Serbian Dogs

I left for Serbia on April 29. While there, I encountered many strays.  Some were shy; most were curious and friendly.  None of them posed any kind of threat which is how they are often maligned.  I arrived back in Toronto a week later with two dogs, Betty and Oscar.  Here are some photos of the trip.

Betty, whose leg was broken and never set properly.  This girl came back with me to Canada.

For the first few days, I stayed with Snezana and her family along with their nine rescued dogs.

Leia, a Staffordshire Terrier, matriarch of Snezana's rescues.  A lovely dog.

The bear dog, one of several stray dogs encountered a few blocks from Snezana's home.  This one followed us back but turned away when the dogs in her backyard started barking at him.  A few days later, after I'd returned to Canada, he would return to wait for Snezana in front of her house.

This beautiful Pointer was too scared to let us get close.  He ran away from us in a frenzy, probably still looking for the owner who had recently abandoned him.

Playing, not fighting.  The strays didn't look starved and they seemed to have a pretty good life, free and easy on the streets of the Becman, at least until they get hit by a car or disease takes them or winter arrives or the dog hunters show up

Snezana goes out and feeds the stray dogs in her town and the next at least once a day.  Everyone else watches and stares.  "Many people here have backyards and can take a dog but they won't take a dog," she says.  "I send dogs to adoption everywhere else, Austria, U.K., Germany but not here."

Dog dreaming of life

Stray dog along the Sava River

And another