Five days ago (Tuesday, March 27th) a young (10-11 months guestimate) male german shepherd walked into our backyard. He was ostensibly dehydrated and undernourished and had trouble walking straight. I had some food that I use to train a neighborhood dog and gave him that in small portions during the day. And water of course. At night we went to bed and left it to the dog to decide whether he wanted to stay or not. Next morning he was still there. I went out and bought some kibbles that I continued feeding him in small portions all during the day of yesterday and today. He’s feeling (and looking) a lot better already. I put some pictures on my Twitter account here.

The dog is totally untrained but young enough to be malleable, friendly and willing to learn, though a bit suspicious. He has a flea collar so he clearly belonged to someone at one point. I can’t tell whether he was lost or abandoned. He allows me to inspect his teeth and claws and put my hand into his feeding tray when eating. For the first 2 days I let him run around the house and into the street, since I cannot close off the backyard. The neighbors didn’t like it one bit. They wanted him off the street no matter how. So now I made some arrangement with a 8 meter rope tied from one pole to another so that he can roam that distance at least. He seems happy with that, doesn’t try to break loose or anything. Unfortunately I cannot keep him. Next Monday or Tuesday the people from the municipal shelter of Iraklio are coming to pick him up.

This dog is tall (70 centimeters at shoulder) already and he is going to look absolutely stunning when he’s fully grown up. He needs an owner with some experience in training/educating dogs and especially he needs a lot of space and exercise. If you want an exceptional dog, this is him. React here in the comments if you want to see him before the dimos takes him away. You won’t regret it. The dog and I will be eternally grateful. Did I mention that he will be gorgeous when he grows up?

In the pictures above, the first one shows how the dog looked like when he arrived, the second one is a couple of hours later after a few decent meals and a good rub. The picture at the top of the article shows how he looks now, after only 5 days of proper feeding and care.