SLOVENIA'S 5 CORE VALUES

All of us who love our furry canine family members and who take care of them, feed them, give them attention, provide all the veterinary care, dog school, the best food, treats, in my case a dog wardrobe and more, know that they give us back unconditional loyalty, belonging and love.

But sometimes something happens that scares the owners more than if something happened to us personally. For example, when our puppy runs off, despite our diligence in taking him for a walk on a lead.

In my household, three Italian little greyhounds reign supreme: my eldest, 13-year-old mother Roma, her five-year-old son Vivi, and a little two-year-old clown, Aria. Three guesses who's the snarliest. It's our boy. Always behind me, always getting the most sniffles and all the attention. He's always hanging around my legs.

And so it was on that hot summer day last year. 

Let me tell you that we live on the third floor of one of Trbovlje's famous green towers. Every so often, I prepare my rubbish outside the door and then take it to the bins. Sometimes Vivi peeks through the door, sometimes she goes next door to check on the neighbour's dog, but she always comes back to the apartment. I wasn't paying attention at the time and apparently he went a little further down the hall. This wouldn't have been so bad either, if the facade of the tower block hadn't been being renovated at the time and the basement front door was constantly open because of the work in the tower block. Our boy, however, went for a nose. Freely, without the annoying collar and leash. He just kept on, down, and through the gate, probably happily polluting all the trees and the road fence. In short, he had a trip like he hadn't had in a long time. Without the annoying jiggling of the leash. After I had closed the apartment door, I looked over at the sofa, where my three canine scrunchies usually occupy the best positions. There are two, where is the third? "Echo," that's my two-legged, human partner and member of the canine household, "have you seen Vivi?"

"Isn't she here?" comes the unsuspecting reply from the kitchen.

I also look in the dog box in the hall, in all the rooms, under the blankets in the bedroom, where sometimes somebody snuggles, because dry and not-quite-pooed greyhounds love blankets and quilts. It's nowhere to be found! 

"Echo, I'm going to see if he's in the corridor, and you keep an eye on the girls." They were both running restlessly around the apartment, Aria started barking, she could feel the fear, the restlessness, the panic in my voice.

I open the door, call and whistle, "Vivi, Vivi, Vivi!" Nothing. A panic. I shout to my partner that Vivi is not there, to go downstairs if she is somewhere lower.

While I'm calling, whistling, running up the stairs. He is nowhere to be found. I run through the open front door. Horror. Where is he? My upstairs neighbour Sanda, who has a puppy herself, Bolt the Chihuahua, has just come back from the shop. "I saw Vivi running upstairs, towards the playground."

"Thank you, Sanda!"

I fly as fast as my legs will carry me across the car park to the upper playground. Vivi is nowhere to be found. I see a couple of guys from our tower block who like to pet our puppies when we're out, and even take them for a little lead around the tower block. 

"Have you seen Vivi?", I ask in a panic. 

"Yes, it flew on." Just at that moment, a young couple from our tower block comes around the playground with a little Pomeranian. I don't know their names. 

"He was flying towards the shop, across the road." Horror! Across the road, cars... I fly, I scream, I whistle, nothing. Suddenly, from the other side of the road, an acquaintance, Janja, from the neighbouring tower block, with whom I used to take the puppies for a walk, shouts. She was outside with her chihuahua Misha, whom Vivi absolutely adores. Well, except for this one day, she didn't.

"I saw him, I thought he had escaped and I went after him, trying to call him. I offered him treats, but he wouldn't stop, he flew across the main road to the other side." 

Even more horrible, there is a lot of traffic, there is a traffic light, but my Vivi probably didn't take it into account.

"Janja, thanks for the information, he probably went to my father-in-law's tower block."

"I'm coming with you, I'm going on the other side of the tower block," he offers to help me. I was eternally grateful to her for that.

Janja and Misha flew with me across the road. I don't remember if I was waiting for the green light, but strange things go through your mind at times like that, especially for greyhound owners, who are characterised by being fast, untraceable and in panic and fear can get so far away that they can get completely lost. I know of cases where they have been found dead after getting lost in winter. We both shout, we call, Vivi, Vivi, I whistle, because all three of them can come to me when I whistle.

I fly behind my father-in-law's tower, up the hill to the old Mechanica, where we sometimes walk. Nothing. Up the hill towards the shooting club, it's hot, I can hardly breathe. A little puppy comes barking out of one of the houses, followed by the owner. 

"Did you see a puppy, a little greyhound, fly by here?" ask I, my voice shaking.

"No, sorry."

"Thank you."

Panic, where else to go. I stand above my father-in-law's tower block, desperate.

At that moment, Janja shouts from the underside of her father-in-law's tower, "Kaaaatjaaaaaa! There he is!"

I run as fast as my legs will carry me, downhill.

With the last atoms of my strength and my voice I call to him, "Vivi, Vivi, Vivi!" From somewhere behind the tower block he flies and bounces with all his strength into my arms. Apparently, he had had enough of the solo trip and found my voice to be the solution to his escape.

"Vivi, you rascal, I'm going to have a stroke!!!" Janja and I head back across the main road through Trbovlje, with Misha on the lead and Vivi in my arms. He clings to me, I hold him, stroke him, just to keep him with me, just to keep him alive and well and whole.

 "Thank you, Janja, really thank you."

How grateful I am for such neighbours, for such a neighbourhood of our two green high-rises. We are indeed a little more connected as dog-lovers, but how I appreciate that nobody cared, that everybody tried to help. Sanda, the boys, the young couple, and especially Janja. So that Vivi is safe at home and my furry family member continues to happily occupy the best positions of our shared apartment.

Katja Mikula, 4. 2. 2025