Let Loose the Dogs...

I cannot help but notice that dogs are not well regarded here on this small Greek island. It’s not hard to come to this conclusion. My neighbour had three tied up 24/7 although one occasionally breaks free and attacks my small bitch Border Terrier. I say “had” because one was taken by my neighbour’s mother back to a neighbouring island with her. This leaves two and when my neighbour had a baby two months ago their lives were not noticeably improved by being shunted into an even less comfortably environment, alongside the house on a piece of earth. I’m sure their kennels are warm and they are fed and watered every day.

The local vet provides anti-poison serum. A sweet young Alsatian pup was poisoned late summer, a friend with a Dobermann has been threatened, had excrement on her doorstep and stones thrown. The little girl who owned the Alsatian has acquired a peculiar black dog with minuscule legs and now a tiny puppy that she throws around. Rosie showed good sense when the little girl tried to pick her up ny her legs and only for the second time in her life growled. The other time was another little girl trying to do the same.

I met a group of schoolchildren on a trip when I was down at the beach (early morning when I wouldn’t normally encounter children) and was delighted when two of them wanted to play with her. Unlike others, they didn’t drag her around like a toy but I had to stop them giving her water directly out of their bottles! The fought over throwing her ball and were a delight to talk to in my fractured Greek.

Other dogs are booted out first thing to walk themselves and are generally shouted at, have stones thrown or parents clutch their children’s hands and pulling them away from the dogs just in case. The parents frequently pick up a stone ready. The amount of dog mess is, as you may imagine, enormous. Since one daily occupation of housewives is to sluice the balconies (perhaps inside too, I can’t tell), the hose running does at least send the mess cascading along the streets, all of which seem to run downhill. Drains are few and far between. The small refuse bins on the beach, prevalent in summer, disappear in winter as presumably there is no litter. The fact that council workers are laid off then too is probably a complete coincidence. I’ve noticed that Mondays a man comes in a truck with a rake and scrapes the top layer of detritus off the beach. The rest seems to get burnt, plastic, polystyrene, paper and palm fronds that in summer provides a roof for the local kafenio.

Let Loose the Dogs... 2

So back to the dogs. I was walking Rosie-the-dog down to the local beach as usual the other morning and she stopped to gaze down over a wall onto a piece of waste land. This has rather a lot of human disposal stuff like plastic coffee cups etc plus iron bedsteds and the like. This walk is pretty safe as very few cars come up this side road and can’t pass through in most places anyway so she was off the lead as usual. A man had also stopped to look. I was coming along behind her and was thinking how sweet this looks, man and dog - then suddenly his foot shot out and kicked her over the edge of the drop. I was completely stunned and started running, shouting in a mixture of Greek and English yelling - what did he think he was doing, this was my dog you tosser, she had done nothing etc. He turned, surprised and I was yelling at the top of my voice. He was a bit surprised and started explaining. I didn't listen (frankly I couldn't understand anyway), carrying on with my tirade. Eventually he got the message. Rosie couldn't get out from this piece of wasteland and I tried to cajole her over to the steps which are almost hidden by weeds etc. The man then said he would fix it, climbed down, picked her up and put her on the path, apologising profusely. I grumpily said it was OK and thanked him for helping her.

This morning on our walk, Rosie decided it had been such fun to be in that piece of land, she jumped down to investigate. Surprise surprise, she couldn’t get out. Who should come along but the man who’d booted her over. We exchanged good mornings and he apologised for his behaviour of the other day. He noticed I was struggling to get Rosie out. So, he climbed over and rescued her! I think honour is well and truly satisfied.