You raise me up

I recently found this on YouTube and hope you will enjoy it too. There are several versions but this one is my favourite.

CONNIE FINDS A HOME

We found the dog in a country lane, abandoned and close to death. Skeletal and hardly able to stand she was a pitiful sight. Her head drooped on a skinny neck with an unmarked collar hanging limply around it. She must have been wandering for a long time. Peter picked her up, quite literally, put her in the boot of the car and brought her home. We gave her food and water and wondered if she would survive the night.

In the morning he took her to the vet, who asked if he was prepared to ‘become involved’ a euphemism for paying for treatment. The alternative was to take her back to where he found her, which was no choice at all. We realised then that picking up a sick dog is an expensive act in Greece.

He was directed to an animal clinic where she was scanned, examined and treated for dehydration. She spent the night at the clinic and then we brought her home complete with pills. She had tic fever, a bloated stomach, anaemia and she was emaciated. In spite of the costly treatment the vet did not guarantee that she would survive.

Connie three days after we found her.

But survive she did. After a couple of days we began to see signs of hope. Although very unsteady on her legs she made the effort to stumble towards us. We gave her a kennel and a small enclosure to separate her from the other two dogs, who were not welcoming to the newcomer, and we called her Connie.

Connie’s sad situation was not an unusual one here. There are many reports of abandoned dogs, particularly hunting dogs like Connie. Some are found hanging from trees, others like Connie, have a slight chance of survival. Some people do feed stray dogs, but others put out poison.
It was a very satisfying experience to watch the dog’s recovery. When she was strong enough we bathed her and after that Elsa, our biggest dog, befriended her. Perhaps her smell had been off putting. The two are now close friends and inseparable.

She made a fast recovery, the bloated stomach disappeared, her faded black coat was replaced by a sleek shiny one and her collar became too tight and had to be replaced. She has great tenacity perhaps that enabled her to survive. She is very courageous and lively and is an affectionate little dog who wants to please. We fail to understand the mentality of the person who dumped her and left her to die.

We have two dogs standing guard now...

Elsa makes a find

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.

Summer time and the living is easy....

Outside my window I can see swallows swooping and gliding for food and pleasure in a cloudless sky.

In my livingroom and completely unaware of the activity outside, Mini (one of my cats), is at full stretch trying to expose her whole body to the breeze coming from the ceiling fan.

Behind me the small fan in my study is doing its best to cool me down, but it is too small to reach all of me and only my back is cool.

I am aware that I am a northern European and an English one, my greatest desire at this moment is for rain.

I am wearing too many clothes. If I were a man I would take half of them off immediately...

I am learning the pleasure of a mid afternoon nap

I am thinking that tomorrow we should definitely go for a swim.

Tonight I will sleep with open windows and earplugs to soften the sound of guard dogs out there somewhere. I am thankful that my dogs no longer bark most of the night.

I will fall asleep to the sound of night birds and cicadas and wake up with a thirst at 3.30 a.m. This is Greece in midsummer and I am learning to adapt.

http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/