When I'm driving to Skopje every day, there is a dog (a border collie mix, no less) that sleeps at the border crossing on the Macedonia side. Often I bring a small bag of dog food or treats and ask the customs agents to give it to the dog.
On Wednesday, I drove through and held the small bag out of the car window and the agent looked at me oddly.
"What? What is that?"
"It's for the dog."
"For the dog?"
<i point at the dog> "For the dog. Food for the dog."
"You spent MONEY? ON THE DOG?????"
<he gives me a generic look of disgust>
At that point the female customs agent that I see most days ran over and took it and thanked me with a big smile.
I have to keep reminding myself that they view dogs very differently over here - and in fact, it's been said that people will intentionally try to run over stray dogs because they are unsocialized and viewed as a menace.
There's also a pack of feral dogs that live just over the Macedonian border on the side of the road by a little "Car Wash" stand. I'll often stop and drop food off there, since they mostly get food out of the garbage dump.
I don't normally touch them - because they are filthy and unsocialized.
However....
On Friday, the car wash was closed and the whole pack was laying around relaxing. So I got out and started pouring food. ALL the dogs came over, wagging their tails. One dog kept barking and scaring the other dogs away from the food (alpha dog) so I yelled at him and shook my finger and he backed away. I called to the other (afraid) dogs and put more food down for them.
I even petted one -the one I nicknamed Goldie - he's often on his own, and wags his tail vehemently when I see him. I let him sniff the back of my hand, and carefully gave him a scratch behind the ears. His tail increased wagging tenfold. So I called him a good boy and kept rubbing his head.
To which, the other (non-alpha) dogs immediately came over and tried to nudge his head out of the way so they could get head scratches. Oh, it made my heart hurt. I want to rescue them. ALL of them. I want to take them to the vet and get their hurts looked at - I want to bring them home and feed them and love them and let them sleep on cushy dog beds, especially as the weather is getting colder. I want to save them all. But I know I can't.
After CAUTIOUSLY scratching the four dogs, the alpha dog walked over to me and waited. I was like, "Nope. You're aggressive. Not putting my hand near you."
Okay, I want to save them all except one. I don't like bullies. Even though I think some love would fix him right up.
I'll try and get a picture of them next week so you can see how sweet they are. And how haggard. And beaten up. I WANT TO SAVE ALL THE DOGS. I wish I knew how - but there will always be more needing saved. Save the ones you can. Make a difference to THOSE dogs.
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