April 30, 2018

HELP US GET THEM HOME!! BECOME A MEMBER OF OUR FLY GROUP !!



Regularly there is a shortage of flights to allow our dogs / cats to fly to their golden basket. For this purpose a savings group has been set up, here we save for flights when they are needed. The members of this group pay a minimum monthly fee of € 7.50. We then, in consultation with Spain, look to see when urgent flights are needed.

Flying to Belgium has become more difficult that it is to book flights with Transavia. They fly to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven.

Are you interested in working on this? Then become a member of our savings group and become an important and grateful link in the adoption process!

https://m.facebook.com/groups/1494282133918107?tsid=0.11509982514151162&source=result

Some lovely videos of our Refugio, our helpers and our dogs having fun



Two days ago 



Yesterday!

April 29, 2018

Bonita: the 'fireplace dog'.


This is Bonita, Isabelleke's Podenco. She is our 'fireplace dog'. She sleeps there and watches over everything. I'm spoiled, she thinks, and I'll do it my way ... have a good day everyone!!


Veerle cuddles darlings Canelo and Ella - two hearts of gold





Canelo is not yet on the site.

Our Adrian - such a cheerful soul, always wagging his tail

Our Adrian, is a great little boy, always wagging his tail and always cheerful, quiet in nature and a big hugger.

Today we're putting him in the spotlight, because he wants to be seen soon. To be loved and maybe, hopefully, find his golden basket.

In the photos you see our Adrian in the arms of his loving foster mum, Isabelleke.




A busy week ....

I'm sorry the English Blog has been off the air for a full week and then only patchy since my return. I was having technical difficulties, particularly with uploading videos but I hope it is mostly sorted now. So there may not be many photos from the week I was there and the following week.

As always it was a joy to be at El Refugio, to be with Fabienne and Dirk and catch up with everyone there, Diane, Marielle, Denise, Maries and of course Kelly and Veerle. And to meet some of the volunteers. It was an eventful week with many lucky darlings flown off to their new homes. Several on the day I arrived. Eight and two cats the following day. Then more throughout the week.

Finally, on the day I was leaving, we had the drama of poor Lucio, the ginger and white cat, who escaped because the man in charge of security was being a real jobsworth. It could have ended badly, luckily it didn't. You can read the full story here and on the Dutch blog. There are also pictures of him happy in his new home.

While it's a joy to be there, there is also the sadness because there are so many in need of forever homes. When I walk round the sections I find myself overwhelmed. I go from cage to cage, two dogs in one, three in another and so on down the line. All jumping, all calling out, all wanting cuddles and attention. All those beautiful paws poking through the gaps, all those pleading eyes.

The wonderful thing is that so many of them will get loving, forever homes. And that at El Refugio, every dog is loved, cared for and fed. As important,  they all get a chance to play for a while up in the big field. They hear kind words and get cuddles, for some this will be the first time they have been treated with respect.

"You can't save all the dogs in the world, but you can save the world for one dog." Every single one of those dogs has already been rescued - from neglect, abuse, fear, pain. So even if they haven't yet been adopted, they are safe now. Loved and respected.

Perhaps for me one of the biggest happinesses is when the long-stayers are adopted. So often in a litter of puppies some will get homes quickly but one or two, for some random and unexplained reason, remain year after year. And not just puppies. The most recent of these long stayers was Sus And on this visit I discovered that Hammy is also reserved. Although not a very long stayer, he had just arrived last year when I was there and I was allowed the privilege of giving him his name. (He was having a great time playing with a squeaky toy that looked like a hamburger!!!)

Next time I am there I hope to have a small computer instead of my useless iPad so will hopefully be able to keep up the blog while away. In the meantime, there will be more stories here on the blog. More rescues. More tales of daily courage, hard work, joy and hope.




Merlijn Noel Caramelleke Tara



Maries flew to Belgium with Bambi, Goliath, Prof and Kailay
In the photo, Dianeke with Bambi and Maries with Prof



Maries with old darling Bambi

April 26, 2018

A nice surprise from our students ...


This morning we had a nice surprise thanks to our students! Emma, Stan and Suat leave on Saturday and have had a nice internship! Melanie does not leave yet, but she did join in with the surprise ๐Ÿ˜‰ Our dogs (and we) were spoiled again! They have worked their socks off for weeks and our dogs were well taken care of, we will miss them !!! Thank you dear ladies and gentlemen !!






April 25, 2018

Surpise of the Day!!!

