Spanish Street Dogs; the other Waifs and Strays.

As a teenager I never took on board much of what my father taught me and he died thirty years ago so he's not around to remind me but one little gem he did come out with was this...

"A man chases a woman 'til she catches him..."

It occurred to me that this may be a way of gaining the trust of the last little Troggie whom I have named 'Siouxsie' after the banshee racket she makes when anyone gets too close to her territory.

Rather than trying to make a fuss of her this afternoon when I took her food out to the cave, I called her once, by name, put her food down and then sat by a little distance away to see what would happen. She came out, knowing it was me of course, and started eating.

I know her routine by now, she will eat a few mouthfuls and then go off to answer a call of nature. When she comes back for a second shot is when I normally start talking quietly to her. This time I just stayed quiet with my back to her supposedly ignoring her.

It was all very quiet. Suddenly she came up to me and grabbed my ponytail, tugged on it a couple of times and then nudged me in the back. Seeing this as something of a breakthrough, I turned around slowly to find her in a heads down, bum up, 'I want to play' stance. I adopted a similar pose and she slowly advanced towards me. (True!) But as soon as I reached out she backed off, her tail wagging furiously. We messed around for a couple of minutes, me reaching out, and her hurtling off in the opposite direction then returning but every time she staying just out of reach. Playtime came to an abrupt end however when one of the villagers appeared about 100 metres away with hs dog off the leash.

Souxsie disappeared like a shot into her little refuge. It's not the dogs she is wary of, its humans. I know from watching her when her siblings were around that she is more than capable of looking after herself, some of the fights they had were frightening to watch. Summer and I can walk past the cave with all of the rest of our pack in tow and she will stand her ground. Our two pack leaders are big dogs, as I have said one is a greyhound bitch and the other a male Saluki but there is never a sign of aggression from anyone.

So...maybe some kind of breakthrough; I hope so, it would be nice to get Souxsie of the street.

Summer70 and I spent nearly two hours today trying to coax the last trog to come out and be stroked. Failed miserably! She is far too canny to fall for any tricks. Did manage to get a towel over her at one stage but like lightning she was out of it and gone!

I went back this evening and took her some food and at one point she was actually taking it from my open hand, but again any attempt to stroke her and she shot back down to her little cave refuge. And of course its pointless trying the towel again; at the first sign of it she'll be gone. Will just have to be patient I guess. But in the meantime I need to restore a little of her confidence.

More later...

OK been a while since I said anything about Spike or Scruffy our two delinquent abandonados.

Took bothto the vets on Saturday for their final round of routine jabs and microchipping. (Thats got to hurt have you seen the size of the bloody needle?) Anyway both got over it pretty quickly although scruffy was sick on the way home, but thats probably just car-sickness and stress relief.

What has all this to do with Prison Break?

Spike and Scruffy have found a place they can sit out in the sun when its warm...as I have said we don't have a garden or patio just a small roof terrace, and the dogs aren't to happy up there.

Hers a picture taken this afternoon...

Spike is on the left and Scruffy is on the right.

They arent the best behaved dogs in the world and they terrorise Sox our podenca.

Izzy and Leo tend to look upon them as being beneath contempt and have disowned them completely and have moved upstairs into the spare bedroom...

anyway....guess that's it for now...

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I was talking to one of the villagers today and he told me that he thinks that the missing trio were picked up by a Repsol tanker driver who passes through the village. This gives me some hope that the three of them might just have some kind of life. I just hope its the kind of life that I would wish for them...

In the meantime, the fourth one decided to go walkabout yesterday; I took some food down for her mid afternoon and she was there as happy as Larry. When I took the rest of the pack out around 7pm though she had gone. I checked on her at around midnight and still no sign. Given the disappearance of the others i got a bit concerned, particularly when she was adrift all day today as well. However when I took the pack out tonight at around midnight she was back, hungrily demanding her tea when we approached her cave. Just been down to see that she's ok and so she is! Still not willing to be touched or stroked so I guess that capture routine we were going to do today will have to be put off til later. Maybe she will respond better to a female touch. Hope So.

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1/3/11

All but one of the troglodyte cave dwellers have disappeared; they have been missing now for 5 days. No-one seems to know their whereabouts. I'd like to think they have been picked up by someone that cares, but I have this nagging doubt that perhaps the G.C. have picked them up. If this is the case I doubt very much they will live to tell the tale. We have searched our village and surrounding villages but there is just no sign of them.

In the meantime the one who is left is doing her damndest to avoid all human contact, except with me. I am still feeding her daily and trying to look out for her, but she will not take being stroked or touched. My OH and I are going to make a concerted effort tomorrow to try to get a lead on her and bring her back to the house. Our small place is already home to 5 so one more isn't going to make that much difference. Given the choice of being captured by the GC or us isnt much of a choice but at least with us she will have some kind of a future. She is very streetwise as she would be having been a street dog since the day she was born, and trying to catch her wont be easy but we'll have to try.

We will have to get her to a vet soon afterward because all of ours are up-to date with jabs but she has never had any veterinarian treatment. She appears to be in good health and free of skin parasites but definitely needs worming. Also with  the number of roaming un-neutered males roaming the village she will need to be spayed otherwise the whole cycle starts again.

I just wish their was a rescue centre close to home that I could trust.

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