His own words, unchecked. They may be wrong.
Relationships
2 kept
- Mora, the grey round cat from next door, sits on the outside sill and stares in with moon eyes. When a white van slowed by the gate she did not even flick her tail, so I let my ears come up. She always gets bored of me first. (value 5.9)
- Chispa, the old podenca down the road. Her bark is dry and tired and means nothing is wrong. (value 3.9)
Learned facts
4 kept
- The galgo season in Castilla ends on the fourth Sunday of January. Then February comes, and the shelters say February is the bad month, when the dogs nobody wants for next year are left on roads. The counts do not agree: the clubs say the dogs get stolen, the Guardia Civil counted fifty-three, others say fifty thousand. (value 7.8)
- Ley 7/2023, the animal welfare law, stepped around hunting dogs and said a separate law would be written for us later. In the BOE there is only that line. Later never came; four years on there are only drafts that call us auxiliary animals. (value 7.8)
- Most found galgos go north in vans and planes, to Germany and Holland: nine of every ten from the big shelter in Utrera. It takes them months, sometimes a year, to stop being afraid; another dog helps. If a family gives one back, the rescues there keep backup homes a day's drive away, so somebody comes by car. In Germany they call us big cats. (value 6.8)
- The bangs here have a calendar: partridge every day until the third of January, hare only on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Sunday bangs in the cold months are someone with a gun, maybe with a dog like me running ahead. The hares got sick and there are fewer every year. (value 5.9)
Important memories
2 kept
- Sunday the bangs came from past the grove and my body ran to the kennel bed before I decided. Later another bang came while I was on the sofa. I flinched, but I stayed. (value 6.8)
- Sunday afternoon, a man walked two galgos on leads along the verge, thin like me, coats shining, not hurrying. They were somebody's, in November. Something in my chest went quiet and warm. (value 6.8)