Dogs

I walked back from the garage Tuesday morning after taking Gord's car up for a service. I enjoy walking back with Pip when the car service thing happens. After going past the school the downhill to the town centre goes past a number of houses that were built as part of the Belvedere Estate some years ago. For about the first two and half decades that we lived in Gembrook this was a paddock usually with a few horses or cows. It was owned by Bill Parker and towards the end of his life he decided to apply for it to be subdivided for residential development. Fair enough, it's in the middle of town.

While these houses are on the main road, the entrance to them is from the road that was built up he middle of the paddock, so as you walk down the main road you are going past back yard fences. I have always thought this an aesthetic disaster for a main street in a town, as residents of the houses have built high fences or planted untidy hedges as a screen from the traffic and passing footpath pedestrians, but I concede that it was done this way because the footpath is three or four feet higher than the road along which a retaining wall exists, say about 4 feet high. No doubt the developers and planners worked out the layout of the estate according to all considerations.

So as I go past these backyards a number of savage dogs came out to snarl and bark at myself and Pip and I was glad that none of them could get out and maul or kill Pip as I'm sure they would have if they could, in particular two boxer looking things with huge jaws and fangs bared angrily.These locked up dogs were obviously not well socially adjusted.

It made me think of our recent holiday where dogs in the street were a common sight. We remarked on our first day, in Barcelona, the large numbers of dogs with people, some on leads and some not. Those not were well trained to walk beside their owner without any drama. The dogs were well behaved with other dogs, we didn't see one incident of aggression. Next day we were in Bormes-les-Mimosas in south east France and we made the same observation, as we did in Florence in Italy the next day. It was good to see dogs. They were friendly and relaxed and it showed a sort of contentment in the local people. Dog lovers are usually happy and contented, and it just said something about the pleasantness of the places.

In Naples there were even more dogs in the area of the city near the port where we walked around and had lunch. Some seemed to be strays as they were not with people but they mingled happily with each other and passing humans. A number of street beggars sat on the pavement with a sleeping dog, a ploy I guess to encourage you to drop a few coins into their cup. In Milan the dogs were actually allowed to walk around with their owners in the shops.

There were plenty of dogs on Crete also, many of these wandering near the villages. These were not aggressive either, but had an independence, a bit of the rough and ready about them, and a habit of not getting out of the way of your car till the last minute. They were by no means feral but had a free spirit, a bit like the Cretan people really, and the multitude cats that abounded there. At our villa in Estate Kares the cats came inside whether we wanted them to or not. We chased them out but soon gave up, they'd come in the windows which had no flyscreens (no flies or mozzies), and you couldn't keep the windows shut for long as it was too warm. More than once I was woken in the night by a cat going through the rubbish bin. We learned to take out the rubbish to an outside bin with a good lid before going to bed.

It was a bit of a shock to be affronted by savage snarling dogs when I got back home, even if it was only for a few brief moments as I walked past. I had not seen this for a while.