Sylvi talked her into the car and we took her home where she engulfed anything put in front of her. Obviously dehydrated and starved she was pathetically grateful. This area is rife with abandoned dogs. She spent the afternoon sniffing around and then just sleeping and sitting on an old pillow. She had terrible sores on her inside back legs and was covered in ticks. We also suspected she might have mange as she had lost a lot of her coat in patches around her body and her little paws were red raw.
We took her to the Vet, figuring that if she couldn't be saved at least she could go out with a bit of kindness. Well, apart from every parasite possible, malnutrition etc. the pup passed the Vet's scrutiny and we gave her an anti mite/flea/tick bath, to be repeated every two weeks, worm pills and ear mite cream and last week she got her first set of innoculations expensive buggers, dogs. We removed all the ticks we could find. She certainly looked and smelled better for the bath, well, actually she smelled like a chemical factory, but even that was an improvement... and after a couple of days she was getting stronger.
In just a week of feeding her four times a day we saw the improvement and she began to learn how to play. Her rear left leg troubles her still and we hope it isn´t her hips. Looks like we're stuck with her so we have bought her a collar and a bed and called her Scraps. Vet reckons she's about 3 or 4 months old. She now plays like a lunatic and put on a kilo in a week.This was her 7 days later....
And this is her now.... and boy does she have attitude! We haven't laughed so much in ages at her antics and she really will take some sorting out in the next few months.
Croquet, anyone? Fraser has been strimming the fields and terraces, it's a lot of work, aided somewhat this year by the loan of a lawn mower...sadly not a riding mower, but at least it was self-propelled! The field looks very civilised now. The bottom picture shows the tops of our New Zealand Cabbage palms which are currently in flower. Spectacular. 
We have finally managed the first stage of the barn patio after some initial trials. Using a variety of materials, sale price tiles, free slate from the roadside, beach pebbles and cast slabs helped us keep costs down. Now needs grouting and sealing in the central area.
With the rains we are finding lots of local amphibians in odd places like the front steps. Luckily the puppy didn't see this one.
Other news of the month is that our trip to the Algarve to see the gallery there was a great success. Fraser now has a painting there and has submitted two small paintings for an exhibition of small affordable works starting on May 30th. They also asked me to submit a watercolour for the exhibition too. They want Fraser to produce a number of canvases of skies, seas and Brazil so he is working on those as we write. If you are interested to see the place the web link is www.corterealarte.comSo we are off to Prague on 28th May for James and Adela's wedding on 30th. Guess what the blog will be about in June???
Roundabout of the Month
Tábua is our local town, with a corrupt mayor and has pretentions beyond its capabilities. Over the past year there have been new highways and bypasses constructed which all converge through Tábua. We now understand why we have this abomination of a roundabout which obviously signifies "All roads lead to Tábua". It appeared 4 years ago so obviously the local junta knew what was coming. The four crests are the town crests. Amusingly enough many of the local stray abandoned dogs, of which there are many, use it as their loo and resting place.