A neighbour sent me a message today in the morning.
– Do you know them?
In our sparsely populated hamlet we know most of the dogs, and those didn't look familiar.
– One of them has an injured leg – the neighbour said when I called him.
The neighbour is a good person, but a cat person, and has very little experience with dogs. Also, his cars are always clean, and mine are not, so it was obvious who would drive to the vet.
He followed the dog and told me where she decided to lie on the grass. I got there, and it was a sorry sight. She was lying in the grass on the side of the road, not moving, growling weakly when I tried to get close.
The vet showed us two deep punctures in the upper part of the leg, most probably a dog bite. We have a suspect – an aggressive dog from a nearby village that often walks to our hamlet – but no proof. Doesn't matter. The dog was given painkillers and antibiotics, the wounds didn't qualify for stitching (deep, but stitches would not help much an be a potential risk)
There are no decent animal shelters in the area, so we had to find something. I called my wife and told her what was going on.
– All right – she said.
We don't have space for a sick stray dog in our tiny house – our four dogs would go crazy. But we do have a larger house, still under construction, and we finally bought a wood stove a few weeks ago.
Zosia update: we prepared a cosy cage for that poor little exhausted dog, with blankets, and a bowl of water. Checked on her an hour later: she *lifted* the cage (which had no bottom), crawled out, and started roaming the house. Found the food we prepared for her for tomorrow, ate it all. She's a monster. We're afraid that during the night she'll tear down one of the house walls, escape into the boggy forest and make her kingdom there. I'm sorry for all the wild animals, especially the wolves and the moose. They stand no chance against her.
Another Zosia update: she's much better now. Still looking for her humans.
If you catch her, the pups should be valuable … assuming she does not eat them 🤭🤓🫠
So Zosia will spend the next few days in a safe place, will get her medicines, and then we have no idea what will happen. But I'm sure some new catastrophe will happen. Right now our water heater started leaking badly and we have to find a new one ASAP. I guess this means that our last car will break down tomorrow :)