I was going to write about my lack of understanding of how people could bring a dog into their home, love it for a while then dump it onto the street and leave the country. Instead this is a happy story of a sweet dog and her shaggy coat getting a trim.

Here is her transformation video & story with photos below!

We have loads of street dogs here in Addis Ababa and there is no ‘official’ program to try to control the issue. However, in our neighbourhood the street dogs are generally in great shape. They have worked out where the best locations are to find love and be fed by locals from construction sites, schools and restaurants. They are in general good health and friendly but this isn’t the case in all places around the city.

The first time I met Scraggles

Scraggles (the name we gave her) has lived on the street for around 6 years. She has her own grassy knoll she has claimed between the school gate of a local school and some shipping containers. She doesn’t move far from there its her home she found but she is happy there and while she won’t let you pat her… if you approach her she jumps up and her tail starts wagging!

A scraggly mess

This is her short story from the last few months…

Vet Dawit trying to capture Scraggles – highly recommend him. Patient, calm and kind nature with her.

It took a lot of work & people but we finally got her to settle

Sedated so we could trim her

It took a team to complete the trim – this was just a few of the many people who helped

Dreads off and trim almost complete

One of the dreads – super thick, stinky & heavy

Some of the community who helped – while Scraggles is back on her grassy patch to wake up

She has a tail which is now up most of the time she runs around

Still cute as anything

Before & after