Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged

After visiting my wife's first home, we continued on to the home that used to belong to the parents of my brother-in-law's wife. They both died in the years leading up to Covid and since then, my SIL and her sister take care of the house with periodic visits. The land includes the store front you see in the picture above and the house barely visible among the trees behind the store and above the rock retaining wall. There is a small garden between the base of the retaining wall and the back of the store that they harvest some vegetables from but mostly they stop here to feed the dogs, more on that later.

Just to he left of the store in the first picture, you can see an incredibly steep road heading up to the driveway of the house. Above is a picture trying to convey just how steep the road really is. I am always amazed at how the vehicles we ride in are able to climb up such steep roadways when I feel like my feet are just about to slide out from under me when I walk the very same road.

But the van we were driving made it up the road and into the driveway. Above, you can see the outdoor kitchen shack, behind which the main house is built. It also gives you a sense of the steepness of the terrain as you can see the rock retaining wall behind the house holding back the mountain side.

From the front porch of the house and screening it from the road and store below is a welcoming jungle of trees and plants. I would love to have something similar in front of my porch too but don't really want to water it enough to maintain it.

While I was enjoying the view, my BIL and SIL were feeding the two dogs. Dogs are not treated or revered the same as they are here in the States but like here, they are becoming increasingly more popular to own. These two dogs spent most of their lives chained up to the rough dog houses that are their home. They aren't walked, petted or even played with. Except for being fed every couple days, they don't even see humans to interact with.

The dog on the left in the picture below is the original dog that my BIL purchased at some point. I tried asking why but really couldn't get an answer that made sense to me. Somehow another dog impregnated that dog and she had three pups. One died for unexplained reasons and another ran away never to be seen again. The surviving pup along with the mother were relocated to my SIL's property where they have resided ever since and eat the leftover rice and foods that their family generates. 

At face value when compared to dogs I see back home, it seems somewhat of a cruel existence to be chained up in one spot all of your life. But we essentially do the same thing for many animals that we humans have adopted as pets over the years from birds to hamsters. Even bigger animals like cats and dogs spend their lives contained in small areas and when outside of the area are retained by a shackle around their neck and a leash. I try not to pass judgment on the locals, who for the most part all treat pets in similar fashion as my BIL. Are we any better?

In the end, I just mentally tell myself that this is just one of those things that IS and it is different than what I am used to. I don't cast moral judgement on them because I'm used to something different. Sort of along the biblical line of, "judge not lest ye be judged."