   

Look what was waiting outside our gate!!! Surprise!!!!!
And yet no surprise. This wasn't the first time and it won't be the last.
But we'll take care of them. It's what we do.



     

HELP US HELP OUR PUPPIES!

There have been a lot of puppies lately, they all have to eat.
Will you help us to help our puppies by donating a bag of puppy food?
For information you can email to collectie.nederland@ace-charity.org
On behalf of all our puppies, thank you very much !!

Coccinelle travels to her forever home today.

Saying goodbye again to a foster dog, ... saying goodbye is always heavy but the knowledge that they are happy also makes you feel good ...

April 22, 2018

Our Directrice .....



Our Mafalda, .... little by little she's beginning to relax

She was so very scared. Really terrified. It was all so strange and no, she did not want to be picked up and put in a cage. She could not know, and she would not understand if we'd told her, that scary though it seemed, this was her first step to her new life. To a new loving forever home.

And now ... now it's all worth it little dog. You are home. You may not understand the words but you will understand the love as little by little you begin to relax.




Home - and with a friend to play with.

April 21, 2018

Lucio at home - safe and sound.


Lucio at home !! Hopefully it has not traumatised him too much! Thanks so much to everyone for giving him his chance and lets hope the airport's security will think a little bit, and understand that we cats are just a bit more anxious even than humans when we fly on the big bird.


Home!


Welcome cuddles!



            


Home safe at last.

Miracles exist : Lucio the cat


I've just got back to the UK from a wonderful, but not uneventful week at El Refugio. More impressions to follow. But for now, one of the most eventful of the events ... Fabienne tells the story ...

Miracles exist .... Lucio the cat.

We started our day this morning at 6 o'clock, everything went as normal, busy and without stopping but good. When we went for the flight of the afternoon everything went well ... until ...

Sarah and Joke escorted puppies, and one cat, our Lucio. It was the good soul's turn to go home; he was brought by his foster daddy and ev. But that did not happen, because the stupid man from the Seguridad was full of abuse of power - a jobsworth we call them in the UK. He said that the cat had to go through security without the help of the foster dad. They explained how dangerous it could be and the real possibility that the cat could escape as it was frightened. The arguments went round ad round but the power hungry man stuck to his point of view. He insisted that we 'rescue people' were exaggerating the danger. And so Lucio had to be processed as he insisted and ....
I had just about finished getting our dogs to the plane when the phone rang ... "Fabienne, the cat has escaped, ..."My heart went awry, ... my God! we ran to the Seguridad, and there we heard that he might have escaped through the glass door... we were all suddenly looking around like madmen, ... looking around, asking, ... this could not be true ...

Until suddenly Dianeke walked to the info desk and saw Pascal from Tui running with ...
Yes, with Lucio, ... she had seen him flee and with all her courage and strength she had run after the cat until he crawled into the bottom of something and remained there afraid and then she picked him up and just caressed him, because Lucio is actually a good soul; he had just panicked when he suddenly found himself without his foster daddy ...all those people, all those sounds and .... then it happened. Brave Sarah and Joke tried to stop him but he slipped out of their hands, that's normal with a frightened cat. It means nothing to them at security. But we do this all the time and we know what we are doing. Only today Mister Powerful decided that it was not possible to do it the way we always do it anymore, with all the consequences that resulted from that, ...

There we stood with Lucio in our arms and ... .what now, had he missed his flight?
We thought so until suddenly Joke turned up like a whirlwind, "I am taking this Lucio with me"she said 'And I dare them to ask me to take him out of the basket ..."   and she was gone !!!
And so Lucio flew to his new owners ... thanks to Joke and Sarah, to our hero today Pascal of Jet Air and to everyone who helped, ..

This is the first time in 18 years that we have had this happen ... it was a heart stopping moment ... pfffff ... It is incredible but true, .. miracles exist, ...!

For some pictures of dear Lucio in his new home, please see the next post.

April 10, 2018

Update Antigoon


Our Antigoon feels great in his foster family! Finally soft beds for my already older bones ....






Response to our appeal for Eboli ...


Thank you to Myriam and the events team for the help of 807 Euros for the operation for our little Eboli!

Thanks also to Casa Aesaert for the donation of 230 Euros and to all the other people who helped us, details will follow this week!

There are no words enough to thank you all for the support .... we who all feel the same about the cruelty of the wretches who inflict such pain ...these perpetrators who 'very luckily' we cannot identify ... what a world ...
Little Eboli is doing well ... he wants to live and is a fighter ... so incredibly brave .... once again to all ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘

You couldn't ask for a better week :)