She came running home, head high in triumph, tail curved upwards in pleasure. She was carrying a trophy which looked like a discarded doormat. Because Elsa is a confirmed and committed thief I regard such booty with apprehension. In this case justified because, as she came nearer, I could see that the ‘doormat’ had a head!
At this point I sprang into action – at least I yelled for help - as Elsa dropped what I realised then was a decaying animal and began to roll herself over the carcase. How quickly the wolf instincts take over and how glad I was that she had made for her enclosure and not our front porch.
Peter arrived with a pitchfork and managed to remove the carcase from the dog’s possession. It was a dead badger, a car kill he had seen sometime before on the lane outside our village. He threw it down a steep part of the ravine which edges our land and so far Elsa has not rediscovered it.
Her trophy of choice is usually a plastic sandal, sometimes we are able to find out where it came from, at other times I can only hope that the shoe has been thrown away and Elsa is not stealing it - merely picking up rubbish. I had a flip flop missing for weeks until she renewed interest in it and brought it back to the porch, sporting some puncture marks but wearable. Peter has had nails, gloves, tools removed when he is working outside. She brought home a sweater once, fortunately it was an old working one and we knew where it had come from.
Apart from this weakness in her character Elsa has proved herself to be a good guard dog and an affectionate and intelligent animal. We did not expect so much of her when we took her in –abandoned as a puppy and rescued to a confined life at the back of a building and even that small comfort came to an end a year later. Greece has many dogs like Elsa, left to fend for themselves without food, water or shelter. There is a general feeling that neutering is against nature, so puppies get thrown out and guard dogs and hunting dogs ‘taken for a walk’ when they outlive their usefulness. Lost and left to their own devices the dogs slowly starve and dehydrate until they die.
