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Bandit is an English Setter, born in Corfu and abandoned at an animal shelter near the town of Lefkimi. This is the story of her incredible journey from the back of a pickup truck to a loving home in the United Kingdom.
As with so many dogs that are dumped at a Greek shelter, Bandit’s life prior to her arrival at the Lefkimi Animal Shelter in Corfu is relatively unknown, but what can be inferred is that she was used as, or at least bred to be, a hunting dog.
Most likely, she did not come up to scratch, either due to her poor recall (in spite of training, she still struggles to return if she has spotted a squirrel or even a bird flying low in the sky!) or owing to her suffering from severe hip dysplasia, which would have hampered her ability to chase down prey.
Bandit is in fact lucky that she was dumped, rather than being disposed of by other, more sinister means. In some rural parts of Greece, owners are known to poison or hang dogs that they feel provide no benefit or purpose. Nonetheless, her arrival at the shelter was not pleasant. Like many others before her, she was driven to the shelter gates in the dead of night and summarily tossed over the eight foot gate to land on hard concrete on the other side, where she was found the following morning by shelter staff.
Bandit’s stay at the shelter was blessedly short, for she was fortunate to have arrived literally the day before a member of the Friendly Future team flew in to do some filming at the shelter. The purpose of the filming was to show the plight of shelter dogs in Corfu, as well as to capture their journey through the shelter, from their arrival to when they got rehomed.
Bandit was chosen to represent the many dogs arriving in quarantine through to being allocated a space with other dogs in one of the shelter’s enclosures. While initially shy and subdued, she very quickly bonded with the Friendly Future cameraman who spent a number of hours with her each day of filming, so much so that after being allocated space in an enclosure, she would often pace along the enclosure border to attract his attention each time he would wander past, even breaking out at one point by climbing over the enclosure gate to run over to him.
The benefits of housing dogs together in a shelter are that they don’t feel isolated, have more opportunity for distraction, and are able to maintain a decent level of socialisation with others. In Bandit’s case, she quickly formed friendships with the other three dogs in her enclosure, particularly with one dog named Annie.
© Busy Animal / courtesy of BusyAnimal.com
Filming finally came to an end, but by then it was already decided by our cameraman that he would adopt Bandit. However, it did mean he had to return to the United Kingdom in order to make preparations, organising the necessary payments, as well as deciding that he would fly back in order to accompany Bandit on her journey across six countries and three seas to her new home.
Bandit undertook the journey, along with eleven other dogs, in a pet transport carrier, crossing from Corfu to the Greek mainland by ferry before catching another ferry to Italy. From there it was a long journey up through Italy and Switzerland to France, then Belgium, and back to France again. There were opportunities for toilet breaks along the way, nevertheless it would be 48 hours of being on the road before she arrived at the port in Dover and to her new home country.
© Busy Animal / courtesy of BusyAnimal.com
Bandit was relatively fortunate, as her new home was in Surrey, and so she was one of the first dogs to be dropped off, while the others continued on their journey, being dropped off to various homes across the country.
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Sadly, Bandit’s adjustment to her new life did not initially go all that well. Her new owners had already a number of cats in the house, and while there had been some basic tests done at the shelter to see how Bandit would react to cats, it was not until she began to feel settled in her new home that problems began to arise.
It began with playful barking and then moved on to actively chasing them. In each instance, she was reprimanded but her instinct to hunt was too strong. Things came to a head when one of the cats turned and clawed her, and Bandit reacted, with the result being a dead cat.
Her new owners debated whether to remove her from their care, but decided having brought her so far already that it would be deeply unfair to place her back in a shelter, and so they redoubled their efforts, taking the time to carefully monitor all her interactions with her feline family, rewarding her for good behaviour, correcting her when she fell back on old habits.
The result is that three years have past and there have been no further incidents. In fact, nearly all the cats now feel completely relaxed in her presence, even cuddling up to her in the dog bed for a snooze.
Bandit has come a long way, not only in terms of the distance she has travelled but in herself, as well, and her ability to adjust to her new life in the UK.
© Busy Animal / courtesy of BusyAnimal.com
If Bandit’s story has inspired you to consider rehoming a dog from abroad, or if you would like to find out how you can help dogs like Bandit, be it through donations or by volunteering at a shelter abroad, please visit the website of the charity that helped shelter Bandit on the path to finding her forever home. For more information, please visit www.tierhilfe-korfu.de.
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