A Few Things That I Did Not Want To Forget

There are just a few things that I did not want to forget about ...

Cobi's Neopolitan Mastiff, Klause ... This is a huge dog & every time I came around him with another staff member, they asked Cobi to put him on a chain so I would not be afraid. Little did they know that I had played with Klause almost every day because he was always near the puppy enclosure! I learned very quickly not to get him too excited though because I still have huge bruises on my legs where he scratched me! He did not mean it badly at all .. he is just so big!

Fermin's dogs ... Fermin has several dogs that are his & will stay at the shelter for all their lives. They live in the entry way & they get to see everything that happens coming & going. One of the dogs is a gypsy dog named Laura & she adores Fermin & seconly Ahmed ... she is partial to men! She actually hates Maria Jose & will bite her ... Maria Jose said she tried to catch her for a year! Anyway, the little galga actually let me pet her a few times & once at length ... Maria Jose said "What is this???" and Fermin said that he would have to talk with Laura about letting me pet her ... We decided that I am so tall that maybe she thought I was a man! :) Not very flattering for me, but it amused them all & I think that they need a good laugh or two every day! :)

Ahmed asking about the term "to hell" ... this was rather funny because Ahmed saw a movie that used the term & he was confused about how to use it in a sentence. Claire & I finally got the gist of what he was wanting to know and instructed him ... so he said "To hell with Maria Jose!" and smiled ... I told him that I was going to tattle on him to his boss & his eyes got pretty big! I let him off the hook ... :)

The wire haired fox terrier! She came in the day before I left & was probably about a year old. She really liked me & had the typical terrier "don't take no for an answer" attitude. She broke out of her enclosure twice & followed me all over ... the surgery room, down the hall, the kitchen .... anyway, they agreed to just let her roam the courtyard with Fermin's dogs for awhile & whenever I would sit down she would jump up on my lap! Too funny! I could also call her over & she would jump up & I would catch her in mid-air .. then she was content for me to carry her on my hip all over the courtyard. She was a lovely girl!

I will post more as I remember it! :)

The Puppies Visit Family Pet

Steph Rensberger was kind enough to squeeze us in at Family Pet on Tuesday morning and the puppies are in great shape!! No worse for wear! The little boy has a bacterial rash thing going on & got antibiotics & a special shampoo for a once a week bath .. but that is it!

They continue to be healthy & happy puppies! They are very good & do not have many accidents ... they have very good manners! :)

If i can get this figured out, I will be putting up their photos today for you to see! They are enjoying playing in the snow today!

A Very Long Day of Travel

Here I am again! Sorry for the delay ...

On Sunday morning, we all got up at 5:30am & got ready to leave. Crystal informed me one more time that she & Laura would not be assisting me in any way after arriving at the airport. Got it!

We left the hotel & Laura drove us out to Scooby one last time. The staff had left the 2 puppies & the galga that GRIN was adopting out (Adventura) in a pen together for the evening & they were slow to get up to greet us! :)

Everyone got walked & I grabbed a few more towels for the puppies from the towel room. It turned out that I could use one of the GRIN crates as a crate was being sent to the airport with Elena from a different rescue. I got to leave the Scooby crate at the rescue for future use.

We all got in the mini van & left for the Madrid airport. Crystal had decided to feed the dogs a little something before we left & I got puked on 4 times on the ride there ... oh well ... a small price to pay to get them out & on the plane. :)

When we arrived at the airport, the 3 of us put together the crates outside the airport & put them up on the carts to be rolled around. I got the puppies ready to go in their crate & stacked my luggage on top. Elena arrived with the 3 other dogs & all were secured & rolled into the airport & the Delta counter.

GRIN has secured some fantastic ladies at the airport who help with the process. They are very organized & know their jobs. We were checked in very effeciently & there was no problem. I made sure to tell them that I was seperate from the GRIN dogs & paid for the puppies crate to ship (about $100). The first part was done & I could not have been more relieved.

I walked to the gate & was once again fortunate enough to get into business/first class. Again, thank you to my buddy pass supplier. Wow! One of the flight attendants came to ask me about the puppies. She was a Scooby/GRIN supporter.

I tried to get as much sleep as possible on the flight as I knew it was going to be a very long & trying day ... there is a six hour difference in our times ... so when my flight left Madrid at 11am ... that was 5am our time here in Indiana.

We arrived in Atlanta an hour early at 2:30pm ... it had been an 8.5 hour flight. I headed straight for immigration & passed through quickly ... had to get down to the baggage claim to collect everything including the puppies to pass through customs.

