Spain update november 2024
Friday the 25th of October 2024
At 10:00h Dirk leaves with the dogs to their “hotel” and in the afternoon we leave for ours close to Madrid airport, because tomorrow we take the earliest flight to Belgium, to avoid the risk of getting stuck in the morning rush hour which is one that counts. After a short night we leave our hotel around 5:30h (without breakfast because it is only served from 7:00h) to the airport where we leave the car in the parking lot and rush to the departure hall to make sure we don't miss our flight... Not so and at 9:00h we land in Brussels, pick up our rental car and drive to De Pinte where we will get our “corona shot” from the doctor at 17:00h and spend one night there. Tomorrow we drive to Tienen after my visit to the dentist because we have come especially for the Halloween walk. The next day it is almost noon when the dentist is finished with me, and we can leave for the venue. When we arrive at our destination, our staff are having lunch, and we can join them at the table.
After we have done our bit to decorate the hall we leave for the hotel where we will spend the night, yes, another hotel… Tomorrow we will be in one at the airport again because we will leave on Monday with the first flight to Spain… The next day we are expected at 10 o’clock and it has been a short night because of the guests of a wedding party who apparently returned to their rooms and enjoyed Dirk’s snoring that could be heard in the hallway… I could not laugh at it as much. Anyway, at 7 o’clock I started on my war colours and my outfit for the occasion because we were supposed to be dressed in Halloween outfits. Despite the short restless night, I managed to get ready on time and we still had time to have breakfast before we left for the hall. When we arrived, there were already a few adopters with their dogs in Halloween outfits in the parking lot… Inside, the beautifully decorated hall could not compete with the co-workers behind their shops and those serving. Of the
From the first to the last they are all made up by Kelly and Nancy and look terrifying. By noon it is packed and during the service of the food I have been appointed to the mayonnaise lady and I must provide everyone with a large portion of mayonnaise and salt. After the meal it is time to sell the tombola tickets and then it is time for the walk and the usual photo.
While posing I shiver from the cold and back inside, I break out in a sweat. When the raffle has been drawn and the pampering coffee and desserts are gone, the many participants line up to leave and I sit outside for a while to cool down. Bad idea… Dirk B asks worriedly if I am not feeling well and attributes my malaise to the corona vaccine. I would be surprised if I still get sick after the 5th injection, but miracles do happen. In any case, because we still have a long way to go, Buffalo urges Dirk to leave with me. After congratulating the ladies Ann and Nancy and all the staff who made this fantastic costume party a success, we leave for Brussels, return the rental car and go to our hotel. At 22:00h, after a long sneezing session, I take one and a half sleeping pills and go to bed. Six hours later we get up at 4:00h and I minimally apply my war paint (although). Twenty minutes later we crossed the road to the airport. After the same miserable hassle at customs, we board an hour later and land in Madrid before 9 o'clock. It was fantastically good but very tiring and my cold or whatever is not improving, something must be done about that because Marianne and assistant Dirk Buffalo are arriving on Thursday to sterilize.
Thursday the 31st of October 2024
Today is D-Day, the decisive day. Marianne and Dirk B are on their way to Spain. My Dirk leaves for the airport on time and around 3 pm I get a phone call saying that he has Marianne and Dirk B on board and that, depending on the traffic, they will be home between now and an hour. Because I have provided a light lunch, Dirk quickly answers: “not necessary because Marianne wants to get started right away so I asked Marie-Carmen to bring 4 dogs. If she is ahead of us, open the gate.” Sigh, you need all the skills of a weightlifter to get that heavy thing moving, I think sourly. Fortunately, they arrive a minute after Marie-Carmen allowing her to stop fighting the gate and leave it to Dirk. While Marianne is still lugging her heavy luggage full of equipment and Dirk B is taking his luggage to the room, Dirk and Marie-Carmen walk to the clinic with the first 5 ladies. After the passionate greeting of our dogs, it is our turn to greet Marianne and Dirk B. It is an extensive welcome because it has been a long time since I have seen Marianne. When all the formalities are behind them, they walk together in goose steps to the clinic.
I watch them, sigh with satisfaction and feel happy. It doesn’t take long before I follow them to the clinic, surrounded by our curious dogs, with a head full of flu ingredients. A mixture of shortness of breath, bloody nose full of crusts and snot, watery eyes, a sore throat and a voice like a hardened smoker (the only bad souvenir I have left from the successful Halloween Walk). When I open the door of the clinic it is as if a warm blanket is placed around my shoulders. The smells, the ambiance, Marianne as always teasing Buffalo who as always shows off his best French and is cutting surgical fields, Dirk who is taking pictures, the first galgo lady who is lying on the table, I get tears in my eyes or maybe it is my watery eyes, who knows. Four hours later the first ladies are sleeping off their “ketamine anesthesia”. They are forever “babyproof” and can start their new life with a blinding white “Hollywood” smile provided by Dirk B. Even though Dirk and I are almost twenty years older since Marianne and Anne first came to Spain in 2005, we can still do it and will have to be able to for a long time to come if the situation in Spain does not change. When we start with supper in the evening after the usual welcome aperitif (not my succulent spaghetti but mushrooms with pasta) piles of memories are recalled and endless chats are made. Wonderful with like-minded souls...
