{"id":636,"date":"2009-11-08T23:51:03","date_gmt":"2009-11-09T03:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=636"},"modified":"2009-11-08T23:51:03","modified_gmt":"2009-11-09T03:51:03","slug":"about-rabid-dogs-and-getting-really-mad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/about-rabid-dogs-and-getting-really-mad\/","title":{"rendered":"About Rabid Dogs and Getting Really Mad"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Remember Barb\u2019s guest post about her trip to Poland? In it, at the very end, she mentioned, humorously no doubt, the famous Polish wildlife specimen \u2013 w\u015bciek\u0142y pies<\/strong> (rabid dog).<\/p>\n

That comment has prompted one of the readers to send me an email asking whether it was true or not \u2013 if there really were rabid dogs in Poland. The reader was about to move to Poland and planned to take his dog with him. But now, after finding out that Poland was not a rabies free country, he was having second thoughts.<\/p>\n

Yes, w\u015bcieklizna<\/strong> (rabies) is very much real in Poland. And as far as I know, all cats and dogs kept as pets must be vaccinated (koty i psy musz\u0105 by\u0107 zaszczepione<\/strong>) against rabies. But also as far as I know, rabies is mostly prevalent in wild animals \u2013 squirrels, bats, foxes, (wiewi\u00f3rki, nietoperze, lisy<\/strong>) etc\u2026<\/p>\n

What would concern me, as an animal lover, more are the numbers of stray dogs and cats (bezdomne<\/strong>, literally \u2013 homeless,<\/em> psy i koty<\/strong>) in Poland.<\/p>\n

And to calm my concerned reader who\u2019s planning to bring his dog to Poland, this is most likely what Barb had in mind when she mentioned her w\u015bciek\u0142y pies<\/strong> \u2013 a stray that barks like crazy and lunges for your ankles when you walk by. Any dog that\u2019s loud and aggressive (and doesn\u2019t even have to be homeless) can be colloquially referred to as \u201cw\u015bciek\u0142y pies<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the adjective \u201cw\u015bciek\u0142y<\/strong>\u201d (feminine:<\/em> w\u015bciek\u0142a<\/strong>, neuter:<\/em> w\u015bciek\u0142e<\/strong>, plural masculine personal:<\/em> w\u015bciekli<\/strong>, plural all others:<\/em> w\u015bciek\u0142e<\/strong>) also means furious, mad (as foaming at the mouth mad), angry, livid.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s even a verb \u2013 w\u015bciec si\u0119<\/strong> (perfective; imperfective: w\u015bcieka\u0107 si\u0119<\/strong><\/em>) \u2013 to get angry, mad, furious, to see red, to go postal.<\/p>\n

So, now all you ladies out there, you can say:<\/p>\n