Hiking Hound (Animal Story 4)

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I’ve lived in Continental Europe all my life and can’t imagine living on an island. My husband comes from the Italian island Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea (south of Corsica). It's quite a large island. My aversion may have to do with the fact that I suffer from claustrophobia. One may think that islanders are used to their somewhat limited surroundings, but I’ve got proof that this is not so. Once, when we took the ferry back to the mainland at the end of our holidays with family, we encountered a dog which wanted to emigrate! We noticed it lying with a family on deck. It was fed and stroked and we were sure it belonged to the people in question until we saw it get up and go to someone else to get its food and caresses there. It was a charming creature. It was amusing to follow its course through the ship during the eight hours the crossing took. We didn’t think it was a stray dog. We imagined it belonged to someone who didn’t object to its strolling around. But when the ship had reached its destination on the mainland, the port of Civitavecchia (north of Rome), we saw the dog leave it alone and unaccompanied and go directly to a group of dogs waiting for it! A welcome committee of stray dogs, how very funny! This dog occupied our thoughts for quite a while. We imagined it going back to Sardinia when it had had enough of the big city and so on and so forth. My post is like a modern short story with an open ending. Find one yourselves! --- If you're interested in more animal stories, click on the green box above the title.