Friday, the 1st of November 2024
Despite the long chat last night, it was an early day, and we are all present at 7:00h. While breakfast is being prepared, the medical team starts checking the patients. Three quarters of an hour later we sit down at the table, but not for long because the first 10 females arrive at 8:00h. The two Dirks and Marianne help unload the dogs and do not return, so after clearing away breakfast I also go to the clinic. It takes until 13:00h before Marianne and co have time to have lunch. When they are ready to leave again after half an hour, Marie-Carmen brings 5 extra females who can wait in the garden for their turn. After 18:30h the uteruses, tumors and rotten teeth are removed and the wounds are treated and after a working day of more than 10 hours and a final check of the 15 patients of today and the 5 of yesterday, they can come upstairs for a soothing aperitif that is then accompanied by fries, chicken and mixed salad. For us it is an adapted version, fries with veggie balls in tomato sauce. In any case, we make it another pleasant evening where the wildest adventures of the past are once again told to Buffalo.
Saturday, the 2nd of November 2024
It is barely 7 o'clock when Marianne and co go to check the patients in the clinic and Dirk goes around with the poop mobile and the water hose. Three quarters of an hour later we have breakfast but just like yesterday not for long because at 8 o'clock Marie-Carmen is there with 10 galgo ladies. Before she leaves again, she comes to tell me that a poor 12-year-old female has arrived. From the way she says it I think it does not bode well so I insist on bringing them asap. The day starts badly because the first lady who is up has problems. Marianne cannot find the uterus in the mangled body and takes an hour before she can close her belly with a clear conscience. Poor wretches, some of them are so mangled that you cannot believe it. Their teeth, their bodies, how they survive is a mystery. So, if people think greyhounds are delicate dogs, they are not, they are fighters and survivors looking for a safer existence and a better life. It is unbelievable that noble animals that have so much to give are treated like this by Inhumans who are not worthy of the word human.
At 13:00h they come for lunch and at 14:00h. Marie-Carmen arrives with 5 extra females. It is 18:30h when they start the daily cleaning of the clinic and Dirk goes around for the umpteenth time with the poop mobile and cleans the garden. At 19:00h they finally arrive upstairs to enjoy an aperitif and real Flemish food. Brussels sprouts with potatoes and veggie burgers for everyone. At 23:00h they hoist themselves out of their chairs after a few pleasant hours of chatting for the last check-up of the 35 patients.
Sunday, the 3rd of November 2024
The last day. It is 6:30h when Marianne & co rush to the clinic to inspect the wounds of their 35 patients and, as every day after, to spoil them with room service and fresh sheets, etc. Dirk follows them a few minutes later to devote himself to his daily task and provides the ladies with a bowl of food, changes the cloths in the veranda and starts his daily poop and spray round. In the meantime, I take care of breakfast and our dogs in the kitchen. They take an hour to do the daily tasks and do not have breakfast until 7:45h. Of course, breakfast is disrupted as always by the arrival of Marie-Carmen who arrives with the last of the Mohicans, the last 5 ladies, including the old lady of 12 years. Again, I am left alone with breakfast because they follow the females to the clinic and start. As soon as breakfast is “swept” from the table I follow them very carefully because everything is still wet, and I am scared to death of tripping or falling. Should this happen, they must call the fire brigade, something that does not seem easy to me in Spain… When I open the door of the clinic, the old female is on the operating table, and I cannot believe my eyes when I see how badly she is mutilated.
She has a crushed ear, a terribly horrible set of teeth, tumors on her belly and large sucked nipples. She has large hairless weathered lesions on her hind legs that indicate that she has been tied up for a very long time. Completely normal in backward hamlets and villages where “in the past” they would sometimes tie up a female galgo somewhere outside the village by the hind legs and/or front legs for years. If the poor dog was lucky, she would get a kind of tent of weathered plastic over her head to protect her from the sun or rain. The reason for this horrible custom: when they were in heat, they were at the service of all the galgo males in the area. The hunters therefore had “fresh” puppies free of charge every year. Sexual exploitation in the worst degree. Years ago, I saw it again, but I was convinced that it didn’t happen anymore, but it does. I am so upset that I sit down and cry on the toilet of the clinic. What are we to do with this poor soul who has endured so much suffering but still made it and against all logic ended up with us. It is 12:30h when the last one goes under surgery and 12:30h when the clinic is left spic and span for lunch. We have a lot to talk about, but the old female is haunting my thoughts.
While Marianne is packing her luggage and the Dirks are chatting on the veranda, I sit down at my computer and brood. I am so lost in thought that I am startled to death when Marianne quietly sneaks up behind me, sticks her mobile phone with a photo of the old female under my nose and mumbles that she is adopted. I am startled a second time, looking at her in disbelief and only then realize that, even though she has sworn not to adopt a galgo this time, she is the adopter. I throw my arms around her neck and have a good cry. When I insist on a name, she says: “Martine, like the wife of my assistant I am very happy with”. When Dirk B hears it when he comes out of the shower, he is proud and very happy with the choice of name. Half an hour later, after the photo with Dirk, they leave for the airport. As soon as they have left, I go to the 40 ladies and tell the still half-asleep Martine that she has a home. Tomorrow the females that were done on Thursday will leave, Tuesday the ones from Friday, Wednesday the ones from Saturday etc.… Martientje stays here. I cannot believe my luck and gently stroke her poor head. She has not realized yet that she has won the lottery. When Dirk comes home an hour and a half later, he tells me that both Marianne and Dirk B fell asleep in the car after a few kilometers. That is what 40 galgo ladies do emotionally and physically to a person and not only to them...
