When I came back from a little morning walk, these three were awaiting me in front of the ghost house next to a minha casa.
Looking at this picture, it's amazing how much the colors of the dogs mix into the colors of the background, especially if you include the rusty metal door behind the darker bigger dog.
For your information: I believe all three of these critters belong to the man who I call 'my neighbor'. Let's be honest, most people here are neighbors as this village is tiny, but he's the one living the closest to me.
By the way, I am still curious about the amount of people that will be staying here over Summer. Apparently - the owner of the local restaurant told me this - there can be 200 to 250 people during Summer time. While there's approximately 10 full time inhabitants in Winter. Most people who live here, have a second ( or I should say first ) house in either Porto, Lisbon or in a small city in this area.
Back to the dogs...
Many Portuguese dogs live outdoor, especially in smaller villages. Therefore, it's sometimes difficult to find out to whom they belong. Often people get fed up of their dogs, so they leave them on the street and they become strays that are being fed by villagers and end up living in another village.
The brown dog on this photo is being fed by my neighbor. He has been here since I arrived in this place, less than a year ago. He is slow, old, a little shy and likes to sleep in the entrance way to my front door or to seek shelter there from the rain. I often hear him shuffling and making small noises ( kind of like an old man ) in the night, while I'm in my bedroom. In fact, for a while, I thought there was someone at my door, in the night, until I discovered it was just this old dog.
The two white / yellowish critters on the left belong to the same neighbor. They are actually allowed to stay and sleep inside his house. I guess they aren't stray dogs. They like to yap, like most small dogs do but, these days, they seem to be used to me. So, when I took this picture, they just looked at me quietly and showed their funny little mouths and tiny teeth in a kind of grin, that I wasn't able to capture on the picture, unfortunately :>)