Belated birthday wishes for our girl Mrs White
“Hey Montse, does your centre have any little Bichon Frise type pups in at the moment? It’s just that my friend’s daughter wants a dog and I’m trying to persuade them to rescue rather than buy a pup from a shop” Is how Mrs White’s story begins back in December 2010 when I phoned my friend who works in rescue (before the days I got involved at a rescue centre myself).
“I’m afraid not. Plenty of Yorkie types and lots of adults but pup-wise not a great deal. Sorry”
“Ok, not to worry. I had my work cut out convincing them about rescuing anyway…Thanks a lot. Bye!”
“See ya”
“…oh, just as I have you here anyway, I thought I’d do a Columbo and ask one more thing; I don’t suppose you’ve got any Boxers or Pits or any of those types of dogs in needing a home?” I have no idea why I asked this, as having a Malamute, a Bullterrrier and a Podenco/Bodeguero cross already meant that our household was chock -a-block with dogs at the time.
“Funny you should say that, we have a tiny white girl who seems to be some type of Pit cross who’s living with the Galgos right now. She won’t be ready to go until all her vaccinations are done and she was taken from her mother far too early so we don’t really know how her health is just yet. She’s only about five weeks old”
“I’ll have her. Just gotta tell ‘er indoors about the new addition that somehow has materialised in our lives during this phone call. Hehe, I phoned about the Bichon Frise on behalf of my mate and, as always, couldn’t resist a little question for myself. Number four, here we come!”
So we picked up this tiny little thing a few weeks later and introduced her to a couple of ours that night.
Over the course of a few weeks we just couldn’t settle on a name for her and it seemed that nothing fitted: Hilda,and Gertrude were two that came to mind that just didn’t sit right and time was passing as we had to get her passport sorted out, complete with name. It wasn’t until we happened to re-watch Reservoir Dogs that the obvious name shot out at us; total gangster that she is, Mrs White, of course!
Right from when I picked her up in January, 2011, it was pretty obvious to me that she had quite a bit of Dogo Argentino blood in her and as she grew into a 25 kg girl it became equally apparent that there was some smaller breed in there, too (my guess being one of the lither lines of Pit Bulls) to bring her size down so much while maintaining the unmistakeable gripping dog phenotype (basically a mini-Dogo).
Over the years she has charmed us all with her awesome personality and as these photos show, she’s a real stunner, too.
From somehow fitting her muscular wee frame into the clean laundry basket to visiting her recently departed brother, François, up in the mountains to getting a kettlebell session in and brushing up on her English grammar, she’s a versatile lassie alright!
Can you spot her on her first night with her new bro’s?!
Anyway, my reason for writing this quick post was to belatedly celebrate Mrs White’s fourth birthday as I completely forgot to do so in mid-November when I should have written the post.
P.S. Unfortunately, my friend did buy a Bichon Frise for his daughter despite my protestations to the contrary (and even worse, from a pet shop in a large shopping centre for about 400 euros) and, surprise surprise, they ended up getting rid of him shortly thereafter because they chose to have another kid. At least one good thing came out of the whole predictabel debacle, though; we found our girl, Mrs White 😉
Let’s celebrate the long-termers
So we’ve got a few lads and lasses here who deserve to have their stories told as they’re the long term residents of our centre and 100 % unlikely to ever get rehomed for various reasons.
