Street dogs and the Germans

Germans love street dogs on a leash.

Not the canines roaming the streets on their own or in loose packs but the rescued, spayed, neutered, vaccinated, civilized ones.

Seriously, you won't find dogs living on the street around here unless they are companions of homeless people.

But given that Germans still are  the world's travel champions, closely followed by the Chinese, it was probably inevitable that the plight of street dogs would stir the hearts of the tourists.

These days, feral canines from Spain and some eastern European countries are shipped north to new homes. In some countries, most notably Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria the number of street dogs is so high that substantial foreign money is devoted to reducing and controlling the feral canine population.

The Romanian government has tightened the law, claiming to react to attacks on children, and conducts culls of the animals, which particularly upsets Germans.

The German equivalent of the SPCA and numerous small associations sponsor programs in Romania and ship hundreds of pooches north.

Evaluation of the new home and the owner is rather strict, a friend recounted, and includes a home visit and a lengthy interview by a local rescue person.

In other words, the procedure is at least as strict - if not stricter - than finding foster parents for human offspring.

But things happen, and we were told of one incident in town a few days ago. The dog in question tore its leash on the first walk and disappeared. A check with the rescue organization provided anecdotal evidence that this is fairly common, yet not widely publicized: oh, yes, we have another two on the run right now. that's just how things go.

A day or two later, the friend tells us, the police called reporting a sighting of the dog. The general direction?

East south east.

Heading home?