Delilah & Dixie's Story

When we moved to Italy, everyone advised us to get some dogs so the burglars would not come around. I was at an agriturismo one day and I saw these lovely white dogs that were in a pen. They seemed so friendly and I loved looking at their big brown eyes. I had never seen such dogs. The proprietor told me they were Maremmano-Abruzzese. 

I went for a walk and discovered another female dog with seven newly born puppies. I went to tell the proprietor and he said “Since you discovered them, you should take one!” I said no way but then I went home and we decided to get one for our family. We brought home Dixie, she was so much fun that one week later we went back for her sister, Delilah.

These two have been an amazing part of our family. They loved to go on walks and get cuddles. Delilah would climb up on anyone sitting on the sofa and sit on that person. They were so gentle but if they thought we were being threatened, nothing could stop them. Once a man picked up a stick near my daughter (he was throwing it away) and the two dogs were on him in a minute. They didn’t stop growling until he gingerly laid down the stick. 

Last week Delilah went missing for breakfast. Since she is very greedy, I knew that something was up when she didn’t return. My husband then spent hours riding his bicycle and asking neighbors if they had seen her. One of our neighbors said that she saw tire tracks on her land near a ravine and when she looked down, there was a white body. My husband went down to look and saw a white labrador and another dog, shot and decomposing. We were surprised by this but hoped to find our Delilah safe. That evening, my husband found Delilah deep in a ravine behind our house, dead. It took him an hour to pull her out because it was so steep and filled with briars. Dixie tried to reach her but couldn’t because of the briars which makes us think that someone threw her in there. Since she weighed over 50 kilos there was probably more than one person involved.

We were very worried about Dixie so we kept her close. We locked her in our house when we were not at home. However, yesterday because it was such a sunny day, I thought it would be good for Dixie to enjoy the sunshine. I put her in her pen and left at 8:30 in the morning. When I got back at 10.15, she was gone and the bottom latch on the gate was lifted. Again we searched and my husband found her in another ravine, dead. We have sent both bodies off to be autopsied, the vets suspect poisoning.

Our two girls were so lovely and our entire family is devastated. The police are advising that we get another dog immediately.  We have thought about going to the kennel and picking up an older Maremmano-Abruzzese because the shepherds throw them out for the very reason we love them-because they are kind, sweet and gentle. We are however terrified that this might happen again and don’t want any more animals to be killed. We had a wonderful six years with Dixie and Delilah and they enriched our lives so much. I only wish that they could have died of illness or old age; it would still be difficult to accept, but these types of deaths occur naturally and aren’t due to hate.