Camino: Day 15; with dog!

I'm quite pleased with myself. Today I walked the longest stretch I have done since my knee troubles, and I'm feeling quite okay!

Today I started out by walking to the Caceres bus station. Then I had to wait an incredibly long 1.5hours for a bus to Casar de Caceres, from where I hiked. I took the bus for the first bit as I'd heard it is boring, and the hostel not wonderful, so I figured I may as well skip it. Great choice!

I was feeling a bit concerned about today's walk. After being robbed on Day 1, I'd finally walked alone last week for 2 stages, but on reaching the final stop, I was cautioned by a local that I shouldn't be walking alone.
I was also concerned about the 23kms for my legs.
And finally I'd had another warning this morning from a Spanish pilgrim on the same bus "you're crazy! Absolutely crazy, setting out at this hour, it's too hot!". This warning didn't worry me, it was hot, but not too hot for this Queenslander.

But, I wanted to do the walk. Doing it felt like a better thing to do than hanging around. So I did.

Upon leaving Casar de Caceres a young but big dog, super friendly, bounded up to me. I gave it a quick pat. It started following me. The dog had no tags, only a flea collar and seemed hungry. Having a dog along made me feel better, protected. So I wasn't very forceful in my pitiful attempts to send it back, I tried hissing at it and waving my arms and telling it to go in English and Spanish, normally I'd chase a dog, but my knee's still not that great. I wouldn't throw stones or hit at the poor thing.

Finally I realised it was too late to send it back, and I couldn't. I managed to have it and I crawl through a fence to get water for it.

Towards the end we met a young French pilgrim who was resting. He really liked the dog. We chatted and then continued. He caught up with us on the road and came to the hostel with us.

At the hostel the host called the civil guard and an animal shelter but neither were interested in this dog. The dog had seemed hungry right from the start and she's of that age that dogs are often dumped. So we all think she's most probably a stray.

The young lady at the hostel called her boyfriend who brought food. She woofed it down!

The Frenchman intends to walk back to Paris, and is mostly sleeping under the stars, and he said he'd like to have her. So, result, the young Frenchman has a new dog. We all decided it was the best and only option... I hope she was a stray. She's really well behaved and friendly, won't bark at anything, and runs from small dogs. She just seems to want someone to be with. And the young man might be needing company too.

She's been renamed: Perrina, which is what they call a female dog (affectionately) in this part of Spain. It was figured that regardless of her name before, she would have heard that from time to time anyway.