CLASSIC: The War of the Stray Dog: How Far Would You Go For Your Pet?
Ridiculous History
iHeartPodcasts
4.2 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, it didn't take the newly-independent nations of Greece and Bulgaria long to begin bickering over their borders. Throughout the early 1920s, small bands of peasants from both countries routinely crossed the border to steal livestock, damage property and harass locals. This untenable situation reached a breaking point in 1925, when a Greek border guard was fatally shot while crossing into Bulgaria to retrieve his dog (who had strayed away on dog business). This single incident sparked a cavalcade of chaos that eventually caught the attention of the League of Nations.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back, folks. It is that time of the week where we share one of our favorite classic episodes. |
| 0:07.2 | Max, look, man, you and I are both animal people, as is our palmedulm. |
| 0:14.3 | I love, love, love, love pretty much every non-human animal. |
| 0:21.9 | And I was thinking about this as we were going to today's classic episode. |
| 0:26.7 | Two questions for you, Max. |
| 0:28.4 | One, have you ever seen John Wick? |
| 0:32.8 | Oh, yeah. |
| 0:33.6 | It is amazing. |
| 0:34.2 | Actually, I was introduced to series with John Wick, too. |
| 0:37.9 | I just had a group of friends that we'd go to matinee movies together. This is back when we were all bartenders, so doing stuff Tuesday afternoon was like our go-to. They went around and we were off. I'd never seen the first one. I'd always come see this. I'm like, I don't want to see some dumb action movie. Oh, my God. It captured me immediately. I'm like, this is so awesome. |
| 0:55.3 | That's the second question there, building off our mutual adoration of John Wick. |
| 1:02.6 | How far would you go for your pet? |
| 1:07.2 | Yeah, I would start a world war. |
| 1:10.1 | I mean, nukes would fly. |
| 1:12.2 | Nukes would fly. |
| 1:13.8 | Heads will roll, as the, yeah, yeah, yeah, said. |
| 1:17.6 | This classic episode is about something called the War of the Stray Dog, as we're going to find after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1:26.8 | These newly independent nations started |
| 1:30.4 | beefing over their borders, Greece and Bulgaria. This was one of those slow burn things, right? |
| 1:38.8 | It starts with small transgressions, which escalate. There's an untenable, unsustainable situation, and it reaches a |
| 1:49.0 | breaking point in 1925 when a border guard's dog runs away. Here we go. The War of the Stray Dog. |
| 1:59.9 | This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. |
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