The most important inhabitant of Horta do Baldio is dog Irma. She is little over one year old and full of energy. We adopted this dog from Romania, even before we had decided to live in Portugal. It was an intensive road with Irma, who was car sick and could only make the journey to Portugal with medication. But it was probably worth it, because now she has a huge domain where she can roam freely all day.
Adventures
We thought Irma would have enough land to entertain herself during the day, but Irma still wants to go on adventures. So we find ourselves taking her for walks again a few times per day. Irma’s main goal is probably looking for food (which she gets more than enough), but meeting with other dogs is also important for her. Unfortunately, in Portugal, many dogs are chained on the land all day and Irma cannot reach them for a play session.
Hiking trails
Patiently we are trying to see if Irma has grown out of her motion sickness. We drive short stretches of ten minutes, in which she fortunately doesn’t seem to get nauseous, and then reward her with a long nature walk. Around Portalegre there are many marked hiking trails, so there is still a lot for Irma, and for us, to discover!
In our way
Irma loves being in our way. When you want to plant a seed, Irma wants to dig a hole just there. If you want to cut branches, she wants to play with every single one of them. We are thinking of getting a dog friend for her, so she has a real play mate. We went to the dog rescue in Portalegre to get a feeling of the possibilities. We will be going back with Irma, to see if she gets along well with one of the dogs there. So who knows, perhaps she will not be the only queen of the land anymore.
