The Wisest Dog of All

The Wisest Dog of All

Romanians generally love dogs. They also are afraid of them, abuse them and ignore them. It is a strange relationship worthy of a sociological investigation. In my unofficial capacity as philosopher and student of life, I have observed three main categories of dog/human interaction in this country. The first is the groomed pet. Many people in Cluj, and it appears other cities of Romania, share their apartments with a dog, or two dogs or more. These dogs range in size from small to huge. They are almost all purebreds and are well groomed and well fed. People walk their dogs around the neighborhood and are quite attentive. If the dogs don’t mind being shut in their apartments most of the day, they have a pretty good life. In this category there is not much difference between dog lovers in Romania and the rest of the world.

The second dog/human relationship is the stray dog/passerby one. Romanian cities are inundated with stray dogs. These are some of the ugliest dogs imaginable. It must be several generations back since any of these creatures resembled a purebred. There is one dog that looks exactly like a dairy cow except that it has floppy ears and legs three inches long. Another has the head of large dog stuck on the body of a dachshund. None of these dogs have ever had a bath, a flea spray, or a vet check. No one owns the dogs but most seem well fed.

People feed these animals. Each dog seems to have its own territory and its own people that stop and provide morsels on their way to work every day. Often you see a lady bent over to offer a stray a piece of bread and an encouraging word. Thankfully the dogs are unusually timid; content to look with plaintive eyes for handouts, only very rarely snarling or snapping.

The dog in the picture is such a beast. He is the wisest of dogs. He spends half his day lying at the Manastur bus stop hoping for a bit of attention and a tidbit. The other half the day he lounges at the entrance to the pet food store. Everybody knows him for these are both high traffic areas, but I’ve never heard anyone call him by name. He has more food than he can eat, often ignoring the stale bread, hoping for better. There’s a cup of water sitting in the shade of the pet food store for his use. He’s a mongrel as shows in the picture and probably should be taken out and shot, but he seems harmless and so he resides on his daily pattern shambling between bus stop and feed store.

This dog is like many of the strays, neither loved nor unloved. Efforts to clean out the unowned dog population have never been successful because when collection time comes around, the neighbors suddenly become protective and provide temporary shelter. Romanians love their dogs.

Except when they are afraid of them, which is often. This is the third dog/human relationship. I’ve seen many dogs get the boot and the stone or the stick thrown at them. The wise feed store dog has learned to keep a low profile and that appears to be the best method of success for the creatures – maintain a regular territory so people get to know you, but never become too obvious or you’ll become a target of abuse. Sad eyes also help.