give her a bath and wash away some of that street dog dirt… She is not a fan of baths, but even then did not fight me, but also could not wait to get out. Sesame who likes baths even less came in the bathroom for what seemed like moral support. It wasn’t the most thorough wash, but it was better than nothing. Then D brought her up to the roof to dry in the sun. While everyone at home is posting snow photos I was marveling at the fact that it was 75f/24c degrees yesterday! … but I am getting distracted… where was I? Oh right…

While I was getting equally showered and rinsed post street dog bath attempt, my shower thoughts came to the fact that this lovely dog has no name and has spent at least the last year on the street. I thought about how friendly and loving she is and it hit me that I wanted to name her Rue. I was calling her brindle up to that point, but Rue is French for street and also an innocent loved character of the Hunger Games. Something about it just makes sense. She had to have a knack for survival to make it this far on the streets of Marrakech where the life of street dogs is not easy, so it seems only fitting in a fighter survivor kind of way. I have been calling her Rue ever since. 

Last night, she ate dinner including her flea parasite medication from the vet, went on a successful walk with Sesame, and took many naps. When we came inside from a socially distant cocktail with the neighbors and Rue and Sesame playtime,

I honestly think she was hesitant to come in. She laid down on the welcome mat and started to fall asleep. It broke my heart, but made sense all at the same time. She has spent so much time on the streets and not being allowed inside places, so maybe she did not want to be rejected again. After many pats and much reassurance she made it inside and hunkered down on a sheet that I laid out. Sesame, because she is spoiled, has a big and small bed. I tried to offer Rue the big bed, but I think all the nights sleeping on concrete has her suspicious of a big fluffy pillow. Regardless, she did sleep and I have to tell you that our new “Rue”mate snores. 

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She is napping as I write this and appears to be smiling. Maybe it is just that for once in a long time she knows she can truly relax, so she is… or she’s a big couch potato… or we will take her back to the vet and hope that she is just lazy. But, I am getting ahead of myself. It has only been 1.5 days. I will keep you up to date on Rue’s big adventure. Enjoy the snow for me. I will send you my sunshine vibes. xoxo