We've got a general problem in Sofia with street dogs.  They are everywhere. They roam around the city, eat garbage and scare unsuspecting people. Oh and these dogs seem to think that the city is theirs.

What's more these dogs are mangely and scraggly.  They are poorly fed (well because they don't have owners) and rely on what they can find in the garbage or beg from passer-bys.  The dogs often also have marks on them from street fights--missing patches of hair or bites out of their ears.  The old-sad-dying ones limp around and I can more or less only imagine that they are waiting to die or be hit by a car.

Many of the guide books for tourists warn about the dogs.  More or less referring to them as nuisances--if not out and out dangerous.

But here's the weird thing, recently I've seen lots of people petting these street dogs.  Okay, I am not a dog person (I am not even really an animal person) but these seems like a horrible thing to do.  These dogs are basically wild.  Or so I think as a non-animal person.

It's just that every time I see this happen I get a little (or sometimes big) gagging in my throat and a strong, strong urge to wash my hands.  Today it was especially bad.  It rained on and off all of last night and most of today so after work the street home was muddy and so were the dogs.

Uh, but this didn't keep some random Bulgarian woman walking in front of me from petting a dirty-wet-homeless dog.  Double yuck.

I guess that these dogs deserve some love too but this seems a bit much to me.  (And I wont be petting any stray animals any time soon.)  In fact, I think I'd just be a lot happier without stray dogs roaming the streets.

It seems to me that there's a solution to this problem enter pound (or the dog-catcher-from-Lady-&amp;-the-Tramp) but dogs don't seem to have much of a priority either way right now in Bulgaria. I guess that's good for them.  And for me, I guess that means that I'll have to try to get over the sinking-uch feeling I have when I see Bulgarians petting these street dogs.