I got my luggage & headed over to where the dogs would be delivered ... a woman from the airport was there with some large carts & she agreed to give me 2 of those & I had snatched a smaller one for the puppies. Soon enough, they all arrived & I lined them all up. Between the woman & myself, we got all the galgos loaded on carts still in their crates & I had made the same arrangement with my puppies & luggage as I had in Madrid. Still no sign of Crystal & I was beginning to get worried. I ran over to the carousel & got her luggage for her ... so there we were all ready to roll through customs. Evidently, Crystal has a hard time of it getting through immigration because she is Canadian. At any rate, if it weren't for the dogs being there I would have gone on by myself, but I would never put an animal's welfare over my own so I waited it out.

Eventually, Crytal joined us & we made our way through customs which included a stop at the Agriculture counter. After this, we all went into a large room to check the luggage on ... either up to the ground level to leave or onto the next flight. Crystal was on to Knoxville & the 4 dogs for GRIN were staying here in Atlanta to be picked up by the Plaskett's. This is the same couple who dropped Toro off to me last year & they are GRIN board members.

So, the 4 dogs were sent up to ground level to leave the airport & I stayed there to be with the puppies before my next flight which was not until 9:10pm. I actually was not sure that we would get on this time ... it was going to be close & I looked into renting a car. After a lot of research that Doug helped me with ... I decided to roll the dice on getting the flight.

I had 6 hours to kill before the flight & could not stand the idea of checking the puppies in to sit in a warehouse type of area for all that time. Even though I was not allowed to remove them from the crate, I stayed with them & my luggage in the check in area until 7:30pm ... during our wait the airport had nearly shut down due to bad weather & tornados. Needless to say, upon reopening, it was turning into a mad house & I was getting very tired & cranky.

I passed through security & made it to my gate to find out that the flight was now pushed back to 9:40pm ... ok .. no worries ... still no seat for me, but a chance ...

I decided to get something to eat ... came back & talked with Doug again ... at 9pm they finally gave me a seat! yeah! We were going to get on! This was very exciting, but we were not out of the woods yet because the flight kept getting pushed back & we finally were boarding at 11pm!

When I got down the ramp, I refused to enter the plane until I knew the puppies were loaded ... they said "What puppies?" .. I nearly lost it! A few minutes later they arrived with my precious cargo & they were loaded ... 2 more hours till we were home! I called Doug to tell him to be at the South Bend airport around 12:30am.

I slept on the flight because I was exhausted & when we finally got on the ground, I was ready to lose it. It had been a very emotionally draining day & I really needed the satisfaction of retrieving those puppies!

Doug & I got my luggage & waited for them at the Delta counter. The woman there knew me & got the puppies for me as soon as she could.

They were fine!!!! Not even an accident .. such good puppies!

They rode home on my lap & we all got to bed as soon as we could!!! Everything turned out fine & I could not be happier for them! They are going to find wonderful families & live a fantastic life!

Day 5 - this is to be my last day here for a good reason!

Well, today is the last day for me and the 2 American vets. ... Crystal flies out tomorrow & she is taking one dog from Scooby & 3 more are meeting her at the Madrid airport from some other rescues in Spain. Laura rented the mini van & will be driving us all as she would like to do a little sight-seeing in Madrid. And I would not have a ride back if I did not go with ... so I was to go do one day of sight-seeing in Madrid as well ...

Natasha is staying here until next Friday & Claire will be going into surgery to help her so I have shown her a few of the things that I have learned to try to make it easier & faster for Natasha. We need those skilled vets. to keep performing these surgeries!!

Gabriel, Natasha´s boyfriend, has come to town from Switzerland to visit her for the weekend, so she got a room with him last night. This left Crystal alone, who was to be by roommate originally ... Laura was to have a room to herself & I had been rooming with Laura because Natasha had decided to room with Crystal before I arrived ... confusing, I know, but I changed rooms to room with Crystal as originally planned because that is what they all decided what was best I guess. Anyway, I got a new roommate last night ... not that it really matters because I am downstairs on the hotel computer till 1am every day since I still can´t sleep! :(

OK ... so first thing this morning, Cobi brought to us a kitten who was nearly dead. Poor thing had been fine the day before, but evidenlty this happens to kittens at Scooby. You must understand that Scooby is not a place for the very young & they try not to take them ... dogs arrive here daily & the kennels and pens always have a fresh face ... same for the cats. Because of all this, diseases, viruses, bacteria are coming & going constantly as well ... Owners who do not care to keep their dogs & puppies certainly do not care enough to vaccinate them ... & so young animals with weaker immune systems pay the ultimate price. I believe that Scooby does the best they can, but again, they just don´t have the money or the facilities to protect these babies against all that comes through the doors. And they certainly can not turn animals away ...