I reckon we should start with big Pavarotti, as he was my first buddy at the centre and if I remember correctly, he was the first dog I ever took out for a walk. Bearing in mind his demeanour and size, a huge one-eyed Rotti that spends his day pacing about his kennel like a panther and his nights looking after the back of the centre, it should hardly be surprising that I didn’t feel the most intrepid dog-walker of all time when I first entered his kennel to put the lead on him and take him out hehe. Gotta be honest and confess that I was somewhat intimidated by this beast who had spent most of his life confined to the kennels and I certainly wasn’t expecting the sweety-pie that I immediately got to know and love. In fact, it was only seconds into palling up with Pav that I came to the embarrassing realisation that he was better behaved on the lead than my own spoilt brats who get out for miles every day of their lives (and this despite never having been on a lead before in his entire life; he was a canine paragon of virtue and permitted me to get the collar and lead on him before taking him out for a nice stress-free stroll with no pulling or lunging or anything remotely wayward). At the time he had been partnered up with a lovely big Mastín girl and was enjoying life: fed, watered, space throughout the night for patrolling and a roof over his head. For Pavarotti, these things were more than he had been afforded by his previous owner who brought him in when he lost sight in one eye, to be replaced by a fully sighted dog. Since becoming good friends with the big lad I’ve seen him lose his common-law-missus (who has been rehomed abroad) but the debonair Cassanova didn’t wait long for his next lady friend, shacking up with a delightful Mastín/Podenco cross within a day or two of his romantic loss 😉 Right now we’ll be making sure he gets out for a nice stroll or run as often as possible as he’s such a joy to be around and, being the breed he is, we just can’t send him to any of our foundations owing to BSL that labels the Rotti a problem breed. This means he will be denied the loving family he deserves…and that’s where we come in here at Dog Rescue Holidays, to become the proxy family that should be rightfully his, to the best of our abilities.
The next perennial inmate is another big lad, this time the guard at the front of the premises; Lucca. He’s an incredibly large, athletic Mastín who probably has some sighthound or Great Dane or something of that ilk in him judging by his sculpted tuck and general elegance. Towering over us all when he stands on his rear legs, he’s not only a physical giant but a huge character and it breaks my heart to see him stuck here owing to his size (he’d take up a place in the transport vehicle that ten little dogs would occupy). Unless we find somebody who’d be driving a large van or estate car back to their country of origin, I think we’ll have a very long wait to get this gentle boy re-homed elsewhere. Like Pavarotti, he doesn’t go without female acquaintance ship for too long, currently co-habiting with a stunning German Shepherd/Husky mix girl and previously with another one of our favourite giants, Maximaya. He’s on my gotta-get-out-3-times-per-week list, too. Phew, I’m gonna be a physical specimen myself, just like these big chaps, if I keep to my plan of exercising them so much lol.
The last couple of centre ol’ timers are two elderly ladies, both of them past ten years of age: Máxima (aka Halloween) and Pasha. The former is a titchy girl with a horrendous underbite who isn’t in any way shy about giving ya a nip if you (or I lol), for example, try to put her in a kennel that she doesn’t fancy going into and the latter belongs to an old guy with cancer who believes that he’ll get better and then pick his old girl up again. Trouble being neither he nor any of his family ever come to visit her or even think of contributing towards her stay and medications. Obviously we’ll keep working on her to keep her healthy but the poor old lass needs a lot of treatments to prevent her from suffering with various ailments so I’m not sure how long the old beauty will be well enough to simply keep on keeping on.
So there you go…almost a complete turnover of pooches since May of this year and long may the successful rehoming of this part of Andalucía’s canine vagabonds continue in other parts of Europe where folks are a bit more switched on about animal welfare.
By enjoying a wonderfully relaxing holiday out here in the sierra you can be assured that you’re helping these glorious beasts to transition into the next stage of their lives, from unwanted and often mistreated perceived burdens to much loved and cherished family members! Thanks for reading.
Wrapping up our first month back at Dog Rescue Holidays
As much as I would like to, I just can’t find the time to write the weekly updates of our dog-loving endeavours down here in Andalucía so I’m going to aim for a far more realistic monthly chronicling of what we’ve all been up to.
