Adopt a Dog from Pompeii

Pompeii is home to a posse of stray dogs who more or less have the run of the ruins. They also strike painfully cute poses like this.


Odone lounges.

The administration at Pompeii and Italian animal welfare organizations have teamed up to try to find these pooches new homes. They all have cute Roman names:

Walking along Pompeii ruins, you could also meet Odone, Paquio, Vesonius, Asclepio or Polibia. These names are inspired to the archaeological area where the dogs live and to the ancient owners of the historical Houses.

..and you can actually apply to adopt one at a booth on site! Check out the website, "I Cani di Pompei" (the dogs of Pompeii) for more.

It's an interesting marketing angle - they're pitching the dogs as a souvenir of Pompeii:"take home a life and a story from Pompeii". Since one can't buy artifacts from Pompeii anymore a stray dog who's intimately familiar with the ruins is the next best thing. It's a clever and kind way of saving tourists a lot of bother.


Meleagro stalks the ruins.

The project is called "(C)ave Canem", a fun play on words ('cave' means both 'beware of' and 'take care of', while 'ave' is a salutation. And it's also playing on the famous mosaic from the House of the Tragic Poet, which you've probably seen before, somewhere:

(Soprintendenza archeologica di Pompei)

Thanks to Kevin D.'s facebook feed for the link!