We want your happy stories ONLY

Spain is great!

Love the hot weather, rain or no rain!

Some people are never satisfied.

                Come on Justin take the pain!!

We are just HAPPY we didn't get caught !!

SRB, I see you are from Leicestershire...............whereabouts?

We came from Melton Mowbray to Spain and my daughter lives in Leicester and I have friends in surrounding area.

Small world isn't it ??

Hi Karensun,

I live near Hinckley at the moment. Hope that you are enjoying things there.

I'll try to keep this brief, but it is a rather long story....

When we first came over in February this year to look around with a view to buying, our lovely agent took us to see an apartment in Mar Y Sol (among others of course). It was a Sunday so no builders around and the site manager let us into the shell of a building (health & safety... puh!). He led the way but he didn't realise that I had diverted course because I could hear a dog in distress. He tried to marshall us back but I was on a mission....

I followed the whines and barks to the space where the lift would eventually be and looked down. Way below in the basement in I don't know how much water, was a little white dog. Her (I didn't know that at the time, but she's definitely a female) paws were red with blood as was her neck (she had a collar on which I suppose was chafing. Unfortunately we couldn't reach her and I insisted that 'something must be done!'. The police were called and with some ingenius use of building dross, managed to fish her out.

She was very wet and obviously quite traumatised, but she still came running up to me and gave me lots of very cold licks. We did our best to dry her off, but didn't have much success. She ran into a corner and settled herself into a big pile of plastic wrapping which we hoped would warm her up. Not knowing the area, and not realising there was any set up in Spain for animal rescue, we just had to leave her there. We said our goodbyes, she gave me a final lick and curled up.

The next time we went back was to take possession of our apartment. We met quite a lot of our new 'neighbours' and arranged to go out for a drink with a lovely couple - Kati and Tony. While we were in the Tapas Bar Katie started to tell me about one Sunday afternoon in February when they came to see what progress had been made on their apartment. She said she saw this little dog which was (still) very wet and looked quite cold. Luckily, her husband is a bit of a softie and keeps tins of cat food in his car to feed the strays near his place of work, so they were able to feed the little mutt (apparently she didn't mind it being cat food!). They knew of a vet nearby and called him. He took the mutt in for the night.

Next day they went back to check on her and had talked about how they could give her a home because she was such a little darling. Unfortunately their apartment wasnt anywhere near ready and they were living in rented accommodation, so it seemed impossible.

The vet went and collected the little dog from the back and brought her into the reception area and she immediately went and made friends with every animal and person she could.

To cut this story just a little bit short... there was a lady in the reception who knew of someone who was looking for a little dog. She was summoned, came with her three children, all fell in love and away our little mutt went to a new home.

Every time I tell this story, the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, thinking of all the coincidences in life and the fact that there are more kind, loving people, than bad ones, for which I am very thankful. I am also very grateful that I met Kati and Tony who could 'close' the story with a very happy ending. Needless to say we are all firm friends now, because we are obviously very like-minded.

I hope you enjoy my lovely story.

Irene

I know the pic is not white or little, but it was the best I could do!! Lovely story, thankyou for sharing with us.

Aww Irene, my eyes are full of tears after reading that. How wonderful it turned out &, as an animal lover myself, I know how you must have felt as my husband & I encountered something very similar in Turkey.

We'd gone to Gumbet & were at a bar by the beach with many others one lunchtime & we saw an English couple with such a cute puppy. We spoke with them & realised that the pup only had just a cord for a lead & one of its front legs had a pipe around it !  This couple explained they were in a hotel nearby & they & another couple had seen a car hit the puppy & had rushed to help it. They took it to a vet who used a length of narrow diameter plastic piping which he'd cut down the length of & he bound it to the pups broken leg & gave him an antibiotic shot. The other couple had since left Turkey & this couple were about to leave in a couple of days & they were upset that no one would care for this pup who was very playful & friendly. In Turkey under hotels where shops have been built, the shops are left open till bought so the pup was tethered by a cord in one which hadn't been sold to protect him from the heat. The couple had put a couple of 5 litre plastic containers of water in there alongwith a huge bag of dry food. They hoped someone would replenish his water daily. They said they were trying to find someone who had just arrived for a fortnight who'd take him for walks & feed him.

You might know WE were those people.

So, every morning we'd take a plastic carrier bag into breakfast where there was a buffet with rolls, eggs, cheeses, meats etc & we'd nick food for him. We'd stop just before where he was living to remove the eggshell & dump it in the waste bin. He was always so happy to see us & ate whatever we gave him although it was obvious he liked the egg yolks better than the egg whites. Never once did he defecate in his "home". We would take him on his new much longer lead (my washing line) across the road to waste land & he'd "go" there every morning. We'd take him for a walk before going to the bar where we'd first seen him. He was quite a favourite with anyone who fussed him. The staff at the bar would rustle an omelette up for him. He chased their chickens who ran wild. He chewed my new rubber flipflops ! He got tired quickly though & we often ended up carrying him back to his home. We'd visit him a few times a day & considered this all part of our holiday. Some locals were eating outside on one of our walks & threw him chicken but I tried to explain they needed to remove the bones.

 When we went to collect our little friend one day, just before we were due to leave, we saw someone had removed his "cast" & he was managing fine although it had set all wrong so he limped badly. We spoke with a woman who ran boat trips. She told us she'd either take him herself or find him a home. She took in any animal, ones who'd been dumped etc. She told us none of her menagerie was perfect. As the time came for us to say bye to him we were so sad. We decided we had to arrange to return the following year &, as soon as we got home, we booked the same hotel & a year later we returned & were on a mission.

Year two..... The lady on the boats told us someone had taken him in & told us roughly where they lived. We walked along this road determined to try to find him again. Each time we heard a dog bark we wondered if it was him. Then we saw this dog, it did look like him & he had a limp. It had to be him, hadn't it ? We'd like to think it was & that he was happy & I'm all in tears now remembering how it all affected us.

Hope someone reads this.

Karen, it's a box with a red cross in it  

EDITED ...Ooops, it's not NOW, I see it, how odd, but yep, you are SO correct, Karen. (Thought you'd like to see my pic anyway.)

Hi Morerosado

Your story is just as lovely! Thank you.

Irene

for those of you who havent seen my lovely rescue dog i thought i would post a piccy here

    this is alfie         his mummy was a jack russel type dog .....

his siblings were jack russel type dogs .... and he, well. isnt!

He was the odd one out ... we got him from Whitby Dog Rescue, and he is the cleverest and the most loyal dog in the world ... he has won a rossette for having the waggiest tail in show .... and if there was a prize for eating socks and underpants he would win that too!

 Terry, thanks for telling us about your dogs .... its terrible what some go through but it is always good to hear happy endings .

Im sorry to post twice in a row in this thread, but i just wanted to share with you this piccy of my dogs with their rosettes

  Hamish won "Cutiest dog in show"  - he was wearing a less grumpy expression at the time!  ... and Alfie won "Dog with the waggiest tail" .... he also did rather well in the biscuit catching/eating competition, but was disqualified on a technicality .... the technicality was that we hadnt entered him for that competition, but he had seen the other dogs getting biscuits so decided to join the queue! He caught 3 biscuits before they discovered that he shouldnt have been there and hadnt paid his 50p entry fee!  I did say he was an intellegent dog!