When we started up our online presence with a Facebook page and this blog a few months back, it soon became apparent that prospective Dog Rescue Holidayers were somewhat concerned with the lack of previous guests’ testimonies as to how awesome our holidays are down here in Andalucía; however, after a month of repeated updates throughout September we hope that we’ve been able to dispel some of those fears and settle folks’ worries that we’re legitimate dog-loving peeps with a really cool concept for mixing a nice holiday with helping the dogs up at the centre where we volunteer. We’ve now got independent witnesses as to just how great our holidays are 😉
We got through the summer without too many difficulties and helping out at the centre in the afternoons kept me out of the local boozers (there are thirty five, I believe, in a village with a population of two thousand people, kind of showing the prevailing culture round these here parts!) so I’ve entered September without my customary post-summer rotundity hehe. Point one in favour of coming on a Dog Rescue Holiday is it’ll keep you moving about away from the general vicinity of bars and restaurants for vast portions of the day 😉
Our first guests fortunately arrived just as the punishing high 30s/low 40s of August were subsiding a bit. Although still pretty sweltering for sun-denied Brits, one of our visitors, Tom, found a novel way to cool off on his first walk with big Reynaldo…by plunging seemingly head first into the wee stream that flows by the centre, courtesy of the big fella’s staccato steps on the rocky terrain! Gutted that I couldn’t get a better shot of the incident but this one will suffice
Another highlight of the first week back was the time our guests, Robyn and Tom, could dedicate to some of the needier specimens of doginess at the centre: a nervous Collie cross who Robyn bonded with on walks and the little Spaniel, named after his saviour, Tom, who coaxed him into the canine fold from behind the basket where he’d been hiding all day, unbeknownst to the rest of us. Within minutes he was part of the wider canine society, free of fear and able to romp about with his new buddies
These three chaps were part of last week’s mass exodus, leaving us with barely thirty dogs in its aftermath 😉 That’s seventy eight happy blighters with a very real hope for an awesome future with loving owners who will cherish them and give them the lives all dogs deserve, not to mention the seventy eight families who will benefit from welcoming such fantastic dudes into their compassionate lives
Our next guest, Cathy,as well as celebrating her birthday with us during her holiday down here, made friends with a big Mastín girl who just wouldn’t even entertain the idea of either myself or Saskia coming close to her; she’d be up at her gate, all teeth and saliva to warn us off, but Cathy was her best pal. We were happy that the first serious dog that I have seen in my time at the centre had a human chum who could give her some loving vibes…and good French cheeses, too! A couple of Cathy’s other muckers were Mojo and Rosie who spent some quality time with her during her time here and they’ll be off to their rosier (see what I did there?) futures very soon, too. Such gentle little creatures who were struggling a bit with kennel life but they’ve come into their own since receiving some affection from Cathy and can now move on to much greener pastures; another job well done!
Our next visitors were able to enjoy a much cooler week up at the centre as the unspeakable happened; clouds during September for more or less the whole week! This was such a relief for ourselves but maybe not so much for folks who had headed out for a nice sunny break; however, like all our guests, the priority for this group of ladies was to get to the centre and help the dogs daily so the threat of rain wasn’t too much of an inconvenience, I hope. That’s the good thing about being involved with peeps who want to help animals, they’re too busy doing good work that improves the dogs’ lives to bother themselves crying about some clouds in the sky! The week with Karen, Anne and Sarah was a bit nuttier than usual as we (or rather, they!) had to bathe around fifty of the seventy eight dogs, I think, who were travelling off to Germany and Luxembourg to begin their new lives. These hard-working lasses just got on with the task at hand, making the bathing ordeal as painless as possible for all of our departees, including my boy, big Reynaldo, whose wussiness while being washed belied his great size and strength lol, so a massive thanks for that stoic effort, girls! Between the three of them I think they bonded with the entire centre but Duchess aka Margot was one of their favourites as well as Halloween (formerly known as Máxima). The former went off in the van to Germany or Luxembourg alongside seventy seven chums for a new beginning but old Halloween is here for life, too old and ugly to be wanted by anybody but us lot here.
