Six years later I find myself in a position of déjà vu. I feed the stray cats that come into
the garden every day and over the years we have had a regular number of feline visitors. However, we have never had a stray dog arrive at the house. About a week ago when we got back one afternoon a small, young, rough haired, spaniel type, golden and white dog came into the front garden. She didn’t have a collar, she was quite timid but friendly and I could see she was very hungry. I didn’t have any dog food to give her so I resorted to opening a can of cat food, which to be honest is pretty similar to the dog food out here. She ate it all very fast and as I had nothing else I gave her a bit of bread as well. She hung around in the garden after finishing the food and then went out through the garden gate. I thought she would be off on her way but a little while later when we popped out in the car I noticed her running down the road after us for a short distance. Upon our return a couple of hours later there was no sign of her and again I thought she would have roamed off as stray dogs are wont to do.
Following that first meeting we went away for a few days, but when we got back to my surprise who should be outside the gate but the same little dog. Once again I only had cat food to give her, but resolved to purchase some dog food later that evening. This time she didn’t leave and hung around our garden. I fed her some of the dog food I had bought and she sat by us on the back terrace in the evening. When we went to bed she slept on the patio under the tiled roof. I expected her to have gone in the morning and when I went down there was no sign of her out the back, but no sooner had I opened the back door than she came running around from the front garden ready to enjoy her breakfast. I named her Megan.
She was very nervous about coming inside the house and she seemed particularly anxious about crossing the threshold in case she got shut in the front door or patio window and had to be encouraged in when we wanted to close them, but once I moved her feed inside she gradually built up the courage to come in after her meal. She never made a mess in the house and would ask to go outside. Over the next day or so she would leave the garden on occasions and trot up the road despite my calling to her. Sometimes she would look back at me as if to ask “are you coming along for a walk?” Unfortunately she was able to fit through the metal railings on the garden gate so she could get out any time she wanted, but thankfully the roads in the vicinity are extremely quiet and the area is deserted at this time of year as most people are no longer here on holiday, so although it was not an ideal or desirable situation, traffic was not my main concern. On one of these occasions I decided to follow her to see where she went, but although I was only a minute or so behind I could not see any trace of her. Whenever she went off I felt a bit despondent as I was not sure whether or not she would return. As long as I could ensure she would stay with me I would be able to help her find a home, which had to be better than a life starving on the streets. I need not have worried though as every time within 5 to 10 minutes of her leaving when I looked out of the window I would spy her lying on the pavement outside my gate or wondering around my garden.
It looked like she had decided to stay. Next I bought her a pink food bowl in the shape of a bone, a pink collar and lead, a soft pink bed and resolved to take her for a walk on the lead. Being a stray dog I expected her to hate walking on a lead and fight against it like a young pup or pull like a train, so I was very surprised when she walked out really well with me without pulling at all. I started to build up a picture of what most probably had happened to her. Due to her friendliness and the fact that she was house and lead trained she had obviously been someone’s pet at some point and she definitely was not a feral street dog. Either someone had had her as a cute pup and then as she got older and became less cute, had decided to dump her, or an ex-pat had had her and when they decided to return home they had left her behind as they didn’t want to pay for her fare home. Brutal but sadly all too common.
My next step was to contact my friend Suzane Fehmi from K9 Country Kennels at Kaplica. Suzan has lots of contacts and is very experienced in the re-homing of stray dogs from Cyprus. It was Suzan who had cared for our Genghis all those years ago and got him ready to travel to the UK to join us. As I write this blog I am due to have a meeting with Suzan tomorrow to introduce Megan to her with a view to start to promote her on the adoption sites. Suzan also has a scanner so we can see if Megan has a microchip, unlikely but worth a try. I have also booked Megan in to see Sybil the local vet who vaccinated Genghis and got him fit and well. She will need vaccinations and I will also need to get her neutered if she hasn’t been done already.