Anyway, it was very sad for the kitten. His body temperature was so low that he was already almost gone. It was decided by the ladies that it would be most kind to euthanize him and that is what happened. It was very heartbreaking because even in his weakened state he still protested the shot & Claire & Cobi told me earlier that he was a very affectionate little kitten. Both of them have cleaned his cage several times & spent time with him.

Directly after that we started to do the surgeries & had all galgos today. At some point during the first few surgeries, I decided to find out what to do with our deceased kitten as no one had come to claim him yet. He was there in the room in his carrier & I really couldn´t stand the thought of him laying in there anymore. I went and found Cobi & she explained that deceased animals at Scooby go to freezers and are picked up every other week to every week depending on the number of deaths. They can not bury them because they do not have a place and other animals would dig them up etc. ... So, as instructed, I wrapped the kitten in a plastic bag & placed him one of the freezers. There were several bags in there & I saw a slender pair of galgo feet sticking out of one of the bags .. had to leave & did not ask where they go after pick up. There are just some things that you can´t stand to know even after all of the rest of it.

Anyway, at this point, I met up with Claire out by the quarantine area & she had found a rat who was suffering from some poison intake. Scooby has lots of rats because of all the food out and about & they decided to put down rat poison. I personally, am not sure that this is the best decision because the rats wander around quite a bit while the poison takes it´s toll. The ladies told me that it makes them bleed to death inside. Not pleasant. They are actually wondering if that is why we had a dog the other day who bled more than normal because it had eaten some of the poison some how or a dead rat who had been killed by the poison. But, I guess that it is not my decision & that some thought is behind it & maybe it is the lesser of two evils in some way ... on any account ... Claire had found this rat & decided that it was only right to put it out of it´s suffering & I had to agree. She was really in turmoil over killing it so I had to go out & do the dirty work. He was suffering & I hoped that he knew how sorry I was and that I had to rats I had adopted at home. Just hope somehow that he knows it was not out of hate. Sounds silly to most, but that is what I hope.

At any rate ... this was not shaping up to be a great day. On top of it, I was beginning the process of trying to get the puppies home with me. I had to talk with Virginia at Passion Levriers in France, Cobi, Maria Jose, Fermin, Delta Airlines, Abby & Laura. Virginia is who I adopted Toro through with GRIN´s help and these puppies are technically hers even though she has never laid eyes on them other than pictures maybe. Logistically, it made more sense to have Scooby pick them up when the time came. The puppies are podenco mixes and podencos are Virginia´s are of expertise. The problem became that she was unable to come get them and had no date set to do so. Money is a problem for all rescues all over the world.

After quite some time in conversations, emails & phone calls ... it seemed as though this plan was set into motion. As I type to you now, I plan to pick them up at 6:30am tomorrow with Laura & Crystal and take them to the airport. I have decided to wave any sight-seeing to get on the plane with Crystal to Atlanta a day early. It seems to be the best option & there will be help in the Atlanta Airport from the Plaskett´s who dropped Toro off to me when he arrived in the U.S. ...

This will all be very tricky with my standby/buddy pass. Also, Crystal has decided that she believes they are too sick to fly. I am not sure why this is since she has never seen the female puppy & she had decided that the male puppy was fine earlier this week, but I guess she is entitled to her opinion & she is a vet. after all. Since she has given this opinion, I will not be backed by GRIN on this decision to take the puppies. I had already told Abby at GRIN that I would pay for their medical costs out of my own pocket because GRIN does not have the money to pay for it so that is not issue on them backing out. I knew that when I had their endorsement. What will be difficult to get around is that I am flying on a standby ticket & that it makes my chances to get on more difficult let alone the puppies. GRIN & Crystal do not want to be held responsible for any illness that the puppies could have and give to other dogs. I do understand their reservations, but again, they are regular puppies as far as I am concerned & Laura told Abby as much on the phone. So, I am moving forward on the hopes that we all get on. If I have to move to plan B again, then that is what I will need to do. I also told Abby to contact Fermin immediately to confirm the health ... the female has never been ill & the little male has not been sick for 6 weeks. Either way, I am on my own on this one after the ride to the airport so think of me & wish me luck. I feel like, at this point, that tomorrow is going to be more trying than today has been.

On a positive note, everyone at Scooby has been more than helpful. I feel like I have made some good friends there & I can not wait to return to them to help again! I would love to enlist some of my local vets. to go and work with me! I think it could be a really fun trip. Fermin & Maria Jose had all the passports in order for the puppies & were more than accomodating. Cobi has been a good friend to me while I have been there & I just can´t say enough about Claire. Claire is a really special person & I wish more of you could meet her. She is truly an angel to all animals.

