Dogs in Corfu

My friend Joy, who lives even further up the mountain than I do - in Spring and Autumn her village is often swathed in low-lying cloud - made a very keen observation recently: "In Corfu you very rarely get to CHOOSE your dog".

Recently this has been very much brought home to us in our own olive grove location in Corfu. When our elderly medium sized poodle cross (known as labradoodles in posh areas, I believe) died a couple of years ago we made a decision not to have another dog, though it took a while getting used to the lack of muddy pawprints on the outside terrace and the complete silence throughout the night. I did look from time to time at websites offering dogs for adoption, always focusing on woolly dogs because that is what I would choose if we were to get another one.

Last Autumn a large black dog trailing a length of severed rope turned up outside the gate of our nearest neighbour. We drove past him several times before it became obvious that he was not being fed and was looking more and more miserable. Eventually he trailed up to our house and "got into conversation" with Periklis who was working in the garden. I thought I was the doggy one of the two of us, but from that day onwards Boobis has been in residence at Daltas Towers. Needless to say anything less like a poodle would be hard to find - short haired and enormous, he more resembles a small horse than the fluffy dog I would have chosen!

Around Christmas time we had an invasion! Five cats and three large puppies arrived in one fell swoop and took over the garden. Every single window and doorway seemed to have a starving animal queuing outside, and woe betide us if we left the smallest opening - they would be INSIDE. To cut a long story short, with the help of Facebook we managed to home two of the puppies, two cats disappeared and we now have another even shorter haired black dog keeping company with the first - and three more cats!