Pepe our abandoned dog.

While having breakfast this morning my wife reminded me it was three years ago this very day we came across Pepe wandering about the dirt road out at the countryside place. With no owner in sight we had to assume due to his state, he had been abandoned.

We couldn't just leave him in that state so took him home where with much patience my wife cut off his matted fleece, gave him a good wash and he's been one of the family ever since.

Just wanted to say despite the many street dogs you see wandering about it's heartwarming to see how the local residents who can't give them a permanent home for one reason or another are still prepared to look after them by putting out food and water and even a blanket when the nights are chilly.

Here's some before and after shots of wee Pepe who's given us so much fun and affection ever since that day three years ago.

We were talking about that the other day funnily enough. Hard to say but I get the impression he wasn't that old when we found him...maybe around a year old. I think he was dropped out of a car for some reason as we had never seen him before despite using the road daily.

We'll never know what his past life was.

Quote from Rice

I'm imagining it must have been like Australians sheering a sheep. Poor little thing - and how lucky that the two of you found him!

Indeed....that was exactly what it was like. He was good as gold almost as if he knew it was going to be a relief to get it off. Luckily there was enough non matted fur next to the skin for my wife to work with scissors. It came off more or less in one piece.

Quote from daniel

My Wife and I have taken in several strays that seem to chose us for their well being, but they always respond when given love and attention, Some have passed on but we still have a couple of dogs.

Well done to you and your wife Daniel.

Quote from serafina

What is the actual situation? Are all free dogs stray? Should I have picked up that cutie?

Good question. The council here round up the strays every now and again. If the dog doesn't have a collar then it's deemed to be a stray. Then it's up to their owners to go and collect them.

To be honest the vast majority of dogs I see wandering about are in pretty good condition. We only took Pepe because he was in such a dreadful state wandering about in the middle of nowhere. We knew he didn't belong to the only two neighbours we have out there.

Our original plan was to take him home, clean him up then find him a home. However he was so happy to be with us and got on well with the other dogs we didn't have the heart.

Quote from daniel

I believe the situation her is that most owners could care less. We have neighbors that live across the road and they have taken in several strays, the dogs will sometimes visit with us but they always go home. They have one Bassett hound that belongs to the whole neighborhood.

Yes that seems to be commonplace here. There's a Remises office next to my mother in laws house in the centre of town. They have a black labrador who wanders around the block but always comes back to the Remises where he sleeps at night. Whenever we visit the MIL he comes running because he knows he'll always get a biscuit!!

The Vea store we go to has a black dog sleeping in the entrance. However today he was in the car park following a woman who works in the butchers department. My wife was chatting to her and it seems he belongs to the Bomberos whose station is just around the corner. She said because it was cold he turned up this morning wearing a bomberos coat the firemen had made for him.

She gives him some meat hence why he was following her. It's also heartening to see the number of people who put out water for the street dogs during the hot weather.