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Hi Fiona, glad you have joined the community. I will be very interested, in what Margrit has to say, especially with regard to my own 19yr old cat Phoebe, will pm you.A

we just had a dog die on Sunday.... Chicco...--------------------we adopted him when he was quite old... came from rome to the sticks of abruzzo... seems the romans didnt want him... skin disease, two teeth left and cataracts... met the adoption people in L'Aquila and  he was passed over to us ... his web photos were much better than the real thing but we ... well my wife had wanted another shiatsu(gala will correct my spelling)  after our last one died ... having made the move from the UK to Abruzzo... another old adoptee who was a wonderful dog------------------anyway Chicco made it through two maybe three years... loose count... couldn't do anything much with his teeth as he also had a bad heart... couldn't give him anaesthetic to take out the bad ones... he also had stones... sometimes cannot remember the English names of things... ah yes kidney stones... so a diet of 0 calcium food... -------------------- all sounds terrible and he was a particular sort of character... but i reckon he had a pretty good latter life despite all the probs and when it was time to go it happened in half a day...-----------the vet here has been excellent... cured him of the stones... for a week i guess we spent every morning at the vets ...drips and such scans and re hydration to bring him back from pretty well dead and when they were all gone he had a second lease of life... which maybe is why he dies about a year after... his heart couldn't take his new energy... but to us at least he had become a much happier dog...-----------------i think here in Teramo we have some pretty excellent vets... who seem to take that extra care as if they were almost their own... and compared to the UK costs and sort of treatments that involve very expensive machines seem a lot less money grabbing...---------------------------last Sunday evening we called the vet twice...first to see if we needed to increase his medication ... and got advice over the phone... next because he had collapsed and within fifteen minutes the vet was at his surgery and we were there just after Chicco didn't make it though...---------have three other dogs... mongrels thank god... so will be interested to read your interview...  hopefully for future reference...also am glad to see you in the pet circle............  and on the forum.... 

I am so sorry John, but am sure he had a good but sadly sort life with you.Angiex

Very sorry to hear about Chicco's death, John. As you know, we also have an elderly Shorkie-tzu (Shih-tzu-Yorkie X) who was abandoned and adopted by us (or is it the other way around... we are not quite sure about that). Chicco was very lucky to have you around, looking so well after him. But we can't go against old age, no matter what we do. Fortunately, you have your other pets. Our "Tequila" is also getting old now, but she knows she is very much loved and that she will never be abandoned again. Chicco, certainly, also knew that.I will also look forward to hearing about your interview, Fiona.

John I am so sorry about Chicco, you must be terribly upset. You did a wonderful thing adopting him. Healing may have helped him go peacefully but it couldn't have cured him, it sounds like it was his time.Can you tell me more about your internet adoption as I am in the process of doing the same thing. I've been featuring some of the appelli for homeless dogs on my blog and it's one of those we're probably going to get. I'm quite worried about taking on a dog I've never met (despite glowing reports)and he is currenly in Milan so am going to go and see him I think. How did your internet adoption happen? Best wishesFionawww,petsinitaly.com

I did one of the Tellington Touch courses for domestic pets and it was quite incredible. The change in the animals we worked with was very dramatic. My own dog (who at the time wasa lot younger and a lot more boisterous) was very calm during the course. I still use one of the techniques on him during thunder storms (which he hates). Mostly he will be so calm he goes to sleep during them!

 Fiona, I do think that you need to see the dog first. We were looking to adopt one and we went to a local animal welfare association. They told us about this small dog who was in a foster home. We went there and our "Tequila" (she had been given that name) was at the end of a long corridor. The minute she saw me, she came running towards me and she literally jumped into my arms. It was as if she was saying "Where have you been all this time? Take me, take me home..." It was a very poignant experience and it was also a case of "love at first sight". There hasn't been any problems, she is right now having a nap close to me and if I move, she will quietly follow me in a non-intrusive way. She also follows my husband  around, but in her "pack" he is not the "alpha dog"; that position is totally mine.Bonding is very important for a happy pet.

