There has been a dog in my life since I was a child. At one point, we were looking after ten dogs. My house was literally “the dog house” and in the small town where I grew up kids used to call us “The dog family”. I remember my mum taking my brother and I to school with our small dog Kasoghi on his lead followed by two stray dogs we adopted, Yak and Kit. The scene in the street couldn’t be more doggie like: kasoghi leading the way with my mum , followed by my brother and I and our two stray dogs walking behind us. The Dog family? Yes, it makes sense.
When my father travelled to Bolivia one summer, we adopted a dog whom we called Freddy, however when my dad returned he didn’t like us calling the dog his name so we changed the name to Felix.
We found this dog underneath a lorry with a cord around his neck tied up to a wheel. Felix lived in our house happily ever after from 1994 until 2008 when he passed away.
Once, on my way to school, I spotted the cutest lady dog underneath a car. She was black and white and her most famous feature was her fang sticking out. This dog was, what you could call a Saint. Happy to sleep all day and just be cute and calm, she gave birth once in the house and we kept two of her puppies, Tigre and her sister, Finita. “Mother” as we called her, died in 2004 and her puppies in 2008.
The last dog we had was Greco, he also appeared in my house out of nowhere and like the ten before him, he never left. Greco had the most adorable personality and was fun,intelligent and very gentle.He used to go into town by himself and people got to know him as somehow he managed to cross every street using the pedestrian.
When he passed away in June 2014, the pain was too much for us all, so he was the last dog in our household. Now all we have, are the memories, very happy memories indeed.We loved theses dogs dearly and it was mutual. They were pretty much members of our family and we always treated them with the utmost care and respect.
Even though all my dogs were stray dogs, to me this meant absolutely nothing. They were dogs just like any other dog, stray or not. One thing I never got and get is people asking : What dog do you have? Because a dog is a dog. It is not a brand. Some people like to brand dogs, as if one dog is better than the other based on breed. It has become fashionable and it is appalling to see dogs as fashion items. Harrods even has a “Pet a Porter” event which I’m sure dogs taking part dislike very much, because they rather be on the park running than on Harrods fulfilling the desire of militant fashionistas. Let the dog be a dog, just let it be. A dog has to bark, and run, and be a bit wild sometimes, the dog has to be just that, a dog and we, dog owners, must love our dogs for their personality not their breed.Let this branded obsessed world be so with bags or shoes or make-up but not dogs. It is obvious that dog owners who just want a dog from a specific breed , do not like dogs, they like the idea of owning an exclusive thing, an expensive thing, and are enchanted but this idea more than by the personality and spirit of the dog they have.If you are thinking of getting a dog, just do it because you are ready to love and be loved like never before and there is no need to pay for one, dog homes are full of these angels waiting for a home. Merry Christmas
The Lady of the World 