Abruzzo people are not as loving to their pets as Brits tend to be. Most of them are fed and looked after, but cats and dogs are largely viewed as a functional thing, something that should work for you. Cats exist to keep the rodent population down and dogs are for protecting the house or guarding the chickens.

Occasionally you can see dogs running along the street. A loose dog is not a site seen very often in Britain so we always tend to think that it is a stray, assume it is hungry and take pity and try to rescue it. Be careful about that. Abruzzo people do not always keep their dogs chained or within a fence, so the dogs tend to walk off. These dogs are normally reasonably well cared for and they normally have owners, but they have just taken themselves for a walk.

If you take a look at the dog and you see that it looks well fed, not undernourished and may or may not have a collar on, (most seem to) then it is some-ones dog.

I guarantee that when you do see a truly abandoned or stray dog you will know. We found our dog Rowdy outside a bar in Brecciarola and he was emaciated, covered in mange, no collar and on his last legs. Now that is an abandoned dog. I always promised myself that if I ever saw a dog in that condition I would just take him in. So we took pity on Rowdy, I cried and my husband gave in and let us go home with our first dog ever. Wow he is amazing. He had been abused terribly, just flicking your hand to gesture in conversation above his head will result in him cowering in a heap at your feet. He is loving and very submissive. We taught him English commands within just 4 weeks of owning him, he was terribly fragile. Poor thing.

Poor Rowdy was a dog abandoned in Summer, many Italians go on long Summer breaks of up to 12 weeks and some of them cruelly abandon their animals to fend for themselves during this time. Summer is a harsh time for dogs. Summer is the time you are most likely to find abandoned dogs. Also Rowdy is a hunting dog, so he serves to use during the Summer when hunting is not permitted. Shortly after we found him Rowdy’s owners cousin spotted him when we were walking him and said his owner was looking for him. There was no way we would give this dog back to that man. We KNEW categorically that Rowdy was deliberately abandoned. For one simple reason, it is impossible to “lose” a hunting dog. If he ran off he would sniff his way back home within half an hour. That meant that he had, like many other dogs been driven out and left in a far away town with no hope of finding his way back. Poor soul. In this case he had been left in a town with a huge busy main road running straight through it.

People do not tend to sterilise their pets either. Leading to many unwanted cats, cats are largely treated like vermin in Abruzzo, certainly out in the sticks, there are so many of them.

Country dogs.

Country dogs are not really a part of the family. They are mostly kept chained and never walked or they are kept in a small kennel and never let out. It is sad really.

Dogs in the city

There is a new trend though to have tiny or toy dogs in Abruzzo. In the city this is very common but also some Abruzzo country folk are doing this now too. These dogs are truly a fashion accessory and are pampered and preened and people spend a fortune on making them look fashionable with fancy collars and coats etc. These dogs are walked.