The OSIRIS-REx launch at the Kennedy Space Center

Wow, two months since the last post! I guess I've adapted well the local culture of doing things "tomorrow". Also, after a few months even a life that's very different to the life before moving abroad starts to feel mundane and finding anything worth reporting becomes increasingly difficult.

Last week, however, I went to my first vacation outside Puerto Rico since coming here, which should be at least slightly more interesting story than what part of the fence the dogs broke this time. And we're doing radar observing, which includes a lot of waiting, so I need to keep awake somehow.

So the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission was launched last week and since the Arecibo Observatory was collaborating with the mission planning, our former group lead Mike Nolan, who still works for the mission, offered us invitations to see the launch. And who could say no to a rocket launch? Not me!

The launch was scheduled to happen on September 8th from the Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) with the 9th and 10th of September as reserve days in case the weather didn't permit the launch on the 8th. To cover the whole span of potential days we – I,  Patrick and Luisa – flew to Orlando on the 6th and had a return flight on the 11th. We rented a cubic Kia Soul; a car that I've been smirking at for the last few months because they look like something that your grandpa kept in the garage since the 60s. They're relatively common on the island. Anyway, it was a cheap and more spacious choice than the sleek but compact Hyundai we were offered with the same price so we took the Soul.

We stayed in a motel at Cocoa Beach, some 50 km west from Orlando. Cocoa Beach is a pretty basic tourist island with not much else than hotels, shops, restaurants, minigolf, and of course beaches. The drive to KSC is a bit less than 30 minutes. The invitation to the launch included a complementary four-day ticket to the space center's visitor complex, which is a fusion of a science museum and an amusement park.

For us, it was almost like a disneyland. So we skipped the real Walt Disney World and Universal Studios (although the new Harry Potter world was pretty tempting) and whatever else Orlando offers and just went to the KSC visitor center every day. The first day we spent in just the Atlantis exhibition. I've visited KSC when I was 11 years old, and don't remember anything else than the bus tour, but I think that I can pretty safely say that there's been significant changes in 16 years. After all, in modern times 16 years is a long time for technologic advancements and that's what NASA's all about. Just the entrance to the exhibit takes the visitors to a cinematographically impressive journey through the shuttle's history ending with the revelation of the shuttle from behind the movie screen.

The main exhibition: The Atlantis space shuttle

Did you know that if your car engine were as efficient as a space shuttle engine,
it would be the size of a loaf of bread and would cost $100? Now you know!

The exhibition includes both simple games and pure information about anything regarding astronauts or space shuttles and rockets, most info screens being in some way interactive. I have to say, the congratulating text of the astronaut games, "Great job! Maybe working for NASA could be in your future", does feel different when you already get your salary from NASA!

The closest thing to an amusement park ride was the shuttle launch simulator, in which the visitors could experience how it would feel like to be an astronaut to be shot in space in a tiny metallic tube. Just without the g-forces or the tingling fear that the rocket may explode any second. So it was fun in more a cute than a super-exciting way. But despite all the modern technology, our group's favorite attraction turned out to be a 20-meter-long slide that also adults were fully allowed to use.

The grand event, the launch, took place in a nicest possible weather, in the very beginning of the launch window, at 7:05pm local time. The number of launch guests was in total ~8000, from which maybe 1500-2000 people were in the same viewing point as we so transporting the crowds to the viewing places started already two hours before the launch. While waiting, we were able to visit the Saturn V -exhibition (very impressive!). The actual size of the space rockets is always difficult to comprehend because usually you only see them in pictures without a proper scale or from a very far distance. Standing next to one is whole another story.

The Saturn V -exhibition was dedicated mainly to the Moon flights.

People waiting for the launch in Banana Creek viewing point.

The launch itself was breathtaking! We were pretty far from the launch pad but as soon as the countdown reached zero, you could see a bright light igniting in the horizon, and in a few seconds hear and feel the roar of the rocket that keeps rising and rising, leaving but a column of smoke below. In the column, you can see the gradient of white to maroon as the sun sets below the horizon behind our backs.

The OSIRIS-REx was lift to space with an Atlas V -rocket.

If you're interested in what's the OSIRIS-REx mission is about, its schedule or any technical information, you can find it on the mission's excellent home pages at www.asteroidmission.org.

