puppies - update

Sabina, The pups will find caring, loving homes I am sure and maybe their new families will keep you posted...You have set an example to us all... 

....  Not just cost as I have offered to pay half...  trying to find a vet a problem in my area and then it's the whole issue of Italian masculinity!!!  "You can't cut his balls off even they are brother & sister"!!!   Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Absolutely!  There is a vast minority of Italians that love and care for their animals in the best way possible.  It is also the EU country with the most animal welfare laws - but like so many other laws here, they are sadly ignored by many and rarely enforced.  It is also true that the number of animal abuse cases, animals taken to shelters etc is on the increase in the UK, but there I think it is perhaps a growing minority of people who mistreat their animal whereas there is still a large majority who don't. Hopefully the trend can be reversed sooner rather than later. Many of the problems in Italy, in my view anyway, based on more than 30 years of living and or working here - and in different parts of the country too - stem from an unwillingness - for whatever reason - to spay and neuter their pets and this results in vast numbers of unwanted litters, many of which are then killed at, or shortly after birth, later abandoned in the countryside or - worse still - thrown out of a moving car.  Many dog owners in particular, rarely feed their dogs proper dog food, but rather fill them up with "doggie pasta! (not very nutritious) or their own table scraps and left overs.  Out in the country, many dogs are left tied up on short chains year in and year out, and some do not even have shelter from the elements other than perhaps, if they are lucky, a nearby bush or parked / abandoned car / tractor etc.  In this area at least (NE Lazio) hunters seem to believe that their dogs should be kept in skeletal conditions so that they will be more keen to hunt (personally I would have thought the dogs would be more likely to eat the  prey, but....) and very few of any of these people have their dogs vaccinated etc.  In the cities, large and small dog breeds sometimes spend their entire lives on a small balcony - with perhaps the pleasure of a walk just once every so often.... In my experience, many people here are afraid of dogs, whatever their size.  Most mothers immediately shout at their children to "stay away" if they try to approach a dog (an instinctive reaction in small children), rather than perhaps asking "can we say hello / stroke the dog" - and then teaching the child how to approach a dog in the safest way possible.  They also seem paranoid about the germs and bacteria they might pick up!  Whilst I wouldn't recommend allowing a street dog to sleep in or even on your bed before it has been bathed and treated for fleas etc - generally speaking no dog is going to cause any major problems as long as you are sensible (washing hands after dealing with a dirty bottom etc).  As someone said on an earlier thread - you're more likely to be at risk from your computer keyboard than a pet dog. My hope is - perhaps very naively - that the new Pope - having said he chose his name after the saint from Assisi, will at some point talk about caring for animals!  But - I won't hold my breath.

Yes - I was extremely lucky....and in fact the pups left for the UK on Thurs so at the moment I am feeling quite bereft!  I am hoping and praying however that I don't come across another litter in the future as I am sure that the UK solution would not be an option again. As to a solution?  My dream is to win the lottery and set up a mobile clinic offering free spaying and neutering and a decent, comfortable shelter....It will never happen of course but as they say here, "la speranza è l'ultima cosa da morire" There is an Anglo-Italian society that supposedly already does this: www.aispa.org.uk. but I have yet to meet anyone who has ever personally seen any evidence that they are  around!  Am sure they must be but... The whole cultural approach to animal care is different here - despite all the laws and the many people who make excellent pet owners.  Perhaps going into schools and trying to educate the young would help - but several vets have told me they think that it is unlikely schools would allow this to happen, for fear of backlash from parents whose children might go home and start criticising what they are doing!  And - sadly - to repeat what I said before, there is also an increase in animal cruelty and neglect in the UK that also needs to be reversed.  There are also many expats in Spain who have had to, for whatever reason, return to the UK....and apparently a huge number of them are leaving their pets behind, sometimes turning them out into the street, leaving them locked inside an abandoned  house / garden with perhaps enough food for a week or so (assuming the animal doesn't woof it down in one...).  Thankfully there are various animal rescue organizations - run by expats - who keep an eye out for such situations and manage to rescue many pets quite quickly, avoiding immediate tragedies, but then having to try and rehome many more animals than usual.