Spain update March 2023
Sunday the 12th of March 2023
Yesterday was Dirk’s birthday and today exactly a month passed since Leopold’s decease. It was a month of great sorrow and a month in which we, despite our great loss, were not spared from misery everywhere. An overcrowded shelter, too few adoptions, that means to drive a half-full van with the same high gasoline and toll costs. Candidate adopters who instead of sending an adoption request send a mail message asking for more photos and information about this or that dog(s)and asking for a possible visit to the dogs in De Pinte, it is a modern plague… Candidate adopters who do send an adoption request I call immediately, sometimes I listen for one hour to their expert stories, to answer all questions and to explain the adoption procedure. After they proclaimed wholeheartedly that they are ready for adoption they change their mind, in view of a planned home visit (of which the 10-year-old Mesi became a victim). Today this is also a great plague… Old galgos who after many years of love and loyalty are given up by their owners because there may be costs, another plague… All disrespectful and it is an ordeal for the regional managers and me. Hence I am overjoyed when an adopter of the first hour calls. Recently I received a phone call from an adopter who adopted in 1996 his first dog and called for a 6th or 7th dog!! Thank goodness they also exist, fortunately. People who have an unshakable confidence in GINB and who defend us against know-it-alls and slanderers, they also exist. Thank you, if they were not there, it was unsustainable.
Anyhow also after Leopold’s death I was so sad and inconsolable that Dirk started to worry and one night he said that I needed another Borzoi pup to clear my mind… I did not think about it yet and I was not ready. Fate determined otherwise… He told a friendly waiter of the coffee shop where since 20 years, we drink coffee before our shopping and who returned recently to his native region in Galicia, how much I suffered from Leopold’s decease. The friend told him that he knew someone with Borzois in his area and Dirk contacted that man without my knowledge. He did not have pups at this moment, but he knew a Ukrainian woman who fled the war with her dogs and who after a tour through Spain was staying somewhere in the south and he gave him her name… Enough information for Dirk to start the search and via many detours he found what he was looking for. The toughest part was yet to come, to convince me. I kept my doubt and I did not want to consider it and I said that I could not or want to replace Leopold. Anyway, I was not the only stubborn one. He kept insisting and trying to convince me. Finally, by speculating on my conscience and using the argument that I could take care of a displaced Ukrainian and at the same time help the refugee he was successful in the end. And so, nine days after Leopold’s death we drove by Valencia into the orange fields…
After a long search with many phone calls to the Borzoi lady owner and driving back and forth in the pouring rain on small roads (too small for the van and oncoming traffic) she was waiting for us. She got into the car and took a seat between Dirk and me on the cool box to drive to a little dilapidated small wooden chalet with grounds where about 5 big Borzois, one of which with three legs, and a couple of puppies were walking. Amongst them was the future Amadeus who afterwards turned out to be the son of the dog with the amputated hind leg. While Dirk parked the can I was walking with her through the long grass to the chalet, surrounded by imposing dogs and the puppies, for a sanitary stop. Inside three tiny puppies were lying in a small dark room which also was the bedroom and where the situation was even sadder than outside. For the first time I was confronted with someone who fled war violence with her 5 Borzois, amongst them a pregnant female, and who after a long wandering via Rumania, Burgos, Barcelona had found a shelter in Spain. In appalling conditions but it was a fact that her dogs were in good condition and got the best food, for which my respect. At the wooden wall a few diplomas and trophies from international shows of a past life were hanging. When we got outside again Dirk asked “and, have you seen the little male”?? “Not really” I said and I added “but he can come along, he must come long”. After she prepared a strong “stomach digesting pitch black coffee” in her improvised kitchen and the business side was finalized Dirk carried the puppy with the 4 names and the Ukrainian pedigree to the van and then he let our accompanying dogs out. While they stretched their legs, I said goodbye to the lady and the mother as well as the father with the three legs jumped at me as if they handed over the care of their son to me. While we drove 450 km back Dirk asked me what name I would give him, “Amadeus” I said, and I continued cynically “maybe his name will bring him luck’…
At home I made an appointment with Dr. De Frutos to check the puppy and Beauregard, who after Leopold’s death had lost more weight and needed a thorough examination.
