We rescued our dog Ray from Romania a year ago. He wasn’t being held captive there, like some kind of canine Julian Assange accused of espionage. Romania let him go freely; in fact they were probably grinning from ear to ear when they saw his big fluffy tail wagging off into the distance. ‘So long Ray, you’re fun, but boy you’re not easy!’
I always said I wanted a dog to wrestle with, and as Romania is pretty successful at the sport of wrestling, that seemed an obvious place to go looking for a dog who would fit the bill. Oh that, and the fact they have a lot of dogs with no homes.
In Ray, we’d taken on less of a Greco-Roman Wrestler, more of a Mike Tyson . He’d bite your ear given half the chance and you wouldn’t want to go twelve rounds with him. It would start as nibble, and unless you nipped it in the bud (pardon the pun), he’d progress quite quickly to biting you. He’s eaten several ears in the past year. Pigs ears, cow ears, rabbit ears, he’s really not fussy. It might explain why his hearing is so good.
He also has incredible vision, not in the kind of way Steve Jobs had great vision, in that he can see things moving on the horizon. He’s always on the look out for a wolf or a bear in the distance. I’ve told him that a) those predators are now extinct in the UK and b) he doesn’t have a flock of sheep to protect. It might sound like I’m bigging him up, like a proud parent over exaggerates the qualities and achievements of their own child. I’m not. It’d be easier if he had crap eyesight and hearing.
On walks, people love to know what breed Ray is. We think he’s some kind of Shepherd (take your pick out of Carpathian, Bucovina, Romanian Raven Sheep Dogs), but we’re not sure, so I just tell them straight. He’s a Mutt. He’s also a really good actor. We went to meet Ray in November 2020 at his temporary home in Lincolnshire after arriving from Romania. Lincolnshire is quite a hotspot for EU migrants, bloody dogs coming here and taking all of our jobs! Of course I’m joking, there is very little chance that Ray could become a Guide Dog or Drug Detection Dog. He wouldn’t be able to resist biting the Guide Dog owner and eating any drugs he found.
We drove home from Lincolnshire while Ray slept peacefully in the boot of the car for 2 hours. A dog that walks well on the lead and sleeps soundly in the car? The Perfect Dog, we’ve lucked out here, we thought. All the while Ray was plotting what he had in store for us. Chewing furniture, barking at 5am to wake the neighbours, guarding things, frantic behaviour, humping guide dogs, chasing everything that moved and barking at things that didn’t move.
What a world we live in. If you’d told us prior to last year we’d be adopting a Street Dog from Romania (via facebook) and we’d be having Zoom calls with a Dog Behaviourist, we might not have believed it. Three grown-ups analysing videos of Ray and formulating a plan of action, all the while Ray was in the room and none the wiser. I’ve had 38 years of dogs in the family, surely I was qualified to take on an 8-month old, intelligent Sheep Dog? He’s quite unlike any other dog we’ve had in the family. For a start, he loves going to the vet. During the COVID pandemic we’ve had to sit and wait in the car in the vet’s car park during appointments. By the look on Ray’s face when he reappears from the surgery, I can only assume they pour dog treats down his throat to keep him happy. He’ll eat vitamin tablets and medicine like they are treats (absolutely could not be a Drug Detection Dog). For normal dogs you have to surreptitiously hide the tablets in pieces of ham or cheese to get a dog to hold them down. Even then, they’d still eat the ham and spit out the tablet!
I’ve spent more time studying Ray’s diet than my own. I’ve taken a healthy interest in his poos, which any non-dog owner would find unsettling. He has more silly nicknames than I’d care to mention. As if the name Ray was not ridiculous enough already. He’s terrified burly workmen with his ferocious bark and he’s made little girls coo over his cuteness. He’s a bit of a conundrum. It’s been a journey and there’s still a long way to go. So here’s to the next year Ray. In fact we’ll just take it one step, one sit and one staaay at a time.