I worry about a lot of the animals over here. The horses with their ankles tied together (is that even legal?) dogs on short chains going stir crazy in front yards, used for security or as a ‘doorbell’, and of course the many cats living in bins. The typical Bulgarian attitude to animals is very hard to be around; the sweet-looking seemingly harmless baba opposite Maura recently suggested shooting the dog she’s adopted.
We don’t speak to her so much these days.
Occasionally, I remember I can’t save all the fluffies, and am thankful that we can make a difference for some of the animals we come into contact with. Taking an apple or two out on walks means we can feed the less timid horses and donkeys. We chat to the dogs – or in extreme cases rescue them and thrust them onto friends (another nod to Pauline & Russell’s wonderful work with little Poppet, – pictured below). Raise money for the Burgas Animal Friends Foundation by dragging friends on walks up hills.
And in our very special case: don’t lock the cat flap ever and let all of them come in – to the utmost agreement of our three, I might add – and eat all the food. Oh, and spray everywhere. Mmmm lovely.
We have started to catch glimpses of these culprits, there are two we know about: Johnny (pictured with Shest below), who is slightly owned by the people in the house behind ours and Pet (pictured below right), who lives in a bin across the road. The question is, should we continue to let them in? They’re clearly friends with our brace of kitties – Osem has had a few play dates with Pet, I’ve seen him and Shest chatting at length – so if we could just get close enough, perhaps we can relieve him of his over-active testicles, and welcome him in??
If it’s a no, how do we stop them, without putting our pussycats’ noses out of joint?! Answers on a postcard please.
The ones I don’t worry about, however are wasps. I had another altercation with one that had found its way into one of my socks (possibly via the washing line), so I tried out the EpiPen and found it works. Phew. The ambulance lady was most impressed – and relieved not to have to administer medication into a vein so shocked that had disappeared right into the centre of my arm again.
And as a complete aside, what do you call a bloke with a seagull on his head?
Adventures With The Johns 
Pet is clearly born to be in your family, you need to adopt him! Johnny on the other hand just doesn’t fit I’m afraid!!!
I JUST saw him race over to say hello to Osem in the next door garden! He’s definitely a mate of theirs as well as following the number series…but whether either of us humans would ever be able to get close to him (literally or metaphorically) is another thing altogether. Hm.
Cliff! Ha, I get it.
phew…
It’s good that there are people around like you guys and Russ and Pauline, and the rescue shelters, who do all that good stuff for animals here. It breaks my heart to see the street dogs, and dogs on short chains or no space to move around – I drop street dogs food whenever I can, and I long to adopt all of them but just cannot. All of my dogs here have been rescues.
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