I was in the kitchen, Tikva did her "go away dog" yell, shot into the kitchen trying to tell me something, turned round and yelled again, and there it was, in my tiny kitchen with me and Tikki - a little light brown fluffy puppy which had decided that no matter what Tikki said it wanted to come in, so it did! About the same size as Tikki although maybe it was smaller under its fluffy coat, and showed no fear at all. Tikva was not very happy but was very good - maybe she realised it was only a puppy so apart from barking at it she just stood still - so did the puppy - a bit of a stand-off until I picked up one of my crutches and waved it in the direction and just said "out, out, shoo, shoo" or words to that effect - so it eventually turned and wandered out, followed by Tikki who made sure it had gone. She then spent half an hour with her nose to the ground outside, came in and did the same. No collar, of course, and probably only just been dumped, poor little thing, as there was a vehicle parked across the road for ages which Tikki was not happy about, so I had called her in and put the chain across the door so she could not get out, and only let her out once the vehicle had gone, no doubt having dumped the puppy. And it decided to come in. Such a cute little thing but no, neither Tikki nor I want another puppy! I just hope it will be OK.
No way! I was just thinking... Tikva sometimes follows me into the kitchen, especially if she thinks bananas are involved, so maybe she was with me and the little puppy saw my door open and just wandered in, and Tikki either heard it or could smell it, and yelled for it to go away? And as I was at the sink so could not see what was going on and only heard Tikki when she was aware if it and moved towards it yelling and then back into the kitchen in her protective mode, that could have been the sequence of what happened. Because if Tikva had been outside, or even in the salon, the pup could not have come in as Tikki would have chased it away before it could come in, let alone walked through to the kitchen.
Poor little soul, I do hope it finds someone to love it. Are there no shelters in your part of Israel?
No Carole, unfortunately there is not. The volunteer place from where I got Pereg used to pick up some strays when they could and had people foster them, and pregnant bitches were kept with them until the pups were born and weaned. Then they, and a few other lucky ones went to a very small shelter in town. Unfortunately they lost that shelter - AFAIK it was on an area owned by the municipality who wanted it back - something to do with needing it for building. And there was nowhere else for them to rent. Dogs picked up locally - as and when the dog-catchers come round - usually when they have had enough complaints - go to the pound at our LA and if not collected within five days... and the only people who go looking for their dogs is if they are genuinely lost and not just dumped. I think there is a rescue shelter in Tel Aviv - well there used to be but I have no idea whether it still exists. This Country is not the best for looking after strays or lost dogs which is, I am afraid, typical of ME Countries.
That is sad, and I suppose the reason why there are street dogs in so many countries. I hear that the Israeli government would like to make it illegal to breed dogs and cats. An internet 'friend' of mine, who describes herself as a professional dog-breeder, has recently communicated her concerns in Our Dogs. She says that if the bill was to go through, it could mean the end of dog activities in your country. Of course, you can see the reason why they would want to avoid a feral dog situation getting out of hand, but why is it that all governments seem to seek to take control of a situation by trying to penalise people who bear no responsibility for it. Perhaps this is just scaremongering and the threat will just peter out.
There is more of a problem with feral cats - the dumped dogs are not really feral, just no longer wanted "pets". The usual thing, children nagging for a puppy and when the puppy gets too large [most homes are in medium-highrise apartment blocks] to carry downstairs, they dump it on the nearest Moshav, Kibbutz or army base. Another problem is that people will not spay/neuter dogs that are kept outside, as most are on this Moshav and no doubt others and Kibbutzim, so those who actually keep bitches just get pregnant all the time. Lexi came from this Moshav, Baby Ziva from a Moshav, and Tikva from another one. And unwanted puppies just get thrown into one of the agricultural fields - which is probably what happened to Ziva, who the person I got her from was supposedly looking after her for the few days I was in hospital, and "lost her". Lexi's littermates were there when I got her but were not there two days later. And I was informed that Ziva's littermates vanished when she did. I have no idea about Pereg's, but the fact that I was told to go and fetch unweaned Tikva three days after I had seen her with the unspoken "or else" speaks for itself. There is already a list of breeds that cannot be brought into Israel and I honestly cannot see how our government can make, or enforce such a bill, making it illegal to breed dogs and cats. Our government cannot make up its mind about anything, let alone enforce it. It is already illegal not to put a collar with an ID tag on a dog but it is not enforced. And dogs must only be taken out on a lead. Also not enforced. Yearly rabies shots are mandatory [vets are trying to get it changed to two-yearly as the protocol is actually three-yearly] but how many dogs are actually vaccinated against rabies? People just do not bother.
Quite agree, I don't see how it could be enforced either. Accidental litters will continue to be born, regardless of what the law states.