I did not want to forget to tell you about my dog of the day ... this boy came to Scooby only a few days ago & he caught my eye immediately. He has eyes like my Shybar did & for those of you who know me, Shybar (who passed away on 12/21/05) was my very special boy. I still miss him very much & it is even difficult for me to write to you about him now. I have been taking bread to this guy now for a few days & today he got moved from the introduction pen into a pen in quarantine with some other young men. He is a galgo & he is tall & thin because he had been underfed ... he is tan & white. I went to visit him in his new place with his new friends & I was actually very touched because he remembered me and wagged his tail. He would barely move in front of me the first day & it was nice to see his progress in only a few days. I have the most wonderful photo of him when I can post it. I think that Renny, my pet photographer friend will even appreciate it.

OK ... so I am off to bed because it is after midnight here now & I must be up at 5:30am to be on the road to pick up puppies & get out of this country with them! :)

AND ... Abby just called and informed me that if I get on the plane, the puppies will .. when I called Delta the plane was only half full!!! This is wonderful news! I think this many actually get to be a happy ending! Please think of us & say a little prayer for the puppies that they don´t have too much stress during the flight.

I will post some more when I return & hopefully it will be ALL good news!!!

Day 4 - More Mutts

Today we worked again on mostly mixed breeds and it amazes me how different the mixes are in Spain from our own. You just wouldn´t think that you could tell the difference between an American and a European mutt, but I really think you can! :)

We did a few cocker spaniels today & there were some scared dogs I had to catch again because they growled, but I am getting used to that already & it does not seem as noteworthy as it did a few days ago ....

I finally got all caught up with the autoclave today! I am actually cleaning & sterilizing as soon as the surgery is over!

We had some additional hernias today & it seems to be a common dog ailment and one that must not be fixed by dog bosses much in Spain.

There was also a mammary tumor today which was very interesting. It was quite large & Laura removed it very easily. It is not like here in the U.S. though, they do not have the money for all the tests on the tissue afterwards. They just have it removed & hope that it got clear margins & it does not come back.

As I do every day here, I went to see the puppies & it is becoming increasingly more clear that I need to help these little guys out. I am going to try to negotiate removing 2 of them if I can. The little male who had been sick 6 weeks ago had a rash so I took him in to see the vets. today & he was looked at by Dr. Crystal. She said that his rash looked pretty unimportant & he was a typical pupppy. When I pressed her about having Cobi give him meds. she said it was not necessary. Good news for little brother! :)

The dog that I would like to be my dog of the day today is a female mastin ... she is young and probably around a year. A mastin in Spain is a very large dog about the size & coat type of a great pyrenese if you know what that is. She weighed over 100 pounds & was just a big goofy girl. I had watched her out playing in the yard the day before. It is funny to handle a dog like that because I am not scared of her at all, but I still find myself thinking ... ¨My God, this dog could kill me if she wanted too!¨ :) I can see why people who fear dogs would be terrified of her even though she is just a huge teddy bear!

I met several mastin´s at Scooby & they were all delightful ... some of them remind me of a St. Bernard mix as well.

Tonight we went out for pizza after work & it was the best meal I have had so far. Sad isn´t it? I am really a creature of habit. Maybe why I identify with dogs so much ... I have no desire to try any crazy local quisine!

So when I got back, I spoke with Doug about the puppies & he agreed that I could bring them back as long as I looked for a place for them to go & that I was not trying to introduce them to our herd! Doug is a good guy & I appreciate him understanding my need to help these two. It is difficult to be here & not want to try to help a few if not more ... I just want to note that although I am a tough girl, it has been difficult at times to be here. It is difficult to see so much suffering & not be able to fix it all or understand how it can happen or what goes on in a persons mind who could do such things to animals.

Day 3 - Spays & Strays

So again, I am a little behind, but took some notes!

On day three, we did almost all mixed dogs & I believe only one galgo. The ladies were appreciating those great greyhound viens more than ever! Other breeds viens are not as prominant and therefore harder to find for shots and catheters.

Today is the closest I came to getting eaten up by a dog ... and she was the sweetest english sheepdog mix. I mean it when I say that she was delightful! Sat and looked up at you & loved attention .... but put her on a table & try to examine her or give her shots & look out!!! I had to change my hold on her to get her from the back of the neck until she calmed down ... Close! It is too bad they can not speak to you to explain why they have such difficulties or what has happened in their lives to cause them. Anyway, she & I remained friends as well. I don´t hold grudges with dogs the way I do with people. :)

The galgo that we dealt with today also had an abcess. Again, I want you to be kind to me about my spelling ... I do not know how to do spell check on this thing & I do not have access to an english dictionary! Anyway, Crystal was very excited about this because, as it turns out, abcesses are one of her favorite things! Who knew??? It seems that this friendly galgo boy had an some point been bitten in the cheek which caused his face to swell up & it was infected of course. While one of the other ladies performed his neuter, Crystal gleefully poked, prodded & flushed his face!

