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    I've been trying to remain calm about the killing machine that lives next door to me since your wise words SOTS but this morning's discovery of three half-eaten Robin nestlings on top of the Sparrows, Blackbirds and another Robin, the mangled remains of which I've already had to deal with, have removed any last vestiges of sympathy I might have for the monster. I knocked on the "owners" door asking him if he would restrict the hours the damn thing is left to roam during the nesting season and put a bell on it and I was met by shrug of the shoulders and a "cant keep a track on a cat, mate" excuse. I fear cat lovers are happy to be deluded if they think that this sort of behaviour is somehow acceptable in that they are only picking off the weak specimens, this bastard is systematically wiping out the local garden bird population.

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      GHE, I don’t think most cat owners take that attitude. I think most would rather put a bell on their cat than have it killing birds constantly. I don’t want to belittle what’s happening at your place but I would imagine it’s not universal.

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        Toby Gymshorts this is for you, taken a few moments ago.

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            He’s a good looking boy. The foreleg over the back foot is a nice touch.

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              He’s sick of sitting on the bed all day, but it’s where I spend most of my time lately.

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                Hope you’re feeling better soon HP.

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                  Originally posted by Sits View Post
                  Hope you’re feeling better soon HP.
                  Thanks. So do I.

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                    Get well soon, Hot Pepsi , and thanks, Sits !

                    Such beautiful, beautiful animals. The dogs too! <winkything>

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                      Was out visiting friends last night, and got to meet their rescue dog for the first time.

                      After years of being pestered by the kids, they finally relented and went to the dogs sanctuary last summer. What they were looking for was, housetrained, small, well behaved and good with children. What they left with was Ace,who was none of these things.

                      Ace is a Border Collie, who was found wandering along the motorway in an emaciated condition. They think he was bred as a working dog, and when he didn't make the grade, he was abused and abandoned. For the first six months he wouldn't settle in the house if the door was closed, so they had to watch the TVin their overcoats until Ace fell asleep. Luckily my friends youngest daughter fell in love with Ace, and spent months getting him to trust people. He's still a work in progress, while he liked me, and had no problem with me stroking him, whatever bad memories my other friend brought back, he didn't like him, stayed away and growled when he tried to get close.

                      If you don't want a dog, fine,let the dogs charities find them a home but why do people need to brutalise them?

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                        My daughter is at her boyfriend's parents' place for the lockdown. She sent me this photo today:

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                          It was polite of him to remove his headphones for the photo.

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                            Is he recording a message on a dictaphone there? Perhaps committing some rough ('ruff!') lyrics for a song he's writing before he forgets them?

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                              That’s an English Mastiff isn’t it? They look like lions.

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                                Very good, Sits , yes. She (Rita) just looks so sad....

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                                  Damn, I was going to hedge my bets about whether it was a he or she, but Sits having confidently branded her a him meant I took it he knew what he was talking about, so I followed his lead – so to speak. Apologies to lovely Rita.

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                                    Molly living in hope for a treat to fall her way...

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                                      We had our border terrier, Lola put to sleep last October (I posted a thread at the time about the experience) and since then we really haven't felt up to acquiring a new dog. I was resisting more than my wife to be honest, but for the past few months she has been dropping strong hints that maybe it was time and eventually she wore me down. So last Saturday night at 10.00pm, we welcomed a new arrival into the house. Luna is four-and-a-bit months old, and a Romanian rescue puppy of indeterminate breed (as, indeed, are most Romanian street dogs it would appear). We wonder if there may be a little German Shepherd in there (without the bulk thankfully), possibly a bit of collie and quite probably a number of East European breeds that I'm unaware of. If there is such a thing as a Romanian spectacled hound that may explain a lot (as you will see from the photo below). From her size now I suspect that she will get to a medium build but we shall have to wait and see.

                                      The whole thing was organised through a UK-based charity operating out of Targoviste, and was very thorough, with a detailed application, a subsequent home check and a contract. We were given reams of information about what to expect, the usual do's and don't of training, etc, and obviously had no illusions as to the bumps in the road we might face given her background. On the plus side, she was born at the shelter, so apart from the lack of a conventional home life and attendant socialisation skills, she hadn't directly experienced the vicissitudes that have affected so many of these dogs.

                                      So far she has settled brilliantly - eating and drinking well, sleeping through the night with only a token whimper when she is left, retiring to her crate when she wants some downtime, wearing a harness and lead without being fazed, responding to her name, toileting outside and going on several walks to the park where she met other dogs and their owners with only the occasional sign of nervousness. All good so far anyway, with the caveat that this may of course just be a honeymoon period and we may yet see some less desirable behaviours.

                                      Incidentally, if ad hoc reads this, (and my very best wishes to you and your family by the way), it would be interesting to hear your views as to why stray/feral dogs seem to be such a problem in Romania. The received wisdom has it that it's a hangover from Communism and the building of large high-rise apartment blocks that did not accept dogs, leading to widespread abandonment. I'm sure there's more to it than that, and wonder if it's even perceived as an issue there.

                                      Anyway, here's Luna yesterday evening, chilling on the patio.


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                                        Wow - Luna's just adorable gjw100. I'm hopeful that her great start with you will continue and she'll be as big and important in your lives as Lola obviously was.

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                                          Congratulations gjw, she’s a beauty.

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                                            I'd guess that moving everyone to blocks was probably the main cause of the stray dog problem. Obviously Romania wasn't the only country in Eastern Europe in which there was a large scale creation of blocks of flats to house the proletariat but I think Romania probably did it more than the rest and a huge number of those who were coerced into moving were more likely to be peasants than proles. And people in villages have dogs. Everyone does. So that was probably the start of the problem. Why nobody did anything about it until fairly recently (both during and after communism) is the question I can't really answer.

                                            Fwiw it's definitely getting better. There's a better system in place, animals are getting rescued and placed (here and overseas, like Luna). There's much more attention given to animal welfare in general. And the numbers of stray dogs on the streets have gone down a lot.

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                                              That's good. I read lots of horror stories of street dogs tortured and murdered in Eastern Europe (and around the world) by teenagers and other thugs. It makes me want to leave this world behind.

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                                                Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                                That's good. I read lots of horror stories of street dogs tortured and murdered in Eastern Europe (and around the world) by teenagers and other thugs. It makes me want to leave this world behind.
                                                If it helps HP I'm very sure that those stories (or at least the volume of them) are massively exaggerated

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                                                  Maybe it’s burying my head in the sand, but I tend not to read them.

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                                                    Yeah. I try not to think about it much.

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