The first ones that we saw were in Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Northern Morocco. None of these dogs was absolutely identical, but there were lots which were exactly the same colours and markings but with slightly longer hair, or the same colour and markings but on slightly bigger animals. People told us that there were lots of them around in Morocco, but they didn’t know the breed. Even the vet, who said that she had an identical dog, didn’t know the breed!

We got Poppy in Spain, from a rescue centre, and we’d never seen any other dogs anything like her in that country. She’d been in the rescue centre since she was 3 months old when she was found wandering around, abandoned; so we assume that somebody – some teenager, perhaps – picked her up in Melilla as a puppy, brought her into Spain, and then wasn’t allowed to keep her.

From Melilla we went to the Canaries, and here too we saw a few dogs which looked like Poppy. Since the Canaries are next door to Morocco this seemed to confirm the theory of an African origin.

Then, just a few months ago, we saw an absolutely identical dog in the Cape Verdes. It might have BEEN Poppy – and even Poppy seemed surprised! Even labradors are not so alike as to be identical, unless they are from the same litter.
We never did find out how this other dog came to be in the Cape Verdes.

One thing is certain, I think, and that is that Poppy is a pack animal. Her white tail-tip, waving aloft, and her white rump stand out so well in the dark that I am sure they were “designed” for other members of the pack to follow.
And her big ears are like the ears of an African hunting dog.

Also, her ancestors certainly evolved in a warm dry climate. Unlike my sister’s labrador she does not have a guard coat – an extra layer of fur over the inner one. Once, when we took the two dogs walking together, it poured with rain, and whilst the labrador just bounded around regardless Poppy became very unhappy. Her black fur formed tufts and we could see her pale skin below them. By the time we got home she was shivering.
She absolutely hates rain – at the first sign of rain she comes shooting down the hatch into the boat; indeed, if I so much as accidently flick a wet watercolour paintbrush over her back she is disgusted and goes off to sulk!

Does your dog also stand up on her back legs to look over things, I wonder?
That, too, might be a trick learnt on the plains of Africa where the hunters might need to peer over the tall grass to look for their prey.

Nowadays when people ask what breed Poppy is we say that she is an African dingo.

Jill