A dog’s life is very different in Tbilisi than we are used to in the US or in Europe. Dogs live outside and rarely come in the house except when the weather is very cold. It is difficult to tell which dogs are “owned” and which dogs are free-roaming, so to speak, but almost all the dogs are socialized to people and in the city you will rarely see any aggression.
A couple of weeks ago, one of the dogs living in the park beneath my apartment complex showed us her new puppies for the first time. Six beautiful little pups, six mostly black and one almost entirely white. Mama herself is entirely black and it is not apparent who the father might be.
The next step is to try and get the puppies and the mom into Dog Organization Georgia‘s TVNR (tag/neuter/vaccinate/return) program. The Dog Organization Georgia (DOG) is a non-profit that vaccinates and neuters the street dogs when they can (and when they have the budget and space at the shelter). I definitely don’t want either of the two little girls getting pregnant and I don’t think the mom will mind foregoing another litter.
What is really needed here is a public education program. The “typical” Georgian doesn’t believe in neutering their dog and many Georgians who have dogs (or other pets) cannot afford to get them regularly to the vet. Also, there are many Georgians who don’t like having the dogs around and some will even try to poison the dogs. I nearly got into my first fight in Georgia when a scrawny drunk fellow at the market kicked a dog and then tried to kick him again. I stepped between them and told him, “No.” Fortunately, a couple of Georgian women also berated him heavily and he walked away, probably cursing me. It was worth a good curse.