Photos

After writing a few words about the cat in a traditional Romanian household last night, I thought I should post something about the dog too. Cats and dogs are as ubiquitous around the house in rural Romania as anything can ever be.

As I pointed out last night about the cats, dogs are not usually raised as pets either, they're more like guard dogs. Around most houses you can find at least one dog, practically always outdoors and most often chained rather than being fenced in. Most of them become really loud in the presence of a stranger... they're quite xenophobic. I took this picture during a visit two years ago when walking by it, the dog was very agitated and very loud. He would've ripped me to shreds if he weren't restrained by that chain.

Last summer I went back there and unfortunately this dog had passed away. A proud German shepherd had taken it's place. In fact there were four dogs guarding that property, one of which was of course guarding the poultry court - a very common employment of dogs. By the way, since I mentioned the German shepherd I should say shepherds are another major employer of dogs so to speak.