We greatly miss having a dog around the house and will certainly be looking for a suitable candidate once the perimeter fencing has been installed around the garden.
I was working in the workshop one afternoon and was surprised by this puppy, complete with chunky chain dragging behind, coming to see me in there.
As usual, there is no name tag or number to call to reunite him with the owner. I used my 'phone to scan for a chip, sometimes it can detect them, but no joy.
I tried to 'shoo' it away, back to where it came from but it was more than happy to stay and follow me around while I just got on with the jobs.
Later in the afternoon I asked my neighbour if he knew about it, no! I stopped a couple of passers by, but no-one knew anything. It was clear that the owner may not be found.
Rather than just call the GNR to deal with it, since they would likely simply deposit it at the 'canil' where it stood a good chance of just being destroyed, I decided we should look after it for the time being.
Obviously we have no food for it, I already provided a water bowl and the thirsty dog had slurped that up quickly enough.
So, back to the neighbour who has a little dog. I managed to ask if he could provide some food and he obliged with a small bag of the dried small pellet stuff, just right for a puppy.
I had no response after posting a FaceBook appeal on the local groups, so the dog had to stay overnight.
It was exceptionally happy in the house, I doubt that it had been in a human house before, and apart from a couple of damp patches on the tiles it was very good, no howling or crying.
The next day, I found one of our old dog leads and took it out for a walk around to see if anyone would recognise it. I only saw a couple of people and no one seemed interested.
For the rest of the day it just followed me around like, well - a puppy! I tried to make it visible from the road in case anyone was out looking and even chained it in the driveway for a while.
So it spent another night at home with us, it is fair to say that we were getting used to having it around.
On the third day I again took it out for a walk around the village, but still no one was interested.
When we returned home I noticed, at the railway station, a neighbour who I had not yet spoken to, so I asked the lady.
Amazingly, she had just been speaking to someone who told her that she had lost her dog - and that person was a woman who comes each day to tend her land behind the railway station. Her car was parked but she had already gone to her quinta (I don't know where!). In case I missed seeing her return I wrote a note in Portuguese asking her to call at our house and left it with her car.
Sure enough, she showed up a couple of hours later and eventually recognised her dog and took it away.
Sadly, I assume it will now be just left permanently chained up to 'guard' her land as happens with so many dogs here.