A puppy or a peacock?

On Sunday, we went to the “pet market” with another couple. Our friends are currently looking for a golden retriever and Shawn and I have also been discussing getting a dog now that we’re in Kyiv. There were a couple of close calls, but the four of us left the market empty handed in the end.

But let me explain the trip to the market first. We were originally going to go by ourselves, but when Shawn called our friends to get directions, it was decided it would be easier for them to go with us (and I think they were looking for an excuse to go anyway). So we met them outside a nearby metro stop and hopped on a trolley bus. They had mentioned that we would go through an area of “people selling junk” in order to get to the animals. I assumed this meant tables of junky souvenirs, but when we got there, it was more like hundreds of little yard sales lined up along the street. Plastic tarps on the ground were covered with worn, dirty shoes (more frequently than you might expect, there was only one shoe), faded clothing (including more used underwear than I ever want to see again), cassette tapes (I caught a glimpse of The Bodyguard soundtrack), and so much more miscellaneous….junk. We did slow down to take a look at some old Soviet machine guns, but decided it was probably best to keep moving.

We finally got to an area that had actual market stalls….all selling hardware. I’m not really sure how that’s related to pets, but we squeezed past chainsaws and deadbolt locks and finally found ourselves at the pet market. “Animal market” might be a more correct term as there were not only puppies, kittens, rabbits, and fish, but also peacocks, chickens, ducks, turkey, and other fowl. The amazing thing was that even though most of the animals were not even caged, none of them were bothering each other or making any attempt to escape.

We spent most of our time in the dog aisles, and a 2-month-old Black Russian Terrier immediately caught Shawn’s attention. He (the dog) was very cute and the seller showed us photos of his parents (the dog’s) and even a paper proving he was certified. We decided to keep looking, but just a few aisles later, Shawn turned to me and said we needed to go back and look at the dog again. I started to worry that we were going to end up with a puppy before our personal belongings even got here, but by the time we made it back to where the puppy was, he had already been sold.

Our friends were disappointed that there were no golden retrievers among the dozens of dogs being sold, but as we left (back past the hardware…) there was a woman with a box of yellow lab puppies. After holding one for a while, they decided that it probably wasn’t the right time for them to get a dog. But I envision another trip to the pet market will be in the not-so-distant future for all of us.