Also today, we had a little yorkie/cairn cross looking dog & Abby had to remove an entire set of baby teeth from his mouth! He actually had both sets still & the bad breath to prove it! Things are not so different here for little dogs & their teeth! They go bad more quickly than the big dogs!

We spayed a female dog today that was the most notorious fence climber in the entire rescue ... I thought that I was going to turn the corner & find some fantastic long legged track champion of a dog ... and there she was ... an over 5 year old jack russel/beagle mix. :) It was like the terrible beast on Monty Python´s Holy Grail when it turns out to be a bunny. :) Anyway, she was very sweet.

The entire rescue lost power 3 times on this day & the vets. did their best to keep working. At one point, they had to work through part of a surgery with a flash light. Not the ideal thing to happen, but they handled it well.

Today, I got to help make some of the shots up as well. I just helped with some prep. & did not actually give any. I really do enjoy learning these things!

A dog that I would like to highlight today is a female mix breed dog. She looked like a golden retriever, but she had a body & a docked tail like a cumberland spaniel. She sat, shook & layed down and was evidently surrendered by her family. Sweet dog! I really enjoyed her!

Day 2 - another 12 hours!

I wish that I had been able to write this the evening of the 2nd day .... they seem to be running together for me .. but I had written some notes down to help me remember what to write about ..

On day two, we fixed another 8 dogs. We also saw & treated 2 cats, but did not fix them. They are saving the smaller dogs & the cats for Natasha after we leave. She will be alone then with Claire to assist so the smaller animals will be more ideal.

Today, I learned to put surgery packs together with the necessary tools for the different surgeries. Luckily, I am very interested & I am a quick study! :) This takes lots of busy work off the lady vets. I am helping. I am doing the sterilizing anyway. So now, I have charge of all the instruments except when they are being used for the surgery itself. I get them after the surgery & pull all the items a part, but the sharp items in the sharps container, clean all the blood off of the tools, dry them a little, put them all back together in wraps & off to the autoclave! :)

Our day was made interesting today by a local man bringing his Brittany Spaniel in. Her name is Tina & she had a HUGE hernia! The man is a friend to Scooby & I believe I understood that he helped to work on some of their medical equiptment. Anyway, the ladies did their magic & Tina came out fine. The owner (which Cobi calls a BOSS), was so grateful that he gave the vets. all wine. very nice!

We also had a little scare with a galga who kept bleeding internally. They actually had to pull out lots of her intestines from her stomach cavity to look around & it was my task to spritz them with fluids to keep them moist. Luckily, I do not mind the sight of intestines or other internal organs!

We left late again as I am sure you figured out from the title of this entry. We went straight to the grocery store with blood stained scrubs on and all! Lots of funny looks! Anyway, I made quite a haul & bought all most all my food for the rest of the week to keep in the Scooby kitchen. It is impossible to leave there for lunch or normal dinner time, so it is really the only option.

I wanted to highlight one particular galgo from this day ... again, I do not know his name, but he is a wonderful white boy who is not quite a year old. Just a doll! It seems that he had a tatoo in his right ear & so when the owner did not want him anymore ... he just cut the ear off to remove the evidence & turned him out on the street! The poor boy did not handle pain well after his aweful ear experience & he had a hard time waking up after surgery. He is actually the only dog so far who has officially bitten me .... didn´t break the skin & he did not mean it. I told him that we were still friends & found him the next day to check on him ... what a wonderful little boy! I have his photo too to post when I can!

Helping you see Scooby through my eyes!

I also wanted to try to explain what Scooby was like because it is hard to imagine it all from the website ... or at least how it all fits together.

If you volunteer for the Pet Refuge, you will kind of understand what I am saying when I say that they do the best with what they have. They do not have much of anything that was made especially for them, nor do they have the best of anything. They get by with generous donations of all kinds.

The entire facility is contained by a perimeter fence that is at least 6 feet high. This had to be done to keep people from breaking in and killing or stealing the animals. They had several lambs killed last year evidently simpy b/c local farmers to not agree with their work.

Within the facility are several make shift pens & buildings that house all the different animals. I have not even been able to get back to the pastures where they keep all the donkeys & farm animals ...

As far as the main building, it was a pole barn that has been made into many rooms & runs. Housed inside this main building are the employee/volunteer kitchen, the clinic, the 2 employee/volunteer shower/bathroom areas, a blanket/towel room (yes ... it takes up an entire room for all they need), at least 3 storage rooms that I have seen & at least 2 dog paddocks ... oh, & how could I forget the dog bathroom (it is a room lined with 4 large bathtubs built into countertops).