New twists in AO funding issues

This week we saw a new twist in the funding issues of the Arecibo Observatory. On Tuesday, July 12, Subcommittee on Space and Subcommittee on Research and Technology of the US Congress heard a panel of experts on astronomy, astrophysics, and astrobiology. The witnesses were Director of NASA's Astrophysics Division Dr. Paul Hertz, National Science Foundation (NSF) Director of Division of Astronomical Sciences, Dr. Jim Ulvestad, Chair of Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee Dr. Angela Olinto, Breakthrough Listen Advisory Committee and San Diego's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences member Dr. Shelley Wright, and President of American Astronomical Society Dr. Christine Jones. So whatever this folk says in front of US congress, you better believe it, right?

The hearing began with Dr. Hertz's overview of the current stage of astronomical research, such as studies of supermassive black holes and increasing research of exoplanets as our technologic abilities finally enable studying them. Dr. Ulvestad stressed the NSF's role as a leader in enabling the research of all magnificent galactic and extragalactic objects, praising especially Large Synopic Survey Telescope (LSST) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA): 

"LSST will discover thousands of potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids, it will enable contributions by citizen scientists who will use its datasets to participate in the excitement of astronomical discovery."

Dr. Shelley Wright described the research of Search of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and radio telescopes such as Parkes and Greenbank in addition to the new Chinese FAST as irreplaceable instruments for finding the ET.

After the initial testimonies, the panel was interviewed about current or near-future missions, observatories and instruments of interest. Arecibo Observatory funding was discussed as well. Republican representative Mr. Rohrabacher had heard about NSF's plans for mothballing Arecibo Obsevatory (AO) and raised his concerns for whether there are currently any other assets that enable us to find and predict the paths of potentially hazardous objects as accurately as AO.

"So first I'll say, we haven't made any decisions about what the future of Arecibo is, we're studying a variety of options, but in terms of detecting objects far out, what you really need for that is a survey telescope with a very wide field of view, which Arecibo is not. Arecibo's radar can be used to characterize the properties of an object, say, an asteroid that is already known about that you can point at, but in terms of NSF investment, the LSST which can survey the sky --" Here Mr. Rohrabacher interrupts Dr. Ulvestad asking if LSST is already operational to handle the asteroid detections. Dr. Ulvestad confirms that LSST is not yet fully operational and continues:

"Well, Arecibo, as I said, is not a survey telescope, so it can only do radar characterization of asteroids that are already known about." 

Mr. Rohrabacher tries to remind that radar calculations can also predict if the asteroid will actually impact the Earth. Believe it or not, Dr. Ulvestad denies the truth:

"No, what they actually do is radar assessments of what the composition of the object is, if it's a rubble-pile instead of solid iron mass have a very different impact. -- It's involved with tracking [the object] but tracking can also be done with optical and infrared telescopes."

Mr. Rohrabacher asks directly: "So your testimony today is that Arecibo is not providing at this time a service that is not being provided by someone else?"

"So as I mentioned, the radar characterization is unique to Arecibo, the characterization of the properties of an asteroid. Now NASA also has a radar at Goldstone, but that's a smaller dish so its reaching to the distance is not as far", Dr. Ulvestad replies.

"Right, so the actual being able to determine the, as you say, what the composition is, is not something that tells us whether or not that is a threat to the Earth?"

"It tells us something about whether it's a threat to the Earth. I think that it doesn't tell us uniquely about its path."

The answer of Dr. Ulvestad (and the rest of the panel) almost made us – Patrick, Ed and myself – choke on our drinks when we heard it the first time while enjoying our lunch. So, if that's what the NSF's Director of Division of Astronomical Sciences thinks, no wonder why the NSF is planning to divest the AO funding. Unfortunately, what Dr. Ulvestad thinks is not completely true. The main task of the planetary radar group of the AO is to refine the orbits of newly found asteroids so that they don't get lost or, if they are potentially hitting the Earth, increase the accuracy of the orbit solution as was done in the case of Apophis. We can also study the composition in terms of how metallic an object is, as Dr. Ulvestad says, or how rough the surface is, or tell it's spin properties, but those are all secondary objectives. Goldstone can do that as well, but it's part of the Deep Space Network and therefore used for many other tasks, in addition to being much smaller, as was mentioned.