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Our next couple, Siobhan and Dan, arrived the day after the ladies’ departure so there was a seamless transition up at the centre for the dogs and Saskia; one elite squadron of helpers departs and another enters the revolving doors here at Dog Rescue Holidays 😉 which is what we need to keep the centre in its current glorious state of top-notch care and cleanliness. We felt quite ignorant as much of our week was spent teaching outside of our village, which meant we didn’t spend too much time at the centre, but our heroic duo dug in and walked and walked and walked the current crop of inmates, ensuring there was a rescue centre of pleasantly fatigued and, therefore, contented dogs in their wake. Having visitors who can enjoy a nice break here, while filling in as our proxies when we are called away on work-related issues, means that everything goes swimmingly up at the centre, even in our absence.
As with previous visitors, they had their favourites at the centre; this time, for Siobhan, a new Mastín girl who came in this week and Hamish, the pup they looked after for the night after finding him discarded in our village one evening and, for Dan, it was the bigger boys, Gruñon, the colossal beast of a Mastín and our one eyed Rottweiler, Pavarotti. Obviously, every dog at the centre got preferential treatment but these guys especially. We also celebrated our second birthday bash out here on the eve of our visitors’ departure.
All in all, I don’t think our first month could have gone any better. Receiving compassionate, empathetic folks who want to contribute to the project while getting to know a beautiful part of (usually) sunny Spain is awesome for not only the dogs at the centre but for ourselves, as well, and we’re currently looking at developing the Dog Rescue Holidays theme to reach more dogs and to offer wider holiday opportunities for any interested folks from the colder northern countries. Stay tuned for further news on this front and thanks for making your way through this rather lengthy blog post 😉
Got another nice review!
As the title says…take it away, Anne 😉
We had such a wonderful time in Andalucía last week being looked after so well by Shaun and Kuldeep. They had thought of everything to make our stay, easy, enjoyable and comfortable. We were chauffeured around the village, taken up into the mountains for some shopping and sightseeing, and they even had time to sit, chat, relax and do their best to teach us some spanish while chilling out in the local bars. The village is quiet and peaceful and the mountains and surrounding area, spectacular.
But of course the highlight was meeting all the dogs at the rescue centre. We were trusted to be let loose and we loved the chance to socialise freely with the dogs, clean and help around the centre and learn more about dog rescue in Spain. The centre has a lovely happy feel about it, which I was not expecting but then our rescue dogs back home are not socialised as well as they all have individual kennels. We enjoyed meeting all the volunteers at the centre and got along with the work, regardless of us speaking different languages. It was lovely to get to know some very special characters among the dogs, great fun to be part of a team bathing 78 dogs ready for their trips to Luxemburg and Germany and it was a little sad but heart-warming to see so many of the dogs heading off for a better life.
What a fabulous week, I came back feeling relaxed, felt I had learnt a lot and had had the pleasure of meeting such wonderful like minded people all giving up their time for the benefit of our canine buddies and of course I will remember some of the lovely doggy characters for a long time to come.
Our House in the Village
A few people have asked for pix of the house to show where they’ll be staying while down here helping out the dogs and enjoying the sierra so I thought I’d put a few photos up to show off the house that visitors have to themselves as well as the immediate neighbourhood.
The house has three bedrooms(one upstairs double room and two downstairs rooms with two single beds in both of the rooms). There’s a covered patio area with a supply of English language books, a fully fitted kitchen (oven, microwave, fridge/freezer) and bathroom (with shower)and large living room with a chimney for the winter months (our old boy, François can be seen enjoying it below).
The house has wifi, a washing machine and all towels, bed-linen (we’ve been told to mention this as some folks have had to take their own linen on other holidays!) and even toiletries so that guests don’t have to bring their own shampoo, toothpaste etc as we know that bringing such items can be a hassle for folks trying to keep their luggage to a minimum.
The upstairs room looks out over this beautiful lawned neighbourhood.