Thursday the 23rd of of February 2023
At exactly 8:00h we left with Amadeus and Beauregard on board and at 9:00h we arrived in the Clinic of Dr. De Frutos who checked Amadeus, he took a blood sample, tested, and concluded that he was perfectly healthy and that all his vaccinations administered by a veterinarian in Burgos were in order. In the consultation room Beauregard underwent almost the same procedure, X-rays were made of his vital organs. When Teresa came to report I immediately saw that something was wrong… When she gently said that the X-ray and blood tests showed that he had acute kidney failure and that he was very ill, we were shocked, and I burst into tears. Our ever sluggish round discrete Beauregard had kidney failure!!! We could not have known Teresa and Felipe De Frutos said because the disease does not manifest itself until it is too late. I thought of our bull terrier Hercules who died of it when he was barely 6 years old. Beauregard was a puppy when he escaped with 2 sisters from gypsies and all three had Parvo when they were dumped at Casa Belgica. The sisters died but the brother with the most beautiful eyes and look I had ever seen, survived. He got 2 blood transfusions (we laughed sometimes that he got blood of a sloth because he was so slow and got so fat). Anyway, he overcame the terrible disease, and he spent his youth in Casa Belgica, together with Hercules, who was still a puppy and who became his best friend and stayed with us forever. I was still mourning for Leopold and now this, it was too much, and I could not hold back my tears. Beauregard needed hospitalization and Teresa would keep us informed daily and thus we returned home with Amadeus and left Beauregard behind.
After 5 days he lost the battle and we must let him go on Monday the 27th of February, 15 days after Leopold, he was 11 years old. For such a brave soul the dog heaven will open widely and Leopold, his best friend Hercules and al his other brothers and sisters who have preceded him will welcome him at heaven’s gate. We will miss him immensely.
Saturday the 11th of March 2023
Back to today, on Dirk’s birthday our new smart roommate Amadeus is already well adapted. During the day he is having a good time with the blind Hannibal (who much to my delight and accompanying tears of joy has been adopted by very kind well-known adopters) and of course also with “Godzilla” Loulou Babalou. After the games he eats his tummy round and at night he sleeps next to me just like Leopold. When during the day he gets fed up with the games he retires just like Leopold in “his” bedroom. I know it is impossible and because I would like it so much but sometimes it seems that a part of Leopold has returned in Amadeus. The philosophic way he is looking at everything , how he is behaving… Who knows maybe. Anyway, on Dirk’s happy birthday our youngest one starts to limp and his leg swells enormously. When Dirk turns his paw, on which nothing can be seen, he screams in pain. We suspect a strain, and he applies a support bandage. The next day it is even worse, and I send a mail message to Dr. De Frutos who replies late in the evening that we are expected the next day. I am relieved because there is no “life” anymore in Amadeus and he lies down whining during the entire day… I can only think of one thing, his father whose leg had been amputated due to an infection. I am heartbroken and say to Dirk that I cannot take another drama anymore.
The next day when we are at Dr. De Frutos and when he removes the bandage a large gush of blood and pus spurts out of a hole of about 1,5 cm in his paw, it looks like a volcano spewing lava. This is good Dr. De Frutos says satisfied, the worst is gone, the lava already burned a fistula from the paw to his toes. A lot of medication and care is prescribed and on Thursday he must travel to Belgium!! Dirk will have a lot of work.
Tuesday the 14th of March 2023
In the evening at 23:30h Dirk arrives with his co-driver Dirk Beirnaert-Buffalo and his daughter Paulien who will fly back with me. As soon as they recovered from the welcome of to our standards few dogs because the others are since yesterday in a dog hotel, they only must survive Loulou (which is not less...), Hannibal, Hector, Astrid…and of course Amadeus. Once they are settled, I ask Paulien who is a veterinarian assistant if she can help to clean the teeth of the adopted gentlemen. For the second time she says benevolent yes because Dirk of course already asked her during the trip from the airport to Casa Belgica. Despite the late hour we keep chatting till after 1:00h and thus it is early morning the next day.
