Postcard From the Algarve - March 05

There are five or six attached to a smallholding near our house, and I can only imagine that the owner provides them with regular meals. There is a legal requirement in Portugal to register and licence your own dog, but the staff at the local Fregusia, a sort of town hall office, smile pityingly if you try to register: they’ve run out of forms; have you got a better photo of your dog than this one? We’re busy, come back next week.

There is an animal sanctuary four miles outside Sao Bras. run by a Dutch lady who sold three houses to buy land for the sanctuary and to finance its upkeep. She, and two assistants, care for around 100 dogs and 150 cats, and she has help from a number of German vets who stay with her for a week at a time and spay the animals. Most stray animals are bought to her by British, Dutch, Scandinavian, and German residents. When a dog is bought to her by Portuguese she suspects that they are just getting rid of an unwanted pet. She also provides a home for a donkey which she rescued from travelling circus just before the animal was going to be slaughtered to provide food for two lions.

One of our neighbours who already has three dogs, saw a man at the local market holding a puppy. ‘That’s a nice dog,’ he said in his best Portuguese, putting his hand out to stroke it. The man pushed the puppy into John’s hand and ran off into the market crowd. Our neighbour now has four dogs.