Back in the summer of 2013, my wife Wip was hounding me a bit to get a dog. She had an on again, off again approach to asking about getting one. I've always been a dog person. Cats, too, but I have had allergies with many of them so it changes the perspective quite a bit. It wasn't that I didn't want a dog, I was just concerned for the future pet when we would be gone on vacation and traveling.
As my summer vacation was approaching we had decided to meet friends in Gwangju and then travel up to Sokcho and the DMZ on the eastern coast where South Korea and North Korea meet. The telling of that small adventure is for another time. However, I'll simply show the locations to which we traveled in the numbered order of where we traveled. We live above the period where the number one is located. So, upon the completion of our journey, we'd travel from the number five back to number one. This was all on many different buses as I did not acquire a car until December of 2014.
As fate would have it, Wip found the dog she wanted to adopt just before our travel plans were being finalized. She had been scouring the online adoption pages and came across one such page known as the (BAPS) Busan Animal Pet Sanctuary. A woman named Natascha had seemingly just posted the picture of Wip's choice just moments or hours earlier. Wip was the first to respond in regards to adopting this particular dog. The two communicated with Natascha explaining that she wanted to foster said dog for around a week. This was perfect as we would be traveling about the country for roughly that long. So all we did was incorporate picking the dog up on our return. This added something more special to the vacation than just mere traveling and exploring. When we returned home, we would have a new permanent houseguest. That houseguest's name is Tokki.
In the Korean language, Tokki (토끼) means rabbit. People have asked why the dog would be named rabbit. Here's the easiest way to explain that.
He even sits like a rabbit from time to time.
On August 7th, 2013 , we made our way from Sokcho down to Busan where we had to catch a trasnfer bus to the island of Geoje. This is where Tokki was being fostered. Prior to this, Tokki was found wondering the streets of Busan and was rescued into the Busan Animal Pet Sanctuary. Tokki was around five months old and found himself homeless, but now he was being fostered and would have a new home very soon. As far as going to go get him, I thought it a good idea to get to the island a couple days before we would adopt him off and whisk him away to Yeongam. This was two fold. One, a reprieve from more busing. Two, we could go and meet Tokki and Natascha's family the day before we would take Tokki. I figured that this was good so he would have at least met us once before we took him to his new forever home.
On August 8th, we went to meet Natascha and her husband Patrick and her children. Patrick is from France and Natascha is from Australia. They were very gatious hosts and it was nice to socialize even if for a little bit. We had to catch a bus from the center of the island to go meet them and then return to our hotel. This was good for me to know the routes as I would be returning the next morning to go get Tokki before our trek home.
On the morning of August 9th, I let Wip relax at the room and I ventured off to go get Tokki alone. I took the same local bus that we had the day prior. Everything went smooth as silk. We met up and I got Tokki. Upon saying our farewells, I headed back down to the bus stop. It was here, still needing to get back to the center of the island, that things started to fall apart a bit. The local bus driver would not let me on the bus with Tokki. I hailed a cab and he waved me off. After a second cab waved me off I was finally able to get a taxi to stop and ask wheree I wanted to go. I told him and we were off. I kept Tokki on me the whole time to put the driver at ease, but there were no issues at all.
Since we couldn't get a direct bus home, I pushed for a quick departure from the island and we, almost immediately upon my returnig to the hotel, departed fro the bus terminal. Hitch number two. Once we had bought our tickets the driver wasn't going to let me on with the dog. Oh, and another thing...
It was hot!
No joke. It was still morning at the temperature outside standing on the asphalt was around 38* C. (100* F) And this was with some cloud cover rolling by and breaking up the sun's direct assault on us. (One positive out of this was that the heat had burned off a lot of the humidity.)
Back to the driver. This is a regional coach style bussing company. Kumho Kosuk. (Kumho Express.) It's a professionally run outfit. However, this guy was having none of me or our new pup get on his bus. He ACTUALLY wanted me to put the dog in the cargo hold under the bus. I was profoundly shocked. To go through the motions I looked into the compartment and touched the bottom with my hands. It burnt. If it was 100* F outside I can not imagine what it would be like in that compartment. That brief little moment steeled my nerves and I waited for the driver to turn and take a ticket from another passenger. Once he did this, in a split second I mustered all of my dexterity to get on the bus before he could protest or physically try to stop me. I had Wip sit on the window side, which was on the left side of the bus and I sat on the isle to block the driver who I knew would come to throw us off. I refused to move. He was incensed and I am not exaggerating. He loooked like he was only a few seconds from making it a physical confrontation. He delayed the departure, but, as a professional driver, was more concerned with the schedule. We pulled out of the Geoje terminal and were headed for Jinju.
As we were only a few rows behind the driver I could clearly see him darting his eyes back to scowl at me from time to time. I, to be perfectly honest, was intensely relieved that we were on the bus and moving. I would figure out how to get to Yeongam from Jinju when that time came. This ride off the island took nearly 50 minutes or so if my memory serves me right. Something just under an hour.
When we got to Jinju the temperature had risen to 40* C (104* F). Did I say it was hot? As far as the driver is concerned, he seemed to really mellow on me and Tokki with about 20 minutes left in his drive. Best I can figure is that he'd had bad past experiences. He was likely waiting for the dogs to create a problem. Any problem. Barking. Vomiting. Eating. You name it. However, Tokki never made a sound the entire ride. Upon disembarking the bus, the driver gave me a nod and had said how well Tokki behaved. The driver was like another person. All the tension in his face was gone. He was relaxed. We were in Jinju now and only had one or maybe two more bus rides before we were home.
Even in the shade, the inside of the bus terminal was hot. Not like standing outside, on asphalt, in the direct sun, but it was hot. I recall, very vividly, that Wip had gone off to check the bus schedules and would return with our departure time. There would be a few hour wait to get on a bus to where we needed to go. It was too hot for that so I asked a cab driver if he was willing to drive to Yeongam. It's about 180 kilometers which is over 110 miles. I asked him how much and he told me. He then recanted as it was too cheap. He just miscalculated. I told him if he would get us out of there and to Yeongam I would pay him a fixed price. We settled and off we went. He did have to stop and get gas. While he was filling the tank, Tokki threw up in the back seat. We actually managed to clean it up with a variety of things we were traveling with and the driver never knew about it.
This was an incredibly fast drive. He got us to yeongam in roughly two hours flat. You may think time versus distance in your equation, but would be omitting the various mountinas, tunnels, bridges and reduced speed areas that you must negotiate while driving in Korea. I tipped the man $10 for getting us home and quickly. I joked with Wip that I tipped him for not getting us killed.
Tokki has been with us for nine years as of today. It was an amazing journey how it all started and has been one ever since. He doesn't have the youthful energetic body he once did but he's still spry. He still smiles. He's still young at heart and he has helped keep bothof our hearts full.
I'm sexy and I know it. (LMFAO)
September 2013.
