I have been leaving food almost every day for the mother dog and her friend, the black and white dog. After that day when I saw the dark puppy with the vagrant, I never saw either of her puppies again. I am hoping that somebody rescued them - somebody who will be kind to them, but they could have died too. I am sorry I did not try harder to catch them. If I didn't have Rescue with me, I am sure they would have come with me the day that I saw them playing together, so when I dropped Rescue off and went back down, I should have at least taken the one that was with the vagrant, instead of waiting to get them all together. Wudda, shudda, cudda.
I had not seen the mother dog for several days and had just about decided that she was gone too, but I still left food nearly every day under a tree near to where I last saw her, in case she was still around. Today when I went, I saw her and her friend, but they ran off as soon as they saw me - it seems that she has gotten just as timid as the black dog and no amount of whistling and calling could get them to even slow down in their dash away from me. I left food, but I don't even know if they get the food that I leave because there are so many other dogs and birds and even hungry humans in the savannah. I went back this afternoon, and most of the food was gone, but so were they.
A friend whose father was a public health inspector in the 1950's told me that there were few stray dogs in Port of Spain in those days because the PHIs used to feed them - with poisoned bait. She said they used to call her father the Dog Hitler. As if I am not upset enough about the situation with the dogs these days, now I have something else to depress me.
We (Aslan and I) were charged this afternoon by the Savannah Pack - there are eight of them now, but they were just grandstanding - which is ironical when you think of it, because the "attack" happened not far from the Grand Stand being put up for Carnival. Even Aslan could tell they weren't serious, and he was practically steupsing at them. I told the one leading the charge to just stop his foolishness and he twitched his ears once or twice and then turned and walked away, and that was that.
I saw two new dogs in the savannah. One was a brown, very thin, male who looked like he might be just out of puppyhood. He was alone in a part of the savannah where there were absolutely no people at all. He started to come towards us and then thought better of it, and ran off.
I saw the other one when Asland and I were sitting on one of the benches after our walk. This really nice brown dog trotted up to us, totally unafraid. He (or she, I didn't notice) is reddish brown, long haired, and has a small head and long, slim face - something like a greyhound. He headed off towards the zoo side of the savannah, stopping to greet almost everybody on his way - which was a lot of people seeing that this is the month before Carnival and the savannah is crowded. Most people shooed him away. It was a little irritating to see one woman in particular practically running away from this dog - if he was any more gentle and friendly he would have been a rabbit and she was terrified of him! I hope he does not decide to go into the road as he will probably get knocked down.
I have been thinking about these savannah dogs and what is best for them. Could they be rescued? Should they be rescued? A few of them are friendly and will probably allow themselves to be taken to the TSPCA. Most of them will run like the dickens if you try to get near to them, so it is possible I won't be able to catch them - so what next? A dog's needs are shelter, food and water, health care and companionship. The dogs in the pack certainly have companionship and seem generally carefree. They can get water from the ponds in the Rock Gardens. As long as it does not rain, there are lots of trees for them to shelter under - I am not sure what they do when it rains though. Food and health care are the big problems. If those could be solved I would not worry about them. The dogs in the pack are thin, but they are not emaciated, so they must be getting some nourishment. It is the loners that I worry most about because they are thinner, generally more sickly and obviously traumatised. I have to think of a solution - food and health care for the pack, and rescuing for the loners.
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