from Joanna Simm
When I said I would foster Galgos, those wonderful dogs so badly abused in Spain, I didn’t really expect that my first fosters would be babies!
I collected them from Deux Sèvres, where I’been to the L’Europe des Levriers fund raising lunch – not exactly a 10 minute drive down the road, as I live near Carcasonne in Southern France! I knew that if any of the newly rescued dogs had no homes arranged, I would be bringing them home with me, but it was quite a surprise when I was handed these two lovely babies…
Ah, the patter of tiny paws! It’s been a while since I had such little ones around the house, and I wondered how long it would take them to settle in after such a traumatic start to life, and the long journey out of Spain.
But I needn’t have worried. Despite their diminutive size and deceptive frailty, Humo and Ebano have proved themselves quite capable of taking on the world and everything in it!
Nothing is sacred and it seems there is nowhere they cannot reach. Climbing out of their carefully (if hastily) constructed playpen is a doddle! The sofa, that’s easy too, they can already jump quite high! They know when it’s dinner time…for us, for the other dogs, for the cats…they have even made their way to the guinea pig’s pen when the food bag was brought out! Needless to say they prefer everyone else’s food to their own very expensive puppy food…c’est la vie.
The cat flap poses no problem to them, especially with the garden to explore on the other side. It’s a whole hectare, so I am terrified they will get lost somewhere, but beyond blocking up the cat flap (cue five very disgruntled cats) there is little that will stop them now that they have discovered the joys of the great outdoors!)
My dogs (two pure-bred greyhounds and a lurcher) are beginning to get used to having them around, and the youngest one, Spud, who is really just a puppy himself, adores them. He will miss them terribly when they leave, as they will, to their ‘forever’ homes…which will not be long.
Humo already has a definite adoption arranged, and is to live in the lovely department of the Hautes Pyrénnées. Ebano will probably depart soon after him, as there is a family interested in adopting him too. Life will be very quiet without them, as we are all a little in love with them, (who wouldn’t be?) but move on they must, because this is what it is all about.
They are indeed two of the lucky ones, what happens to the others left behind does not bear thinking about when you look at these two little guys, so full of the joys of life.
Bon Voyage, Humo and Ebano…et Bon Chance!
Joanna Simm is a volunteer and foster mother in the Aude, for L’Europe des Levriers
Part one: A couple of the lucky ones