Coming to Romania, I had heard that there were wild dogs roaming the streets. I’d heard and read that the wild dogs were a serious problem and that caution is advised when walking alone. When I first got to Romania I believed in those stories wholeheartedly and was scared whenever I saw a dog on the street that even came nearby. At night, hearing the dogs howl and fight outside was so disturbing the first few nights.

Through time though, I’ve walked past dogs that have gotten startled and been able to bark up enough racket to sound like a whole pack of dogs. Even now, it’s still unnerving to suddenly hear what sounds like a pack of dogs fighting in the distance, but it’s not nearly as concerning. Now it’s more like “huh, I wonder what’s gotten them riled up this time” than like “WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS THAT  oh ya it’s the dogs, hope they don’t come any closer”. Night is when they are most intimidating though, by day the dogs are downright cute and almost heart-wrenchingly pitiful. Once you see two too skinny puppies play-wrestling in a field or see a dog flinch and run because a kid aimed a kick at it when it was just laying down you lose a large portion of any fear of them.

Recently we talk more about how we wish we could adopt one of them than how we’re scared of them. Fear of dogs is slowly being replaced by fear of pigeons. You read that right, pigeons. They are everywhere, all the time. They hardly move unless you are about to step on them, and even then, they only flutter about five feet away, at the most. Sometimes, when startled, they end up flying at you instead of away from you. Unlike the dogs, who have learned to leave people away, the pigeons have no common sense to avoid people. Therefore, pigeons are scarier than dogs.