Mouse

We got a dog! It’s a Romanian street dog.

10 years ago I wrote a blog entry entitled North of the Balkans. I was being consciously covert about it because I was deploying a new passport system in Romania and you’re encouraged not to chat about things like that. On the lead up to the project the company I was working for were warning us to be wary about stray dogs when we were out there. Obviously rumours blew the warnings out of the hemisphere. The dogs were forming packs and had chased and eaten a Chinese fella whole, was one story. They were also responsible for several arson attacks and a number of rapes.

Anyway, it’s one of them dogs! There is a big movement to capture the dogs and re-home them with nice people. And to ensure you’re a nice person you have to be vetted prior to receiving the dog. We got vetted a number of times and one of the people we got vetted by was questionable to say the least. “A friend of mine has a dog called Brad” the vetter told me. “After Brad Pitt?” I asked. “No”, he said, “it’s got a small patch of white around the eye and the rest of it is black. He’s named it after Bradford”. And then he went on to comment that you don’t get a lot of em’ round here do you?

Anyway we had to meet a van at some motorway services to collect the dog. He’s called ‘Mouse’. Mouse sat on Kerry’s lap all the way home a little confused and scared. Now he’s settled in completely and he follows Kerry like Mary’s little lamb used to follow her. He doesn’t hate me anymore but he doesn’t like being apart from her. His toilet habits aren’t the best but it’s nice to have him around.