This also raises a question of does the NSF's Director of Division of Astronomical Sciences not understand how radar works, or is he being deliberately misleading (which would be perjury) to promote the LSST? Yes, LSST will have the world's best CCD camera, but it is still a ground-based optical/near-infrared telescope that cannot determine the distance of an asteroid without multiple observations. LSST will not have enough time on it's schedule to concentrate on tracking asteroids. AO needs one successful detection of the asteroid to determine the distance to a few tens of meters at best, and the radial velocity to millimeters per second. NASA has stated that they don't send spacecrafts to asteroids that are not been radar-detected.

Even if LSST did concentrate on asteroid surveying, it will very likely not discover thousands of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) and determine their orbits super accurately. Near-Earth asteroids, possibly, but not PHAs. Currently, more than 14,500 near-Earth asteroids have been discovered and only slightly over 1,700 of those are PHAs. The size limit for a PHA is 150 meters in diameter. Pan-Starrs and Catalina Sky Survey combined discover roughly 1000-1500 near-Earth asteroids per year, but their primary objective is to look for asteroids while LSST will also have a variety of other objectives. 

I can't stress enough that there's absolutely no point of knowing about existence of potentially hazardous asteroids if we don't know exactly where they are and where they are going.

Basically, NSF wants to rip $8 million dollars from Arecibo (or at least $4 million). With only $1 million more, the telescope could even be improved. In total, NSF budget is nearly $250 million. I also want to remind that in 2014 NSF wanted to divest from the Greenbank radio telescope, which was fortunately saved by the US congress. NSF says that even the largest single-dish radio telescope that is currently in open use for any US scientist and the better one of the only two systematically radar transmitting radar telescopes in the world is not doing something that someone else could do, while at the same time they are investing $27.5 million to another optical ground-based telescope. I'm not saying that LSST would not be better than many other optical telescopes, but this ratio of cost to importance is as ridiculous as having an NSF's Director of Division of Astronomical Sciences who does not understand how a radar works. 

Last year the director of AO was basically forced to quit because he had criticized NSF. I'm not sure if NSF could kick me out for writing this post, especially because my funding comes from NASA instead of NSF, but in general the AO employees are in a difficult position between keeping our jobs making great science/defending the planet and a funding agency that claims that a variety of options regarding the observatory future is studied but obviously seems to have made up its mind of the most favorable option. AO does not want to start a war with NSF but neither is it right to spread false information about the important work that is done. Our only hope is that the US Congress can see through that false information or that another party comes to our rescue. 

What made the hearing even worse was the ego stroking of the other panelists. Dr. Hertz from NASA's Astrophysics Division "certainly agrees with everything that Dr. Ulvestad said". He also reminded that, unlike Arecibo that's sitting in a valley the way it does, Goldstone can be pointed (I guess he meant that it can be steered; telescope that can't be pointed really wouldn't see anything at all). Also Dr. Olinto reinforced this "fact". We should seriously invite all these people to visit the observatory to show that we can actually point our radar beam to a lot more than one point in the sky!

My compliments to Mr. Rohrabacher though for appearing smarter than the five doctors sitting opposite to him.

Day on the beach

As of today, I've stayed in Puerto Rico for three months. And only yesterday I burned my back for the first time! Like most Finnish people, my skin is almost as white as milk so I'm surprised it took three months to burn properly. But yesterday was also the first time (ever!) when I've stayed on a beach for 6-7 hours straight, so I guess I deserved that...

The beach was pretty amazing; it was in Cabo Rojo, in Southwestern part of the island. I went there with the summer students, their coordinator, and another observatory employee, Lucy, with her friends/family. Lucy has there a cabin where we stayed at. The beach is available only for people with jeeps or rovers that can handle the rockiest "road" I've ever seen; a hilly, winding, unpaved path that's bulldozed by some locals every once in a while. With a regular car you're guaranteed to get stuck. Nevertheless, if you don't get there by 11 am on vacation days, finding a spot can be challenging. The beach is a long, white sand dream beach with clear turquoise water and trees to provide shade. Families take food, barbecues, coolers full of ice and refreshments, music, and some people even take jet skis, kayaks and boats. They put chairs and sun shades into the water and sit there the whole day.

