Camino Canines

[JA Brilleman]

Robert and other pilgrims

This is our story about dogs on the Camino:

Tuesday, june 8, 1999 we arrived at the refugio of Torres del Rio late
in the afternoon. The refugio was full of pilgrims but the four of us
could sleep on matrasses on the floor. We ate some bocadillos, made by
de hospitaleros Carmen and Geronimo, on the street before the refugio. A
dog was searching and begging for food around the pilgrims outside. As
we are used to dogs (we have one at home) we did not pay any attention
to that dog. Because a piece of my bread fell on the ground the dog came
beside me, ate the bread and lay down. One of the other pilgrims, Uwe a
priest from Germany, said: 'tomorrow you will walk with five!' We still
did not pay attention.

Wednesday, june 9, 1999, round 08:00 we were the last pilgrims who left
the refugio, before the building sat the same dog. It was a pale white
dog with some lightbrown, rather high (about a German Shepherd), not a
particular brand. As we came out he walked away, but he went the same
way as we did following the yellow marks, hill up leaving Torres del
Rio. He remained in our neighbourhood, then walking on the path,
sometimes leaving up or down hill looking and sniffing. He never reacted
on our calls or whistles. Once
he was gone for more than 10 minutes and we thought already we got rid
of him but suddenly he came out of the bushes before us. At the top of
the ridge we had a little break and now the dog came and rested too. Far
down we could see Logrono. Other pilgrims passed us, he stayed with us.
After some time we walked on, so did the dog. We passed a Spanish couple
eating some, the dog sat down before them begging. We kept on walking
and again we thought we got rid of him. We crossed the busy road N-111 a
couple of times and followed that road to Viana. Some kilometres before
Viana we saw the dog again, walking on the wrong side (right) of the
busy road. When cars and trucks passed him he jumped in the verge, once
he had a very narrow escape and stood shaking beside the road. At a
quiet moment we called and whistled and he came to our (left) side and
walked with us to the centre of Viana. In the middle of Viana on a
square near the church of Sancta Maria was a cafe with terrace, there
sat a group of pilgrims (also Uwe, the priest) from Torres del Rio
laughing because of the dog. We had coffee and the dog got water, people
took pictures of him, he was known as a Camino-dog. He walked around the
square, came back, looked at us, turned around and disappeared between
the many tourists on the square. People in the cafe told us he would
walk back to Torres del Rio.

For the four of us it felt as an honour he accompanied us for about 3
houres.




            Jan en Erna Brilleman
                            e-mail: janernaahetnet.nl
                            site: www.brilleman-2.myweb.nl