Spanish Street Dogs; the other Waifs and Strays.

OK so Sunday morning I'm wondering how to add to this blog with a few more pics that might be of interest especially as we now have 7 dogs living in the house and we are taking care of three more street dogs in their own environment. Haven't got the time, space or dinero for anything else.

Had to renew passport (173€) earlier this month and also got stuck with a garage bill for 150€ for failed engine mounts. The failure of one puts additional strain on the others and is guaranteed to take out another...thanks Renault... so lots of unwanted expense.

Taking care of the house animals is a fulltime 24/7 job and since there is only Summer and me it gets a bit stressfull sometimes.

Today (Sunday) turned out to be just such a day...

About 4 oclock Summer decided to take Spike and Scruffy for a walk. We tend to take them all out two at a time since all have the pulling capability of a Scania truck...

Spike and Scruffy are still quite undisciplined on the lead and always darting off to one side or the other to investigate new sights and smells, but these uncisciplned movements are generally pre-anticipated and corrective measures taken.

I was beginning to think she'd been gone for rather longer than usual when there was on the door...I thought initially Summer had left her door key behind but no...it was one of the neighbours kids, quite out of breath. He told me Summer had had an accident and was sitting in the road quite unable to move, whilst still trying to control the two pups. She was right down at the far end of the village up one of the side streets. By the time I got there she had quite a crowd gathered round her. someone had taken on the task of phoning for an ambulance because Summer couldnt straighten her left leg and it was pinned under her right leg.

She was in an awful amount of pain; it seems that the pups had crossed in front of her and she had taken a hard fall over their leads, falling heavily on her left hip...not good...

The ambulance has to come out from the next village some 7kms away, so after a quick chat with her and the neighbours I grabbed the dogs and brought them home shoving them straight into their crate. I sorted out the other dogs who had fortunately had their mid afternoon walk before Spike and Scruffy, grabbed Summers passport and handbag and a few odds and sods and was just about to leave the house when the same kid showed up again to tell me that the ambulance was waiting for me...

So back again to the other end of the village, and jump on board. I had no idea at that moment whether we would be going to Loja, Alhama de Granada or Granada itself; but it turned out to be Granada City. The road from the village out to the main Granada motoerway isnt in all that good state of repair, has many potholes and sleeping policemen so it was a very slow cautios ride til we hit the motorway, the the Spanish equivalent of Blues and Twos all the way to the main hospital that deals with accidents and emergencies. The Ambulance driver booked her in initially then said adios and buena suerte.leaving us stuck not knowing what the procedures were and with documentation (E111) that might be out of date...Summer spends a fair amount of time in the UK so has never taken on the Spanish Social Security Health card.

After nearly two hours it became fairly obvious that nothing was happening so I went back to reception and the booking in desk to check; we also grabbed one of the consultants and asked if Summer could please have a shot of painkiller since by now she was climbing the wall so to speak...He returned about five minutes later and gave her a shot that provided some relief. Meantime my enquiries produced a result; within moments she was seen by a triage doctor, and then carted off on a stretcher for xrays.

Then we got the bad news... The ball at the top of her left femur was shattered or sheared, (I'm not sure of the translation) the damage requiring an urgent op to fit a replacement hip joint. We were moved onto another consultant, a young female surgeon and between our Spanish and her English we sorted out what is necessary. An op is scheduled for this afternoon (Monday) pending any other more urgent cases; she will definitely be out of action for at least four to six weeks, will need a crutch or a stick for a while. She will be in hospital for at least a week The recuperation period could be up to six months...

So in the meantime, I've met my Waterloo...Somehow I have to juggle exercising, feeding and cleaning up after seven dogs, feeding self, sleeping and finding my way back to the hospital at least once a day and its an 80km round trip.

If the results are anything like what greeted me when I got back homeby taxi (another 65 Euros...) at 2am this morning the next few days aren't gointg to be easy. The dogs had been on their own for much longer than normal and whilst the Seniors of the pack were reasonably chilled out about it the juniors most definitely were not...The youngest puppy (eight weeks) had soiled her crate big time so she and the crate had to be stuffed in the shower and cleaned up; Spike and Scruffy were making all kinds of a racket in their crate and I suspect there may have been a little recycling going on in their case...their crate was suspiciously clean and dry and odour free...it's taken from 2am to get things back to some degree of normality and its now 5.30am.