Before 10 am the beach is perfectly tranquil...

... while by 2 pm it's a full beach party!

There were tiny crabs inside sea shells crawling in the sand

So some of us went there to reserve a spot as early as 9:30am. We went swimming, barbecued hot dogs and relaxed. In the afternoon a friend of Lucy brought there a motorboat (in the middle picture above) and we got to a few-mile-long boat ride to Boquerón and back. The boat jumped through the waves like a galloping horse. A moment like that, feeling the warmth of the sun, cooling splashes of sea water, and the excitement of the speeding boat gave me the feeling of how lucky one must be to be able to do things like that and makes, at least me, really grateful for that.

On Thursday 30th of June, the Asteroid Day was celebrated to spread awareness of the asteroid research done to, for example, prevent asteroids impacting the Earth and find out how the Solar System was formed. I was asked to give a live stream interview about asteroid research we do at the Arecibo Observatory as one part of a series of interviews with some of the other asteroid researchers around the world (me mainly because I was the only member of the planetary radar group on the island on that day). However, the organizers encountered unexpected technical issues only a while before my interview was due so it had to be cancelled. They tried to reschedule it for the next morning but with too short a notice for us.

Instead, a TV reporter (completely separate from the Asteroid Day) came around on Friday noon to interview some scientists of the observatory about how we compare to the new Chinese telescope FAST, the construction of which was finished yesterday. I and Robert talked to the TV group, but later on the same day found out that they're actually tightly affiliated with Chinese and that the interview would be aired in China as well as the USA. Unfortunately, NASA employees are not allowed to discuss science with the Chinese, so when Ed turned up later that day, after a short discussion we decided to withdraw the interview before it would be aired. Seems like it's not the time for my TV nor Internet stardom yet...

The mid-summer weekend (this year 24th-26th of June) is traditionally celebrated in Finland with saunas, bonfires, sausage, summer cottages, mosquitoes, and swimming in freezing lakes or the Baltic Sea, just because it's definitely a sign of weakness if you haven't "lost the winter coat" by mid-summer ("losing the winter coat" means swimming for the first time after the last winter). And of course booze. After the mid-summer the news always report how many people drowned because they went swimming drunk.

This year I of course missed most of that, as the only saunas around are cars that have been standing in the sun without the A/C on, and the sea water's always warm. A bonfire probably wouldn't have been a good idea either. Many houses are more or less like summer cottages, though, and there sure is a lot of mosquitoes. As for the booze, we (Linda, I & Ben, one of the summer students) visited the largest rum distillery in the world: the Bacardí factory. We took the mixology tour, which takes you through the factory with a guide and finishes with a mixology class where you can learn to make Cuba libre, Daiquiri, and Mojito. It was relatively expensive (~$50) but the price includes four alcoholic drinks and the entertaining guided tour so we left happy.

The most expensive one of the Bacardí rums
is the hand-bottled special reserve.

Science behind the rum: the process requires
constant monitoring of temperature, acidity etc.

The tour ended with a class for three famous rum
cocktails: Cuba libre, Daiquiri, and Mojito.

Ramses

After the serious funding issue post it's time to get back to the lighter topics. Like nature and animals! So... I got a cat. The cat (Ramses) was forwarded to me from Andrew who got it with his house from an ex-observatory employee (as is sort of traditional around here). His daughter is a bit allergic to it, and anyway he left the island for a vacation with his family so somebody had to take care of the cat at least while they're away. You already know that I have three dogs so getting a cat is certainly a bit questionable, but it's actually working out better than I expected. The mama dog Bubbles seems to be a bit afraid of Ramses so she doesn't approach him voluntarily. The puppies are curious and occasionally bark at the cat but can be controlled when face to face with it. In any case, the dogs are most of the time outside and the cat inside. So yes, it is actually possible to live with a cat and three dogs without a complete chaos!

Ramses has been taken care of by at least five different observatory employees.

Apart from spending time with the old and new members of my zoo, I've been touring the island with our summer students. One week ago we went to see the Cueva Ventana, the window cave. There's two different caves you can see, one of them with a big population of bats and an iconic "window", which shows a wonderful view of the Río Grande de Arecibo.

