-Hello?
-Hi, this is Liudmila Mravkova from the Chow-chow club. I’m calling about the two chows at the shelter. We have a home for them.
-Arghbrmmm? (Thinking: It can’t be true!)
-You must remember… I found an owner for the hairless chow… from the club… Liudmila!? I have the perfect person for them!
-Arghbrmmm? (Thinking: Somebody kick me! It can’t be true!)
But it was true. A few hours later Liudmila, hand in hand with a worker of hers who had been long in love with her dogs – Veronika Dimitrova – came to the shelter for the saddest animals in the world.
Do you know a dog of the chow-chow breed? The dog that licked the sky when God was painting it (they have a blue tongue)? The dog that uneducated people think is a cute bear, and buy it clueless of the care it needs?
Yes, it is the dog we are talking about. Chow is a dog with an aloof, distrustful character, a dog of one master only. A quiet and very proud animal that has an air of dignity. One that always has it’s own opinion on the matters of life. This is the chow.
Our two heroes had lost everything they had. They only had a tiny bit of dignity left and they defended it by snapping at the things that disturbed them. It was Veronica and Liudmila that gave it back to them. With some love, some delicate determination and respect – it took them 10 minutes to gain the trust of these dogs. The two were with us for a while and we couldn’t even get them to be remotely interested in ourselves.
Sadly, the problems of Juan will not be fixed in a day or two – we gave him to Liudmila and Veronica with a huge fresh surgery that was quick to get infected and a runny nose. What happened? He turned out to be a dog with cryptorchidism and his misplaced testicle had gotten stuck deep behind his stomach. And since his problems with the leg were not enough – he had to get a secondary bacterial infection… Not that this scared his new best friend, but it gave her a hell of a lot to fight with. He is now being cared for by our friends at the Good Idea clinic. Ah, and he has a great new name – Foo. We had unintentionally offended him by giving him a Spanish name, now he is all right.
And Sherry… whatever we say about her – it will not be enough to describe her. Such an unusual dog she is – a chow indeed. We so wanted to wash her and brush her mats away – no chance! If you so much as touch her with the brush she would bite your arm off. A collar? Thanks, but no thanks! Hard and difficult – that is how Sherry presented herself to us. The same creature was washed, brushed and hugged by Veronica that very same night!? Who even understands you, little bears!? Well, we did get an answer to that, didn’t we – it is Liudmila and Veronica who do.
Liudmila with the two and Veronica with Sherry
Our deepest appreciation to the two unusual ladies and the Chow-chow club in Bulgaria for the responsible, caring and kind attitude towards all the dogs of their breed. We can only wish for more clubs to be as caring. And to the difficult bears we wish a quick recovery! We know that they have the perfect friends who will never abandon them. And as far as we go – we are a tiny bit richer, because we have found two more precious People for the ARSofia treasury…