At 8:30h Marie-Carmen brings the candidate gentlemen for their teeth treatment, and she agrees with the guests that she expects them around 16:00h in the shelter. Paulien performs her task with love in an exemplary manner and around noon the gentlemen are ready to smile broadly without hesitation to their new owners on Saturday.
Na a calm and extensive dinner they leave for the shelter, I stay home and think that Paulien’s live, after having visited the shelter with the many dogs waiting desperately for a warm home, will change definitely here and now. An hour and a half later I see that I was right. In the evening we eat pizza, and the gentlemen watch football, AA GHENT is playing. Dirk, just like his wife Martine, is an avid fan of the Ghent club and that is why we call him BUFFALO….
Thursday the 16th of March 2023
At 10:00h the dogs are loaded and we wave goodbye to the drivers with their precious cargo. Paulien and I must still wait until 13:00h before we are picked up by the ordered taxi. After we made the house spic & span, and Paulien checks again the tasks that Dirk asked her to do because I am not good at it…this means, lock the doors, switch on the alarm etc. the taxi driver rings at the door. Because Dirk forgot to take the dog rack out of the door opening, she cannot close the veranda door. While she solves Dirk’s forgetfulness, I tell the driver that another lady is still coming. A few minutes later both of us are on board and the driver whose name is Jésus leaves like mad. Paulien as well as I am sitting in the car for the next 50 minutes with eyes and buttocks closed and we hope to reach the airport alive. I have driven with a lot of crazy drivers but this one is the craziest I tell her when we leave the car.
In the airport it is not any better, as usual we wait and wait for assistance. When this person finally arrives (after I expressed my displeasure) we have time for a quiet chat. Once our departure time is approaching the same problem is waiting for us, the assistant is too late and boarding already started. There is a fierce discussion between a coordinator lady who looks like a pepper shaker that you cannot push down and the dark African citizen who is pushing my rolling chair and according to her he must wait till the last one when he is not in time. The discussion happens in the presence of a long line of boarding passengers. Shame, it is not professional. Even the flight attendant and the pilot come to see what is going on. I go on board last and the next 2 hours Paulien and I can continue our conversation. It is after 20:00h when our female taxi driver drops her off at home and fifteen minutes later, I am dropped off in De Pinte.
At 23:00h I call the gentlemen telling that I go to bed. At 3:30h the key is turned, and they are home. FORTUNATELY!! Not for long though Buffalo is leaving together with Dirk to take the 9:00h train to return this afternoon with Martine to help Kris Saenen with letting out and feeding the travelers. Dirk leaves for Hof Rosa Canina to clean the van and he is back home at 14:00h only to go shopping. Bah shopping.
Saturday the 18th of March 2023
Adoption day… everything goes well, there are many old faithful ones to adopt a dog and of course also “new” adopters. Amongst the old faithful are the adopters of Hannibal and Mona, who made the trip together and spent the night with him. Looking through the window I see him “struggle” with the leash and I go outside and call his name. He is relieved to hear my voice and he calms down a little bit, but he is still scared, and I call Dirk to guide him inside. My heart and the adopters’ hearts are overflowing. When everything is ready and after all my advice they are getting ready to leave my tears are flowing over my cheeks. I am ashamed to death, but I cannot help it and I run after them to apologize. Hannibal and Mona are lying in the car on a teddy bear blanket like kings. When I caress Hannibal’s beautiful head for the last time, I get a lick, as if he seems to say, do not worry.
After the adoption day we sing together for the birthday people of February and March and we eat lots of Limbourg Smurf and Breughel cake… Next week is the Balen walk… Then we return to Spain on a Tuesday. It is worth the sacrifice.
Mireille