There is another kind of pole barn building that has the quarantine kennels attached to it. There are about 10 large quarantine kennels that can house several dogs with indoor & outdoor access. It is all tile & I think this is a really nice part of the shelter where form does actaully follow function! At the end of the tile hall you enter the building itself which has several washers & dryers (they hand clothes out inside too - lots of clothes lines hung for towels!), the machines that help them gring up the food for all the dogs, all the outdoor & cleaning equiptment, lots of dog crates & misc. cages ... you name it ... it is out there!

Beside this building are several trailers that house the office, another small clinic that i have not been in & some other office or living quarters that I have not been invited to see ... :)

OK! stay with me .. :) on the other side of this building opposite the office, the paddocks start sprawling out in front of you ... literally, they are scattered every where! A paddock is a large enclosed yard that houses several dogs together & they always have a little shed to get inside for shelter. They are kind of added on and on and on ... similar to pet refuge ... you can tell that maybe they were not part of the original plan ... every where there is a space available, there is a kennel or paddock & there is never enough room at the end of the hunting season!

To the far end of the facility where the caravans are, there is a catery. There is also a yard near that keeping all of the foul together. In this area, you will also see different birds housed in cages waiting to be transfered to sancutaries. Lots of animals suffer in Spain including the winged varieties. Right now, there is a one-winged falcon. It is very sad to see such a proud bird sitting there unable to fly .... hopefully, the sanctuary he will go to will be rewarding for him.

In this area there is also the puppy enclosure. This is where I spend every spare moment that I have! There are 8 puppies in the enclosure right now & I have fallen in love with a brother & sister. I have their photos & will post as soon as I can ... I just tell the vets. that I will be taking my break in puppy land! :)

As I roll all this around in my head, I can not think of any area that I missed. I just can´t impress upon you enough that every wall they have is used for the side of a paddock or pen. They are very effecient in their use of every inch!!!

The rules are that when you pass through a door, you close it. It does not matter that you may be back in a second. The dogs are chosen to live together as carefully as possible to avoid fighting or possible breeding before they are able to get them fixed ... it is imperative that this rule is followed as carelessness could be very harmful to the residents at Scooby. It is actually all common sense & easy to remember. :)

I hoped all this helped & I will now proceed with the events of the days!

Introducing the Scooby Staff

I feel that I must tell you about who is currently at Scooby so that you know who I am talking about for the rest of my entries.

Fermin - This is the man who runs Scooby. He makes all of the final decisions & is not around the grounds too much during the day. He has poked his head in a few times to say hello ... but he is a very busy man doing lots of admistrative work. Fermin would be concidered a tall, dark & handsome man. He is a little bit intimidating & you can see in his face that he does not mess around!

Maria Jose - She is the backbone of Scooby. She is called Marie Jose because there is another Maria ... M.J. does most of the shopping & makes lots of the day to day decisions at Scooby. She is the one who takes me around to let me know who I should take into the vet. especially if there is a special circumstance. When I talk to her, I am very careful not to waste her time & I always thank her for it.

Cobi - This is a wonderful caring lady who is originally from Holland. She has lived in Spain for many years & is a great contact with the rescues in Holland who adopt from the Scooby rescue. Cobi´s english is great & she makes me laugh. She knows all the dog´s names ... really! It is amazing. Cobi lives on site in a caravan (what we call an RV) & has 5 dogs of her own including a neopolitan mastiff ... trust me, he is big! She helps with the day to day operation at Scooby & she is very important. She is a watchful eye to the animal´s needs. I really like her a lot. Cobi does a lot of writing on the Scooby website.

Maria - I call her micro-chip Maria because she is obviously in charge of keeping the careful records of the micro-chips. All Scooby dogs get one. She also takes their photos & I am sure she is in charge of most of the records as she seems to be very organized. I like this lady a lot too. I am so sorry that I can not speak with her more, but neither of us is good at the others primary language. We always manage to get the job done between us though even if it takes walking all over & pointing out the different locations & dogs.

Ahmed & his brother - These two brothers are from Morroco & they are paid employees at Scooby who clean & feed & do lots of handy work. Ahmed speaks very good English & he has a good sense of humor. He has helped me many times already & I always appreciate his frienldy demeanor. He seems to always be in a good mood. Ahmed can really clean too! Wow! Ahmed´s brother is more quiet & not as good at English. I believe that he still speaks a lot of arabic.

******* There are 2-3 other men at Scooby that come in the afternoon to help clean & feed, but they do not seem to be there too much. Maybe like they are part-time help.