John, so sorry to hear about Chicco's death. But he died knowing he has been loved. Our dog Tink, a Westie/Jack Russell cross was also a rescue dog in the UK.  She had been locked in a bathroom for the first two years of her  life because "she didn't get on with the family cat". My daughter in law saw this this pathetic, excitable, scraggy dog being "walked" one day and the woman said if you like her that much you can have her!  Tink (named Tinkerbell by our granddaughter but Ron had to think of his street cred when calling for her in a street hence Tink!) came to live with us. We never really wanted a dog but after a good groom and only a week with us, this little dog who used to try and get inside your skin she was so insecure, seemed to be learning very fast how to behave. Now she walks without a lead, does exactly as you want her to, adores Ron and is like his shadow, doesn't get up on the furniture, doesn't jump up and down and annoy people, scrounges food a bit but if you say no, then she moves away, doesn't lick us on the face (I personally hate that) and never barks unless our home doorbell goes. AND SHE AND OUR 15 YEAR OLD CAT ARE BEST FRIENDS AND SLEEP AND EAT TOGETHER !!  She will not leave a room until you say "come on" and then she will go out of the room - we think this is a throw back to when she was most likely told to stay in the bathroom. She comes to work (when she isn't sunning herself in Italy!) with us in our gallery and is the best marketing tool ever! Right now she is with Ron in Italy, returning next week after six weeks there, as she was last year.  She has the life of Riley, is loved by everyone because she is such a character.  After two awful first years of her life she is now enjoying herself. Maralyn

for all your messages... read them back a while and didnt have to to say how much they meant before...  but today is a quite day..at least this afternoon...without wishing to add anything morbid to the thread... and its really because of advice from the vet as well just to say when you do bury a dog...that is if you have the space...... an important consideration if like us you have other dogs in the fenced garden and you are using land thats unfenced ...is to make sure you make a deep grave... the vet said no containers to allow natural things to happen quickly but to use a good deal of lime ... helps contain disease and smell and prevent intrusions.. i used that and stones...sorry ... trouble is if you have pets things have to be faced up to...sometimes far too quickly...anyway to my mind Chcco has a pretty good resting place and nothing to disturb him and eventually when autumn comes will most probably have a new young tree of some sort.... to shade him..  and mark his passing------------------------------enough... as regards adoption... the one from rome was via contacts via a forum and due to computer changes cannot get the info back... however there are a huge amount of italian pet/dog forums... and they are pretty well supported...very friendly and full of info...it was a small rome rescue centre... and i dont think that its exceptional to the italian rescue centres to use best photos on adoption sites... just good marketing...the abruzzo sheepdog we adopted from Teramo the canine defence league runs adoption days every six months or so and he was a puppy... abandoned on the outside of Teramo city...don't think it matters a lot via Internet or face to face..  in the UK the rspca allowed you to take dogs out for walks and become acquainted...  the rescue places here just want you to take the animal so less pre adoption formality... in the bonding sense.. but i reckon until you get a dog home for a week you basically cannot tell a lot about them ... most do not behave naturally in a crowded kennel anyway..  you have to take a chance and in reality i cannot see ever sending a dog back as an option unless there is something extremely dangerous about them..  both our shih-tzu dogs had been re-homed at least three times before we took them on.. one from england and obviously the one from rome... neither had major habit problems and were certainly not aggressive ...so Fiona remeber you mentioning your site before on the old place and in all the confusion of changeover forgot... will have a look soon ... am sure after your visit to see the dog things will go ahead... am sure you would not be making the journey if you didnt already have a pretty good idea that something about him means something to you... ------------------------------------there are many problems here in Italy with rescue/adoption centres... have written before on it ... the italian government gives a grant per day per dog to these places... for good rescue centres who want to find people to adopt dogs this often runs short of the cost... and they struggle to manage.. for others and there are far too many of this ilk... they use the money to maintain very overcrowded dog camps and will not foster out dogs because it means a drop in income.. they even let them breed on site to increase income... and do not report deaths... so a good law gets abused by the worst types and places of excellence suffer because these people have consciences and often use their own money to supplement care... working with vets that give their time for free as well...anyway thanks from all of us for your thoughts...  the other dogs are just getting used to him not being here... and they are back to how it was before Chicco came... am not getting another dog...it upsets the other too much ... the Abruzzo sheepdog has a character renowned for this in terms of introducing new members to a family... and am not going to unsettle him again...

Hi am very new to Italy community and on my second day of browsing found the articles regarding all your pets, which promps me to ask how I can find out more about support for those who recue Dogs the reason being: We bought a derelict Trulli in Puglia (we live in England) with the dream of retiring to Italy. A lady has been caring for stray dogs which live in buildings on our land, she was of course concerned that we would ask her to remove the Dogs, and they are lovely Dogs, but as we can not live there yet we could not see any problem them being there. Each time we go they seem to grow in number and some how this lady is managing to feed them, she is by no means wealthy, but goes daily to her "beloved Dogs" and she takes them mainly pasta based meals.  My question is is there any help she could get with the cost of caring for these strays?  We said we would try to put up some proper housing for them (it is quite a big plot of land and very rural).  I did wonder if it might be the start of a Dog sanctury and I did wonder if I could set up sponsorship for them here in England but do not know how the laws of charities work in Italy. Any ideas or knowledge from the community would be very welcome. (there are about 8 or 9 Dogs now).