Zana Lost
‘Zana’ showed up here about . . . 2 weeks ago? Some tourists said they’d seen her down in Rrogam earlier that day. She’s super clean and fluffy, and of course friendly, which makes me feel that she must be someone’s pet . . . . especially as the shampooed fluffy-clean thing is NOT normal around here. She might have been lost in Rrogam, or maybe she even walked over from Theth? Alfred says we can’t keep her – you know they don’ do dogs-in-the-house here, and certainly no one really does dogs-in-the-restaurant, which means that for now she’s condemned to hanging around outside taking handouts from the backdoor of the kitchen.
But soon winter will come, the snow and the wolves . . . . Help? Please?
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Why can’t you have a dog in your own house even if others don’t? You of all people know about being a leader, not a follower, especially when it concerns humane action.
Hi Cynthia! I’ve been trying to hit ‘reply’ but it’s not working – hope this works! Well, you raise a good question, that bothers me almost every day! One basic answer is that we don’t actually have ‘our own house.’ Unfortunately, we live over the restaurant, so having a dog in our home, means having a (very muddy, hungry) dog in a Very Small Restaurant, which even I can see is a bad idea. Then there’s the larger question of how to productively shift public opinion. Up here, the idea of having a dog in the house is like having a cow in the house. It’s a muddy place, with a continuous war on keeping the mud outside – people take their shoes off a the door for a reason! And as it’s a farming community, that mud is pretty unsanitary, at that. Now, none of that would probably bother me, but what I’m up against is the reality of what that does to people’s perceptions. Alfred, as enlightened as he is, would be made acutely miserable by having to live with a dog. It would seriously ruin his life. I feel like the best I can do right now is quietly try to make everyone perceive these animals with the beginnings of a bit more empathy. And of course, the other part is building experiences in which there is not some terrible price paid for that empathy. Now Zana has given us a real challenge in that department, since one week ago, she produced SEVEN PUPPIES. Alfred is petrified that he’s going to end up with 9 dogs that rapidly turn exponentially into millions of dogs. Which of course would quickly shut down the restaurant. I’m equally quietly determined to let them all grow up, get them neutered and find good homes for them, not that THAT will be easy, in winter, in Valbona. Probably I’m going to have to drive them all somewhere and launch an adopt-a-thon. So Cynthia – do YOU want a puppy?! Help help?!
I think there are some options to consider. Growing up with a dog, we always wiped his paws when they were muddy or wet, before he came into the house. What about people who have barns–could some of them house a dog, especially as the weather grows colder? Are there municipal type buildings, like a school or a church, which could at least provide temporary shelter for this canine family? And to at least provide some shelter, you could always build a small insulated shelter, like the ones built for feral cats here in New York: http://www.urbancatleague.org/WinterCatShelters . If you do some googling, you will find more ideas and instructions for building an insulated shelter. For more inspiration, we have annual Architects for Animals event where architects use their talents to construct some really innovative shelters for feral cats, which are then used after they are exhibited: http://www.catster.com/lifestyle/new-york-architects-for-animals-feral-cats-cat-shelters .