Claire - Claire is a wonderful young woman from England who volunteers for animal rescues all over the world. This is her 2nd trip to Scooby & she stays for 5 weeks at a time & lives out in a spare caravan that Scooby keeps for volunteers. She is going to Africa to work at a monkey rescue later this year .... I really enjoy her company. She has become a good friend to me at Scooby. I have a lot of respect for her. During this trip, Claire has been out cleaning every day ... dogs, cats ... you name it. She does it all out of love & never complains. She is a vegan & cooks all her meals in the Scooby kitchen. After my group leaves, she will be going to take my assistant spot in surgery to help Natasha.

So those are the key players in my week! :) I hope that helps you understand more about my posts!

Hit the ground running!

So as I had been saying, it took a lot for me to get to Scooby ... I met Laura in the courtyard as soon as I walked in and they were in the middle of a full day of surgeries ....

I was here to help two vets. from the U.S., Laura and Crystal. Another vet. from Switzerland had also volunteered during our time frame so we were joined by Natasha. Natasha speaks very good English and she fits in very well with the other ladies.

Evidently, the ladies has not been able to get started as planned the day before because the oxygen tank for the anethesia was out! PLEASE FORGIVE MY SPELLING = LOTS OF MEDICAL WORDS! :) So they had to spend their first day doing odds and ends, but no surgeries.

When I arrived they were trying to make up for the lost time and so I needed to jump right in with them. They were all very nice about understanding my skill level and answering my questions. I would like to think that I was helpful on the first day, but with only 4 hours of sleep, I am not so sure.

The vets. had already performed spays and neuters on 4 cats and were pulling the last one off the surgery tables when I got to see the surgery room for the fist time.

We proceeded to spay or neuter 8 dogs still that day and left there after 10pm!

The training I had done with Dr. Rensberger and the Kryder staff really paid off! I was able to help them hold the animals so they could administer shots and put cathaters in ... Also, did some shaving of stomachs, and genitals .... JUST WHAT EVERYONE WANTED TO HEAR! :)

Laura taught me how to operate the Autoclave ... which is the machine that sterilizes the surgery packs. There are only so many surgical tools at Scooby so this is an all day job. The items must sit in the machine for 20 minutes being sterilized and then another 10 to dry them ... so it is just switching them out and keeping track so the doctors can keep performing their operations. It is all about keeping them going so we can make the most impact possible while they are here.

One of my other big jobs here is moving the dogs around. Scooby puts the dogs to be in surgery for the day in a quarantine area and I go and pull them out as there is a slot available for them in the surgery room. On the first day, most of the dogs were very nice. One very nice young galgo who I wanted to point out ... I am not sure of his name, but he was a white and tan with a very large borzoi looking nose. He was a wonderful boy and his future home will be lucky to have him.

Some of the other dogs were more frightened and harder to handle either because they would not move or because they were aggressive. One of the other galgo males had a collar on that said "HEATHER" ... we knew that could not be correct .. he just ended up with a hand me down collar ... so we called him Heath! Anyway, he was scared and showed that by acting very aggressive. He was a real challenge for me to catch! I do, at this point, have to give some thanks to the Dog Whisperer/Cesar Milan ... do not laugh! I am totally serious! I used all of my DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME tricks with this dog and it served me well! :)

We ended up having dinner at the hotel restaurant at 10:40pm that night ... the host was less than thrilled since it closed at 11pm, but the food was very good and we were all very thankful for seat and the meal!

I have a lot more to write and I want to explain the set up at Scooby, but I must go for now .... it is 1:26am here and I have to be up at 7am ... it is only 7:30p at home .... I hope you will check back and I will write more tomorrow!

Plan B - Planes, Trains & Automobiles!

Well ... my trip got off to a slow start b/c my flight got cancelled out of South Bend on Sunday due to our horrible weather ...

I woke up at 4:30am to get some things done before I had to leave .... like drop off Body Shop orders to my recent hostesses! Sorry ladies ... that was me on your porch at 6am! :) I also had to hit the office to get some things in order there.

So off to the South Bend airport to get on my flight! I had checked the loads for my standby ticket & it looked like it was all shaping up for me to get on! After checking in & speding 2.5 hours in the South Bend airport, I retrieved my luggage & Doug & I headed back home ... I actually went to sleep almost immediately since I had been up so early in the day.

Almost all the flights were cancelled from South Bend that day & there were so many passengers trying to book alternate flights that I would not have been able to fly out till Wednesday on my standby ticket.

So, we moved to plan B ... got up at 5am & Doug drove me to the South Bend airport again ... only this time, he put me on a bus! I had to take the shuttle to Midway & got off without a hitch this time. I actually got in first class ... it was lovely! I wish I got to fly that way all the time ...