Our François
It’s been over a week now since we buried our big Bullterrier, François, up in a restful part of the sierra, where he can chill and take it easy after falling to leishmaniosis, like so many of his canine counterparts down in this part of Andalucía.
We rescued him from certain death back in 2008 when the rescue centre he was residing at decided that he simply couldn’t be re-homed as he was such a liability around people and animals; however, it was pretty obvious to me that it was simply the case that he had been unsocialised up to that point and we reckoned we could sort him out quick-smart…and that’s exactly what happened. Within no time he was an obedient off-lead walker and there was nothing he loved more than to go out running at my heel for mile upon mile. Even the sudden appearance of all types of wildlife, including something akin to mongoose, couldn’t deflect him from his jogging duties with his new daddy 🙂 and he has subsequently become the least problematical dog I have ever owned!
His first couple of years were apparently spent living in his own filth in a flat where the owners didn’t take him out, nor feed or water him very often (the rescue centre said that the poor little lad just drank and drank and drank for his first few days at the centre) so he resembled a Whippet more than a Bullterrier when the rescue people climbed into the property to remove him from his living hell…then he spent some considerable time in the centre where he wanted nothing more than to attack other animals or even the occasional person, and to guard his food-hardly surprising really, considering his start in life, so when we took him in we simply gave him some firm “No’s!” and plenty of exercise and food and, lo and behold, he immediately turned into an awesome example of his breed.
With this abrupt transformation François convinced me that rescuing dogs was to be something central in our lives and he has proven to be another inspiration for us to pursue our dream of helping these beautiful creatures find their forever homes with folks who will dedicate a bit of time and effort into ensuring that their futures can be as glorious as they deserve, just like our François’ was.
R.I.P. My big lad
Another Review of Dog Rescue Holidays
I’m finding it virtually impossible to find time to write any blog posts at the moment as we’ve been so busy sending almost eighty dogs on their way to new lives in Germany and Luxembourg over the last few days; however, this review came through from one of our recent guests, Cathy, who spent a week with us at the centre and enjoyed some sun and relaxation down here and it makes sense for us to post it so that anybody considering a trip to help us in our re-homing endeavours can see how our visitors feel about the experience. Take it away Cathy…!
It’s been almost a week since I got back from my ‘dog rescue holiday’ and so far I’ve thought about the dogs every single day. I have to admit I went on the holiday not knowing anything about the rescue centre or the people I was helping but on the ride from Seville airport to El Bosque with Shaun all worries I had were put to rest. Very quickly the passion Shaun has for the helping the animals shines from him and working for a rescue centre I fully understood where he was coming from.
I met Kuldeep, also a very passionate, genuine person who gave me a guided tour of the lovely 3 bed roomed house that I had all to my self for the week. The house is very close to the local shop and also bars and restaurants.
I had a fantastic time with the dogs. I did shed a lot of tears on the first day as I fell for 2 of the dogs in a big way. One a very scared little girl called ‘Rosie’ who hid in the corner of her kennel and ‘big Harvey’ who sadly didn’t take well to being in kennels and wouldn’t let anyone near him.
There is no pressure to do any work at all, if all you want to do is cuddle the dogs and give attention then they are more than happy for you to do that. I myself got stuck in cleaning water systems, cleaning kennels, scrubbing beds and poop scooping and I loved every minute.
I had the best time and without doubt I will be visiting again next year to help out.
Without the work of Shaun, Kuldeep and Saskia these dogs would not stand a chance. The more people that go to this lovely little village and visit the rescue centre the better the chance of the dogs being socialised and having a chance of being rehomed.
A big thank you to Shaun and Kuldeep for being such good hosts and I wish them great success in getting people to give this kind of holiday a chance.
Just remember to save me a space. Xx
Review of Dog Rescue Holidays
We were delighted to get a review of what it’s like to come out to enjoy a holiday with us by Tom and Robyn, our guests from last week, so here it is!
