He has fairly long hair matted hair and is mainly black but bits of white adorable manners. He sleeps on the steps of the house that is being renovated by the school near House Gordana on the way into town all day and night. He sleeps with the stray cats at night and never barks unlike the other dog that looks like him but appears to have a home up near the house above where the stray dog sleeps. Other dogs were roaming but had collars so may have homes. The dog we worry about is so kind to the cats as they cuddle up to him/her at night. This dog would be so loyal and all he/she wants is love and this is sad. We live in the uk and have recently taken in a starving stray cat that had been abused and we are told a dog used to hurt her also so we could not bring the hvar stray dog back unfortunately. Please can you possibly go and see that it does not starve to death and where do they get water which they need daily. Sorry to write to you but it broke my heart as a tourist to leave this dog behind as love was all they want. I read about the work you do on my return home
J. (visitor from the UK) e-mail, June 9th 2014 (full name supplied)
As promised, I have now made inquiries about the stray dog in Hvar Town. It seems it does have an owner - of sorts. It has apparently been wandering around, as you saw it, for a year or two. The owner is a man who, with the best intentions, tries to keep a lot of dogs, but sadly does not have the money or facilities to look after them properly. As he cannot afford to have the females spayed, they have puppies, and the one you saw is apparently one such extra. He does get fed, as people give him scraps, and some leave water out for him (and for other stray animals). The tragedy is, at the moment we can offer little alternative that would be better for the dog. The official dogs' home, which has the licence to round up strays in the whole Split-Dalmatian County, is in Šibenik on the mainland. They only keep the dogs for 60 days in any case, which we feel is not a satisfactory chance. That is why we have formed the project to set up a dogs' home on Hvar, with a 'no-kill' policy, which we hope will alleviate these problems. It is a big project, and will take some time to bring to fruition, but we are working on it with solid backing from our Mayor, as it is obviously much needed.
Thank you very much for your concern, and we are extremely sorry that you were so affected emotionally by the stray dog and cats. It is tough for them, but I hope you can take some comfort from the fact that there are quite a few people doing their best to create a better life for them in the future. And you helped by giving them some love and happiness while you were here, which in itself means a lot.
Eco Hvar, June 14th 2014
I cannot thank you enough for looking into this for me and you are like me when I promise I always deliver so THANK YOU :-)
I can sleep easier knowing that the lovely little dog is at least not starving and getting no love. Its nice that the man tries his best to keep the dogs but sad he cannot afford total care. This is normal even in the UK. But at least in UK those that cannot afford or on low income can get help from animal charities to get spaying done to keep numbers low of strays. eg RSPCA. I could do very little whilst I was in Hvar and hope that other tourists help feed and water the strays because it breaks my heart to see hungry animals who just want to be loved. |t's a tough stance to kill strays after 60 days.
The work you are trying to do is amazing ..I will follow your work on the internet and hope that the shelter is built soon as the work you are doing is so very vital. I was moved by the stray cats and dogs although they were so well behaved and not lots of them. They just touched my heart. …I am so moved by your efforts to contact me after I emailed you and wish you every success in the future with your mission to help the dogs.
J., June 14th 2014