Next, I was in Atlanta with a 5 hour delay ... not so fun ... but got on my next flight just as easily on my standby ticket! Perfect! And, again, I was in first class/business .... HUGE THANKS TO WHOEVER GAVE ME THIS BUDDY PASS THROUGH DELTA! you are my HERO! The flight was 8 hours .. but it was not bad at all! My seat actually reclined & had a foot rest! Even if I pointed my toes, I could not touch the seat in front of me! Wow! :) I had my own TV screen, chose my own movie, had a 5 course meal with wine & played games on my TV screen before landing. Delightful! I never knew all that went on up there in the front behind those curtains! :)

This, by the way, all happened during my birthday & it was a great gift! I joked about it with the flight attendants! Asked her to take photos so all of you would believe me!

The flight was an overnight flight ... so we landed the next day at about 9am in Madrid.

So out of the lap of luxury & into the subway in Madrid! After discussing my options with the flight attendant .... I decided to go the cheaper route & take the public transportation .. I hooked my 2 pieces of luggage together & hauled them through the airport & down to the Metro! Asked a nice local woman how to buy a ticket & put my 2 Euro into the machine, grabbed the map & off I went .... I had to get to the Chamartin train station to get out of town to the Scooby rescue. I got on the #8 line until I got to the #10 line & then I took that to Chamartin. I got some strange looks with all that luggage, but another nice person ,who spoke some English, shortened my search time by letting me follow her all the way to the ground level of the city to buy my train ticket.

I had to wait an hour for the train (cost only 12.5 euro), but watched the terminal signs & boarded it at track #5. I was on my way to Medina del Campo! Yeah! The train ride took 2 hours and I arrived at the Medina stop with only a taxi ride standing between me and my destination!

Again, I preyed on some nicer local. :) Found a man who spoke a little English and he called a friend on the cafe phone who drives a taxi .... and I was off again. Got to Scooby in about 10 minutes, pulled up, got out and met one of the vets. who I was to help almost immediately.

This section probably should not be this long because it is really for my Scooby experience, but I must tell you that I am very proud of getting to Scooby on my own. Since my flight got cancelled, I was not able to catch the ride I had hoped to and on top of it all, my new international phone service did not work until yesterday (another long story) so I had no way to call anyone or let anyone know that I had made it to Spain.

So on to my Scooby adventure!

Sorry for the Delay!

Hello to everyone!
I am finally getting on here to add info. about the trip so far!
Until today we have worked almost 12 hour days & I can not locate the internet cafe in town ... so I am working from the hotel computer in the lobby right now ... it is fine, just can´t put my photos on b/c the computer is older ... side note - european keyboards are MUCH different than ours!
Please read on as I plan to post a lot tonight!

MORE THANKS FOR SURGERY TRAINING!

Again ... I owe some special people a BIG THANK YOU!

While I am at the rescue, I will be helping two vets. from the Knoxville area in surgery ... & I had never done that.

Thanks to Dr. Stephanie Rensberger at Family Pet & to Dr. Donn Kryder at Kryder Vet. Clinic for recognizing my eagerness to learn & letting me do some training with them & their staff in surgery!

I feel like I can actually help now with the knowledge you have given me! I might not drive the vets. at Scooby crazy for the first day asking what I should be doing!?!?! I will let you know how it turns out!

Anyway, I have let my husband ,Doug, know that I think I could perform the neuter except for the stitches ... he acted like that didn't bother him, but his laugh was nervous! :)

You are the best & I want to make sure you know that you have enhanced my trip so much by letting me into your places of business.

THANK YOU!!!

BIG THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE DONATED!

I wanted to make sure that I have thanked all of you who have donated to this trip with medical supplies. I am so grateful for all the things you have given me to take ... the list was quite impressive! I filled an entire piece of luggage!

Cindy Schwartz at Memorial Hospital
Family Pet Health Center
Magrane Pet Medical Center
South Bend Animal Clinic
Kryder Veterinary Clinic

Your support has been fantastic!

My upcoming trip!

Hello & thanks for checking this out!

I am traveling to Medina del Campo, Spain from February 10th-18th to work at the Scooby animal shelter. This has been a dream of mine for several years & it is finally coming true! To find out more about the Scooby Rescue please visit www.scoobymedina.com & choose "welcome" to make sure everything comes up in English!

Thanks to G.R.I.N. & Abby Christman ... please visit www.galgorescue.org to find out more about this great rescue group! This is the group who helped me to adopt Toro the podenco from Spain! They & Abby are the only reason that I am finally able to go help the Spanish Greyhound or Galgo!

Please keep checking back for future posts!

The photo of my dog, Toro was taken by my good friend & professional pet photographer Renny Mills. To see more of her work or hire her for you pet's photos, visit her at www.RennyMillsPhoto.com!