It’s been four days since my partner and I got back from our amazing South of Spain adventure with Dog Rescue Holidays, and I think it’s fair to say the home-again blues are only just starting to subside! Put simply, we had an incredible time.
We were picked up from Seville airport on the Sunday and driven to El Bosque, a small hillside town tucked away in some truly beautiful scenery, and acquainted with the lovely three bedroom house we’d be spending the week in.
Situated on one of El Bosque’s quiet streets, the house is within easy walking distance of several really nice restaurants and bars. Also nearby are a scenic riverside walk and a local supermarket, home of, I think, the largest fruit and vegetables I’ve ever seen! With its private, shaded patio area, fully kitted out bathroom and kitchen, and lovely master bedroom, (not to mention it was ours for the week, alongside daily transport, for only 100 euro’s per person!) it wasn’t long before we both felt entirely at home.
Our hosts slash part-time tour guides, Shaun and Kuldeep, were great. After a few minor, pre-holiday bouts of strangers-from-the-internet paranoia, we were delighted to finally meet them and put any concerns we had aside: they are truly wonderful, genuine, and kind-hearted people who we instantly got along with. The dogs are clearly a big part of their lives, and their love of the centre and its myriad canine characters was immediately infectious. Between making sure we felt at home and ferrying us to and from the centre every day, they even found time for a little extra-curricular chauffeuring; a visit to the mountainside town of Grazelema is a must!
Where helping out at the centre was concerned, Shaun and Kuldeep made it clear straight away that even if we just wanted to socialise with the dogs, especially during the hotter part of the day, it would be a great help. Many of them are in need of some serious human affection, and as the centre has very limited funding and relies largely on volunteer work, any inter-species socialising the inmates can get is invaluable when it comes to re-homing the animals abroad. However, (due, I suspect, more to mutual disorganisation on our part than careful planning of any kind) we’d arrived late enough in the year that the days, while very hot, were not unbearable, so we also mucked in where we could: walking some of the more energetic dogs; cleaning their living areas and feeding them; whatever needed doing.
We were even lucky enough to witness the local vet performing castrations and spayings up close. While, I imagine, not everyone’s cup of tea, I found it fascinating, and since my girlfriend is studying animal management at college, she found seeing it first hand and so close up was a valuable experience.
We’d definitely recommend Dog Rescue Holidays to any animal lover. It’s a cheap holiday in a beautiful part of the world, and you get the opportunity to help out some critters who are really in need. Eleven out of ten.
Tom and Robyn.
Back after the summer lay-off
September can only mean one thing, folks; yes, Dog Rescue Holidays is back after our summer sabbatical, offering the opportunity for dog lovers to visit our wonderful part of Andalucía, Spain in exchange for a few hours help walking and socialising the dogs we have at our centre.
Our first visitors after the break from brutal summer temperatures were Robyn and Tom, who spent a week here in the village discovering the beauty of the area in the mornings while out walking, the quality gastronomy available in our wee village in the evenings and, of course, the charm of our hundred plus dogs at the centre in the afternoons.
I must admit when I found out that Robyn was only nineteen I thought I had better brush up on my Kim Kardashian knowledge and watch some TOWIE episodes just so we’d be able to have a natter about things lol but it was an awesome experience to discover that some young ‘uns still read books and are interested in wider things than I had supposed! Just goes to show that I shouldn’t be so prejudiced, eh?!
It was such a pleasure to have this young couple visiting and helping us at the centre and we know that the dogs, as well as ourselves, are eagerly awaiting their prompt return.
Here’s some more photographic evidence of the bonds developed during their week here with the dogs and Robyn and Tom can rest assured that the work they did during their stay has virtually ensured that a good half dozen dogs can be sent off on the next stage of their re-homing process, thanks to the time and training they gave whilst at the centre. A sincere thanks for your help, guys!
Dog Rescue Holidays 
