The Dogs

On almost every hike during the week we had some additional company - dogs. There were different dogs every day. But the two dogs that made the biggest impression on us were the dogs that followed us the first and the second day. 

We never named the dogs, but I called one of the dogs for Charlie and the other one for Tree-legged. Three-legged came up to us the first day while we were waiting for Lucian, our guide. She was a cute little dog with one leg badly hurt, couldn’t even walk on it, so she was jumping around on 3 legs. She decided from the start that we were her new family and as soon as we started our first hike she came along, jumping on her three legs. When we walked down the street to the first trail Charlie decided to come along. Suddenly we had Charlie in front of the group and Three-legged in the back ”protecting” us. It was so cute.

           Erika's first meeting with Three-legged                     Charlie asked if he could come along

The dogs really took their assignment seriously. When were having a great relaxing lunch a man approached us from a distance - The dogs went wild, barking and running around. No one should come close to our group. 

Our dogs together, Three-legged to the left and Charlie to the right.

Their reward for the protection was of course food. They were sitting close to us during every break, looking for a good snack. They quickly become spoiled - bread was not interesting enough and would only be accepted if they couldn’t get anything else. Salami seemed to be their favorite.


At one point we took a longer break at a farmer’s house. The dogs were tired after a long day of hiking, so they went to sleep under the table. When we were ready to leave I pushed the dogs a little and told them ”we are leaving”, but they kept on sleeping. So we started to hike again, without the dogs. When we reached the other side of the small valley, the dogs suddenly woke up and realized that we were gone. So from the other side of the valley we saw how the dogs came running like crazy to catch up with us. Three-legged didn’t manage the high grass, so she had to run a detour. But since we all noticed this, we waited until she reached the group.

On our way home on the first day Charlie picked up another female dog in heat. Suddenly the whole group were surrounded with dogs that wanted to come close to Charlie’s fiancé. There were some dog fights and blood so it got a bit dramatic, but in the end Charlie got to keep his new girlfriend. The next day we didn’t see Charlie, so I guessed he stayed home with his new girlfriend.

All the villages dogs were interested in Charlie's fiancé

Three-legged came along on the second day as well. The leg seem to have improved during the first day of hike, strangely enough. This hike headed to a mountain rescue hut where we spent the night. We were a bit concerned that three-legged would follow us there, since we knew that there would be some nasty dogs on the way (the shepherds used quite aggressive dogs) and that we would spend the night away from the village where she lived. But she was a smart dog - when the angry dogs came she put herself between Alex and I and we protected her with our hiking poles. During the night in the mountain hut she seemed to have found some new friends, because the last time we saw here in the night she headed for the direction of the camping site. The next day she was gone. We wondered a bit what happened to her.

Angry dogs

The following days we had more dogs around us, but no one made the same special impression on us. I miss ”our” dogs.