This weekend we went to the Bosque estatal de Río Abajo, a nature reserve where a local species of iguaca parrots has been recovered. You can't go all the way to the nesting area but the forest is beautiful as such, with giant bamboos and thousands of other tropical plants. We waited for an hour or so to see the parrots behind the gate to the nesting area but finally only heard them in the distance. We did see some hummingbirds, bright red bugs, and of course lizards, which you can see almost anywhere.

Instead of parrots we saw a flock of hummingbirds enjoying lunch.
Can you find the bird?

After the hike in the forest we went to see Lago Dos Bocas, a beautiful lake area with a dam. In addition to hydroelectric power, the river provides potable water for at least 1.3 million people on the north coast of Puerto Rico, and fish for local fishermen and various birds like pelicans that we saw hunting nearby the dam. The dam collects all the trash that the river brings, such as wood, car tyres, even fridges and TVs, so you can see fish feeding on the trash near the surface and, consequently, pelicans feeding on the fish.

At home, the breadfruit season is apparently peaking soon. The breadfruits are getting so ripe that they don't stay intact when they drop. Consequently the dogs eat them and, although it's not poisonous for them, it's so full of starch that they puke if they eat one whole.

The breadfruit tree getting the bombs ready.

SPLASH! The over-ripe breadfruits only feed the worms, ants, and sometimes my dogs after dropping from the tree.

For the end: selected portraits of the doggies. The puppies still have the mange but it's getting better all the time, weeks after weeks of mange medicating at the vet. I learned that there are different types of mange and that the one that they're having is a hereditary demodectic mange, or puppy mange. It's caused by a mite that all dogs and even people might have but that a normal immune system keeps it under control. That's why it mostly affects puppies with an undeveloped immune system.

Arecibo's uncertain future explained

During the last weeks or even months there's been a lot of rumors about the funding situation of the Arecibo Observatory. Some of you might have read the articles in major popular science magazines (or their web pages) such as National Geographic or Scientific American announcing troubling future for the observatory. Even among the employees of the observatory there's been a lot of confusion and anxiety about the issue. If you're not familiar with the background, the source of all the hassle is an announcement given by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that their advisory committees have recommended the reduction or, in the worst case scenario, ceasing of the observatory's funding and that they are looking for new collaborating parties to participate in the funding. This way they would be able to fund better newer telescopes as well as scientists. Currently, NSF funds the major part of the observatory's budget, $8.2 million per year, with NASA putting in $3.7 million to cover the planetary radar research. Note that the planetary radar research is congress mandated but NASA is not, however, currently willing to fund nor operate the whole observatory.

Yesterday two public meetings were held in San Juan as well as Arecibo, in which the NSF representatives represented the five options for the future of the observatory:
1) No actions are taken, NSF funding and science-focused operations continue as before
2) NSF reduces funding but collaboration with interested parties enables science-focused operations
3) Transition to education-focused operations, research ceases
4) Temporary suspension of operations but resuming in the future (mothballing)
5) Deconstruction and site restoration.

Although the meeting was "public", 95 % of the attendants were NSF or observatory employees or their relatives/spouses/close friends. Apparently nobody had notified NSF that when it comes to Puerto Rico, publicizing an event is not made with a small printed or online notification but with speakers and megaphones on a pick-up truck driving through all the streets. Also the name of the meeting was dressed as bureaucratic jargon ('NSF environmental impact statement and section 106 consultation for proposed changes to Arecibo Observatory operations') so the point of the meeting may have remained unclear for some of those locals who had seen the notifications. In essence, the point is to map the environmental, and also socioeconomic consequences of the different options. Note that if NSF decided to shut down the observatory for good, it has a liability to dismantle the telescope. Needless to say, that is not an option which anyone, even in the NSF advisory committees, would choose light-heartedly. Which ever decision is made, according to current plans the funding from the NSF should continue at least until spring 2018. The decision target is summer 2017.

Patrick and Andrew in the NSF meeting

Officially, the observatory employees are restricted to discuss any observatory matters to the public without a permission from the NSF or SRI International (another current collaborator). Unless it's something that is separately announced as public or reads on the NSF or observatory webpage anyway. Everything in the yesterday's meeting was public, so to let anyone who's interested to know what are the probabilities of each option based on the public comments that were given in the meeting, I'll summarize some good points made by the commenters.

