HERMES’ STORY:

Hermes is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, abandoned at an animal shelter near the town of Lefkimi in Corfu. This is the story of his arrival at the shelter, his difficult adjustment to life in an enclosure, and the challenges he has had to overcome while seeking a new home.

Quick Links to Page Contents:

• Journey to the Shelter
• Stay at the Shelter
• Prospects of a New Life & New Home

JOURNEY TO THE SHELTER:

Early one morning in late July, 2016, shelter staff arrived at the Lefkimi Animal Shelter in Corfu to find a young Staffordshire Bull Terrier tied to the front gate. He seemed well fed and in good condition, so had presumably come from a good home. However, Bull Terriers are not a common breed on the island, and so the assumption was that he was either the pet of an English expat who had decided to leave the island and abandon the dog, or that he had been brought to the island to be a family pet but had become unwanted.

Certainly, though, he had not spent a great deal of time outdoors under the brilliance of the Corfu sun, for his coat was still chocolate-brown. In the subsequent two years while being at the shelter, his coat would bleach to become the tawny colour it is today.

As with all other dogs, Hermes was placed into quarantine for three weeks, until he could be vet-checked and cleared of any parasites or disease, and then he was taken through to the main enclosure to see how he would respond to the other dogs in the shelter.

STAY AT THE SHELTER:

Hermes was penned in his own large enclosure to see how he would respond to the presence of the other dogs in adjacent pens. After watching his responses to those around him, sadly for Hermes, he was deemed too high-risk to be placed into a communal enclosure, and therefore began his long stay in proximity to others while not being able to fully interact with them.

With a shelter brimful of over a hundred dogs, and with a limited workforce, it would be impossible to have Hermes constantly monitored. Owing to the history of the breed and the fact that he is such a powerful dog, this was deemed to be the safest option for both Hermes and the other dogs at the shelter. This is not to say that with sufficient time and training that Hermes could not learn to socialise with other dogs.

In the time that Hermes has been at the shelter, he has learned a number of cues from the workers that feed and interact with him, including to sit and wait for his food to be provided. Otherwise he spends a great deal of time simply watching the goings-on around him, whether it is the other dogs in adjacent enclosures or staff passing by his pen.