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Stray mum and her puppies

Life in Greece for any stray isn't easy but for a mum and her babies it's a living hell. They are seen as a nuisance by most locals and face poisoning, abuse, starvation and death.

This mummy dog has six tiny puppies. Stavroula was called to see them by a man in a remote village and by the time she got there it was clear that mum had mastitis and was in agony when the puppies tried to feed.

Six beautiful pups, some more confident than others but all adorable and sleeping out in the open with their mummy. Stavroula was working and couldn't catch the mum or all the pups so she left them some food and had to leave so she called the man who had first told her about them to check up how they were. She was horrified to hear that as she hadn't taken them they had got rid of the problem themselves in what is a typical Greek way! The brother of the man had somehow rounded up the seven dogs, put them in his car and driven them miles away from his house. When he thought he had driven far enough to stop them finding their way back he simply stopped the car, threw them all out and drove away leaving them to die.

S managed to get a rough location of where they had been dumped so went off searching for them. Many KM from familiar smells and surroundings, next to a busy road she found a mummy dog so completely traumatised and stressed she could barely walk. She found six scared, cold, hungry and confused puppies.

And she did what we all love her for, she took them home to safety. Since then they've been checked over and our amazing supporters have donated the vaccination fee to give each of the pups and mum their names so we have;

Phoebe (mum) - named by Camilla Xenos
Autumn - named by Donna Hobson
Angus - named by Ann Pipe
Boo - named by Donna Hobson
Ilse - named by Susi Wieger
Mali - named by Ann Pipe
Umar - named by Aline Bonner
You are interested in this dog? You would like some more information?
Be aware of the fact that the information is based on where our dogs are staying right now, which is the shelter. It could be in a kennel, it could be on a terrain. Usually we do not know very much of the dogs.
FAQ is 'can this dog be with children?' And 'how is this dog with cats?' Or 'can the dog go for a ride in the car?', these are all questions which are being answered from this situation and this is not easy to answer.

Being nice with children in the shelter is a whole lot different than being together with children for 24 hours a day.
If a dog doesn't chase cats, it means they don't chase cats there. Being nice with the other dogs is also in this situation in the shelter. This basically means that there is a big possibility that a dog can learn to live with children, cats and other dogs. But people must be willing to teach the dog and train him/her.

Children can be best fiends with dogs but it doesn't go all naturally. Both dog and child will have to learn this. Small children and dogs don't understand each other: like a child pulls the dog's tail, hurts the dog and starts smiling, dog makes a play bow and scares the child and the child cries.
This means parents have a job and responsibility in this: teach the child to respect the dog, as living sentient being and not as a toy!

More important is to know if the dog is looking for contact with people, has a bonding with people. You must know that most of our dogs have been under a lot of stress. They spend most of the day with other dogs, and over all they will probably know better to communicate with dogs than with people.
For the happiness of these dogs there are some essentials which are rest, safety, being clear and a reference, like another dog or human.

Be aware the dog may not be potty trained.

A dog doesn't talk but he does communicate through his body. And if we humans are able to understand him, it will save a lot of frustration. A very good book to learn about dog body language is 'Calming signals' by Turid Rugaas.

A dog learns and learns through his entire life. It is up to us to teach him.

Be respectful to your dog and he will be respectful to you. Be patient and let him be dog. Realize that the dogs observes you and sees everything. Learn to understand your dog. And if your dog does something wrong to you, think for yourself and try to figure out which signals you were giving him. A dog is what you make of it.

Whenever you decide to adopt one of our dogs, we can't say in advance when the dog will be coming. Of course we try to make this happen as fast as possible, but there are different factors which we are depending on.

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  • Home
    • About Elpida
    • Contact us
  • Our Dogs
    • Adult and Senior Dogs
    • Puppies and Young Dogs
  • Adopt a dog
    • Application form
    • Adoption advice
  • How you can help
    • Donating
    • Fundraising
    • Sponsor a dog