• Reducing the NSF funding would also cripple the congress-mandated NASA funding, as it cannot keep the observatory up on it's own. We are currently and in near-future the only observatory with a powerful radar transmitter, helping to prevent the "environmental impact" that might follow from a deficient follow-up of near-Earth asteroids.
• There may be a unique biodiversity under the dish that must be well surveyed before even considering to dismantle the telescope, not to mention geologic and ground-water surveys (if you didn't know, the telescope is actually a mesh suspended in a natural depression providing a shady environment for various plants).
• The observatory has served an immense educational and inspirational purpose for decades especially for visiting children and students, encouraging them into science and technology. The Arecibo Observatory has it's own space academy (AOSA) for a few tens of Puertorican high-school students per term preparing them to college. Two thirds of the students already have a PhD, which is a huge number considering the level of education on the island. If we were a university, we would be statistically in the top 10 % of most graduating hispanic students. Especially hispanic women are underrepresented in science and technology, but AOSA helps them to get into the best universities of the world. In addition, we have every summer a bunch of undergraduate students from all over the USA. One of the old students is currently working as a senior manager at ALMA. It was also mentioned that spouses of observatory employees have founded good schools on the island. However, without active research on site, the educational and inspirational sides of the observatory would not fulfill. 
• The crippled economy of Puerto Rico and especially the local areas get huge socioeconomic benefits from the observatory. Tourists come to see the telescope from all over the world. The visitor center hosts as much as 100,000 visitors per year. Would they come to see an empty hole in the ground? In addition, the purchases of the observatory are made primarily from local producers in order to keep the money in Puerto Rico.  
• Although the meeting concentrated on environmental and socioeconomic consequences, the commenters reminded that we're a crucial instrument for various scientific projects, such as NANOGrav that uses the largest radiotelescopes in the world to observe gravitational waves. The commenter reminded that the gravitational waves were first detected only after the first advisory committee recommendations. In addition we're anticipating several findings concerning fast radio pulses and black holes.

View from under the dish.

So how likely are the different options? From my personal point of view:
1) No actions taken can be either the best or the second best option. The science, education and being a source of inspiration to masses would continue – but for how long? The risk of scarce funding would likely still remain or at least return within a decade, the way it has been for the last decade. This is quite likely option though.
2) The best option would be to find a collaborator or a few that would provide secure funding for years to come. I'd say that it's likely to find at least some new collaborator(s), but the more secure the funding, the smaller the probability of finding it.
3) Transition to education-based operations seems a stupid solution as big part of the educational success is based on the active research that inspires the students. What about the maintenance of the telescope? Would it continue? In Puerto Rico, the continuous maintenance is vital. This is (hopefully) a very unlikely option.
4) The temporary suspension of the operations is actually a very similar option to the education-based operations. The same questions follow: What about the maintenance of the telescope? Would even remote observing be possible? When would the operations continue or is it just an excuse to avoid the liability to dismantle the telescope? Personally, I see this as a more likely option for NSF than deconstruction but (as an optimist) less likely as continuing the research in some way or another.
5) Again, maybe too optimistic but I'd say that the worst option is also the least likely of the five. The bio-, geo-, water- and other surveys in addition to the cost of bulldozing the largest radiotelescope of the western world against the strong congressional support would be the absolutely last option any sane person could take.

Another topic that has been lately under discussion or even debate is the Five hundred meter aperture telescope (FAST) that is under construction in China and should be operational this year. Will Arecibo observatory cease to be the biggest and best radio telescope in the world? Should the observatory be closed because there's now a better one? Well, it's not so black and white. As Rhys Taylor says: "anyone thinking that Arecibo is about to become obsolete is woefully mistaken". The bottom line: FAST may look big, but it doesn't have a radar transmitter.

Dogs, dogs, dogs... *sigh*

It's been two weeks since the last post. Usually I try to write at least one post a week but last weekend it was just too difficult because everything from the previous weekend was still too fresh in my mind. As a brief review from the previous post, my puppies got a parvovirus, which is probably one of the nastiest diseases that puppies can get. If there's worse ones, I don't want to know about them. So if you're sensitive to animals' wellbeing, you might want to jump the first few paragraphs.

