Dogs & Cats of Europe

I find it hard to be away from my pets for a long time, though sometimes if I can pat and play with other doggies and kitties, it helps a little. The problem was that in France, the dogs weren't interested in talking to me. Firstly, they didn't understand what I was saying to them! I learned that the French word for dog is 'chiot', or the plural is 'chien'. I found I could get their attention by saying that word, but the problem was I couldn't really speak to their owners without an elaborate pantomime.


I met this dog in the Pyrenees in a town called Bareges. We were in town looking for somewhere to get dinner, and I decided to check out an outdoor store. I had decided I needed a new rucksack, because the kit bag that I bought to carry my clothes around in was showing signs of breaking at an inopportune time (maybe when I was trying to haul it to a tight train connection, along with rolling the massive Samsonite suitcase which contained my Bike Friday). He was hanging around outside the shop, and seemed totally disinterested in me until I called him 'chiot'. Then he came trotting over for some attention. I saw him again the next night, and I called to him. He trotted towards me but then got distracted by another dog which was with it's owner in the nearby park. I never figured out who his owner was, he had a collar but he seemed to just wander freely all over town.

This kitty was the first campsite-kitty that we met. We were hanging out in the common room in Olonne-Sur-Mer, and watching Sarah Connor Chronicles on my tiny netbook. We then heard fireworks (it was the pre-tour-de-france party), so Nic went rushing outside. I saw kitty sitting on a tree stump just outside, so I started talking to him. Unlike the dogs, the cats didn't seem to have a language barrier. I think maybe cats don't recognise as many individual words, and go more by body language than dogs do. Anyway, he came into the common room and had a good smooch. After the fireworks, one of the campsite staff came to lock up the common room, and he told me the kitty did many 'bad things' around the campsite. He couldn't really specify what those bad things were, language barrier again, but regardless of his alleged misdeeds, I thought he was lovely, if a little dirty.

We met this kitty when we stopped for lunch - we had been to the local patisserie and bought lunch, and sat down on a park bench to eat. I spotted this kitty staring us down from it's position on a nearby side street. After I'd finished eating I decided to say hello. It didn't take much before this kitty was purring and carrying on! There was another cat nearby who was sitting underneath a parked car, but it didn't want to chat. It showed a passing interest but when N tried to get near it, it retreated further underneath the car.

We took a wrong turn trying to follow the bike path to Karlsruhe and ended up meeting this kitty. She was strutting along the path, probably on patrol, or on the hunt. She actually acknowledged us as we were riding towards her with a little 'brrrt', so I had to stop for a pat.

This kitty was also in Bareges. We stayed at that campground for 4 or 5 nights, and we only saw this kitty once. It came to investigate our tent and figure out if we were approved to be on it's turf. Turned out to be a friendly kitty, but it went home after it was satisfied we should be permitted to camp on it's land.

Dogs in the Old Country....

A happy dog on a train

As some of you know, I have done a bit of travelling around Europe recently. Dogs have very different lives in cities here than they do at home. People live in smaller houses, and the dogs don't have wide expanses of green to romp in. However, dogs are more a part of everyday life. They are allowed into shops, restaurants, bars and on to trains and trams.

I envy some of it. I mean, I have often said the only reason I like to have a car is to transport the pets, either for recreation or emergency reasons. It would be awesome to just be able to walk onto a train with the dogs (or cats).

But there's another side to it. A lot of dogs that I have seen, particularly the smaller ones, are very defensive. They are widely ignored, and if you try to talk to them they are likely to freak out. I have seen more than a few dogs who are totally overloaded and overwhelmed by their environment on crowded trains.

In Paris, I also noticed that there are guys who beg on the streets who often have 2 or 3 big dogs with them on a chain. N said that if she was homeless she would like to have a dog, for protection and for companionship.

In Switzerland dogs seem less overloaded and harassed. It helps that most of them are physically bigger, and hence less likely to be trodden on by the hordes. I saw a Golden Retriever in Zurich being put in a sit/stay in front of a busy street. There were roadworks going on and the church bell was ringing. The lady also had a small child. She told the child to stand by the dog. It was so cute watching them stay there as the mother went to pay for parking, or whatever it was she was doing. She was only gone for a couple of minutes but it was like she told the dog to stay, and the dog got the child to stay!

Literal Translation "I do not dirty the sidewalks"