So a new day starts...dogs to be walked fed and watered, house to be sorted, must find a nightie and stuff for Summers hospital stay... and then find the hospital again...and somewhere to park...

So caring for the animals has backfired on us... takes a deep breath... counts to ten...OH SOD IT!

Talk to you all later...

fb

Been a while so a quick update...

The house dogs are all fine; Izzy and Leo in their own private little world upstairs keeping out of the way of the two tearaway pups whilst Sox acts like their long suffering mum...Impossible to take them all out for a walk together, because Leo really doesnt get on well with any dog thats any less laid back than he is. He is definitely the anything for a quiet life dog and I suspect looks on the pups as snack size meals in waiting... and Izzy just treats them as being beneath contempt.

We have given up all attempts to 'rescue' the last trog (Siouxsie); she has made it quire obvious that she wants to be friends but on her terms; she follows me if she sees me out alone and will quite happily follow me to the house, but she wont come in... we have tried all kinds of bribes, tasty snacks, but she will not make the move to come inside. I think she realises that in doing so she would be giving up her freedom to be a dog...  she seems to be happy enough in her little cave, her own little queendom. She quite happily sees off any marauding visitors.

Two more abandonados have taken to following us on our daily walks; two beautiful black spaniels that were dumped in the village about a month ago. They very quickly learned where Siouxsie lives and have set up home fairly close to her. Most of the time she tolerates the newcomers but every now and again she will have a SWMBO moment. I know why the spaniels set up so close; They quickly observed that Siouxsierarely finishes her meals at one go and has a tendency to go off for a mid meal pee then they are 'in like Flynn' to trough off whatever she has left whilst she takes care of nature! So nowadays I take enough food down to keep all three going...

The latest dumpee is another Podenco; this one is a male, Podenco crossed with Lord knows what; I detect signs of Galgo and maybe something akin to a bulldog. He is pod size at the front end but has the long back legs and the long tail of a galgo. His otherwise gentle face is spoiled by having an undershot jaw ie., the lower front incisors and canines are on display all the time, overlapping the upper jaw. Despite this somewhat aggresive appearance he is as gentle as the day is long.

He is also very undernourished and possibly a little dehydrated. I found him around two am on Thursday morning, whilst taking Leo and Izzy out for a late night walk... I say I found him; it would be more correct to say that they found him. Neither Izzy nor Leo showed any signs of aggresion and the pod just sort of looked up at them from his nest of undergrowth.

The look was one of 'Look, just leave me alone OK, I wont bother you...I'm too bloody knackered to give you two any grief'

I took our two back home, went into the kitchen and put some kibble into soak. I know from past experience that little and often is the rule under these circumstances. Too much, too quickly can kill the animal. So I've been feeding him every six hours or so, with a mix of puppy kibble and a light diet kibble that we normally use for Sox.

Initially every move on his part was a struggle but fingers crossed he is slowly getting better.

So we come to the Pied Piper bit... I always feed Siouxsie in the same spot and round about the same time of day; I'd just fed the skinny pod tonight and went back to the house to prep Siouxsie's dinner. When it was ready, i left the house, went to the end of the street and started out towards Siouxsie's cave. As I crossed the road to the walkway i was nudged none to gently in the back of my knee...Siouxsie had seen me coming and navigated a route to bring her in behind me...She was immediately joined by the two Spaniels and moments later by the skinny pod...

The vecino's in the village congregate on the concrete walkway each evening for about an hour before sunset, women at one end the men at the other putting the world to rights... my walk to the cave takes me past both groups, so I did a quick impersonation of Jethro Tull or the Pied Piper which raised a few giggles.They think I'm mad ...me? I'm sure I am!

When we arrived at Siouxsies cave all were circling me waiting for me to put the food down and getting a bit enthusiastic. Skinny pod decided he wasnt up to defending himself and backed away. I divided the food into two trays just let the get on with it.... it was gone in less time than it took to prepare it.. I put down fresh water for them and then stood back. Siouxsie wasnt having a SWMBO day so joined in a bit od race and chase after the meal, at which point I returned home.

So currently the count is 9... Izzy, Leo, Sox, Scruffy, Spike, Souxsie, Blackie 1, Blackie 2 and Skinnypod...

There are stil more in the village, abandonados, latch-key dogs, rabblerousers...

Can't save em all though, no tengo espacio, no tengo dinero... pero tengo mucha paciencia...

fb