According to some local vets, the prognosis for surviving it is about 2-9 % if untreated or, even if hospitalized in an early stage, some tens of percents. The symptoms include lethargy, loss of appetite, bloody diarrhea and vomiting. And with the escaping fluids comes a distinctive, lingering smell that still gives me cold shivers whenever I think I smell it somewhere. In the heat of Puerto Rico, the dogs basically just dry up even if you force them to drink every hour.

Michelle got over it quickly and that's partly why I wasn't as worried of the others as I should have been. But for Bungee and Joy, it was as bad as it can get. I took Bungee to an animal emergency room but it was too late, she passed away only minutes after I handed her to the nurses. When the vet told me the diagnosis, prognosis, and the price of hospitalizing the rest of the sick puppies, I knew that I wouldn't have been able to save her and might lost another one or two puppies. I don't have thousands of dollars, especially when the survival wouldn't even be certain. So I used some $100 to buy medicines to them, drove home and put Joy and Jumper into a bathroom so that they wouldn't mess up the whole house or try to walk around and that I could get some much needed sleep. The next morning I woke up with an agonizing fear of what I'd find in the bathroom where I had put the sick puppies the last night.

The mess and the smell were horrific, but the puppies were still alive. I gave them a warm bath and tried to give the meds. Jumper ate at least most of them but it soon turned out that Joy was already too weak and in pain to swallow anything. Ed and Linda (who had the puppies before me) came to bring some dog food for the healthier dogs and made me breakfast (at that point I had lost my appetite as well). After they left I went to see the puppies in the bathroom. Jumper was lying next to Joy holding a paw over her weak but still breathing body. I'll save you from the worst part of seeing and hearing her wither away and hope that you'll never have to experience that. I called to Linda for help and she sent our another colleague and my neighbor Tapasi to help me. Joy was gone a few minutes before Tapasi arrived. We took her and Jumper to another vet that Tapasi and her husband Chris who's also working at the observatorylike to go to. And they promised to pay the hospital bill for Jumper. Seriously... how amazing colleagues and neighbors can you have??? I never stop wondering how friendly some people can be...

Why I hadn't gone to them earlier is a question I've been asking from myself since. I guess that it's just so deeply cultural that asking help, especially from a neighbor, doesn't even cross my mind. By now I've talked with 3 out of 4 of my closest neighbors. In Helsinki I ever talked with up to one neighbor, and the only reason I could imagine to ask their help for anything would be forgetting my keys and phone inside after shutting the door and there's absolutely no other option.

Jumper had to stay for four days but she got better. The positive sides of the whole tragedy were that at least two puppies survived, and that it was me and not Linda who had to go it through. If I had helped to nurse the puppies like she did when Bubbles didn't, I probably wouldn't have been able to work the whole week. I'm also not comparing my loss to anyone whose dog that they had had for years or even over a decade had died in some awful way. Not to mention people who lose their own children or other friends or family. At that week the Facebook group Humans of New York was interviewing people at the children's cancer department. That really helped me to get perspective to the situation. Currently, the puppies are completely over the parvo and on Friday received their first vaccinations to prevent any further diseases. Now they've got the mange though... *sigh*

If I had a proper fence around the whole backyard, I probably wouldn't have to deal with this kind of problems. But there's one weak point that the puppies know to be weak and even if I fix that part of the fence, they'll break it again. Or in Michelle's case, climb/jump over (seriously, she climbs like a cat!). I keep Bubbles in a leash and that's usually problem-free but if I put the puppies to a leash they manage to tangle themselves to anything that's nearby. Even their own feet. On Tuesday at 3:45am, I found myself untying a huge knot of leash and puppy-paws to free whining Michelle from her suffering (I might not have even heard her if the on/off button of the remote control for the air-conditioning hadn't broken and I hadn't been awake anyway due to night sweat). So keeping Michelle in a leash is not a great option either for long times. So my weekly routine has become getting up at 6am, going out to get the puppies (or at least Michelle) back to the backyard, changing the leash from Bubbles to Michelle and going back to bed for an hour, getting up again, having breakfast, feeding the dogs, fixing the fence, washing up and going to work thinking: "Now it should hold!". In the evening I collect Michelle from the other side of the fence again, scold her, and fix the fence yet another time... *sigh*

The event of this week was finally receiving my social security card, relocation bonus, and as a result of the latter, my own car, so now I'm a real, living person in a Puertorican bureaucratic sense and able to drive a modern car with functional A/C, radio, steering and gas tank! Again, I have to give special thanks to my wonderful colleagues, this time Andrew who helped me with buying the car through the whole process, even by lending me money. I bought it as used so I really needed the help. Amazing people!!! The first night when driving home from the observatory I forgot the handbrake on... *sigh* (nothing unrepairable happened but Tapasi could smell it all the way to their house)

The pretty side of my new Hyundai.

Coquí report #7: Still no coquís on the yard but a huge katydid just flew in! Yesterday one huge cockroach had got into my bedroom and two days ago the puppies caught a rat and tried to eat it. I'd much rather have the coquís... [Late update on May 29th: I think I saw a coquí today! But I'm not sure because it was half-eaten by a puppy...] *sigh*

A katydid in a Bacardi cup.
It's almost in the same position as the bat!

Trouble in paradise

While the last weekend was amazing, this weekend has been anything but. Earlier this week one of the puppies, Michelle, got sick. She got better quickly, but then all the other puppies got the same stomach flu one by one and it's been even worse for the others. Especially Bungee is becoming skin and bones after not eating in four days and vomiting everything she ingests. I took her to a vet who gave her some medicine and instructions for treatment but there's not much else that I can do.

Poor Joy not feeling as joyful as usually.

So the weekend's been mostly cleaning up after the puppies. And fighting off ants that try to overtake new lebensraum. The big man-eating ants already overtook the puppies' food tank so I tried spraying them with as dog-friendly sprays as possible, like vinegar although the dogs hate the smell of it. And the smaller ants keep trying to find new trails inside while I try to find the holes where they enter the house.

At least I got my social security number issue progressed this week... sort of... There's a lot I can't do without it, like get a local cellphone plan or buy a car but getting one has turned out to be much more difficult than I anticipated. First time when I went to apply the number I was missing my birth certificate, which we don't get in Finland by default but have to request separately from a notary, and of course I hadn't even thought of that before moving here.

So the day after I received it (sent by my mom from Finland as soon as possible but still 10 days later) I went to the social security office at 9 am when it opened. I waited outside for half an hour in a line that extended some 20 meters from the door. After I got inside I took my number and waited for another hour or so. Note that this is normal here and could be even worse if I came later during the day. Last time I did the same in fever. The office was open only from 9 to noon so probably no one who arrived after 10am got service that day. I've heard that many offices are even worse, such as the department of transportation where I have to go after buying a car to register it to me (possibly twice). Can't wait that trip...

When I got to the officer, he took my papers, wondered how young I look considering my year of birth in the papers and told me to wait some more while he registers me in the system. After another 20 minutes he calls me back and asks my papers and wonders some more of how young I look, being a doctoral scientist and all. Then I wait for about 10 minutes while he takes photocopies of the papers (don't ask me how copying a few papers can take that long...).

Five minutes before the noon I walk out with an application receipt, request to call the next day to find out if they got the process running (I was the apparently the only one with a status of non-immigrant visiting scientist status that he had ever tried to process so he had some problems trying to register me in the system) and a rum recipe for a cough (I was coughing a few times while sitting there so he wanted to share his family recipe of rum, honey and lemon). I tried to call him a few times to ask about the process but he was never available. Next week I'll probably just try to call a random officer to ask about the status of the application.

The most special event of the week was the official re-opening of the visitor center. There was some fruit and pastries, speeches and eminent people cutting a symbolic ribbon.

Coquí report #6: After the sunset I can see some small and dark creatures moving on the yard but with a closer look they're just cockroaches. Maybe I should change the coquí report to a doggy report... It took me multiple hours to write this post because I had to get up every few minutes to see how they're doing.

Earlier this week I tied up Joy and Michelle before leaving to work because they're the escape artists of the pack. But when I came home, they had tied themselves up accidentally even tighter to a near-by chair. 

Late update to the post: According to another, better vet, it's probably a parvovirus. Bungee and Joy didn't make it. Jumper was taken into an animal hospital so I hope that she will get through it although the vet didn't want to get my hopes up too soon.