Our beloved shelter dog, Skippy

It's wonderful to hear stories of dogs who came from El Refugio to loving homes. Many of these stories are posted by Ineke on the Dutch blog, and are naturally in Dutch. So I have to translate them using Google Translate (which isn't very good). So I apologise in advance if some things haven't come out quite right.

Skippy's owner writes : -

Cuddles and adoration.

We've had you now for another year and, gosh, haven't you kept us busy. You defended your blanked and your bones, you demolished all the squeaky toys and didn't know how to play. And then you discovered the tennis ball - your best thing. If you are awake you'll be on to it, and so we'll throw it and throw it and throw it .... But the best thing of all is that when my husband comes home, you must be there to greet him and certainly the cuddles must last at least 5 minutes.

There were problems with your knees and then worries about your health. Gosh, what a bad time that was, especially since we could not figure out the cause. Was it because it was still winter? It was cold but not that cold. But when we said 'come on, we're going outside' you would not come. Tail between your legs and when we went to you to try and coax you we would sometimes get bitten. Even putting on a coat didn't help.

And yet you were becoming weaker and sicker every day. You were losing weight, you lost your appetite, you had diarrhoea often - you had all sorts of problems. In the end after the umpteenth visit to the vet, I insisted that we have another blood test for Leishmania. And yes, it was positive. You had Leishmania. So we quickly put you on the medication and now we can almost say, yes, our little boy is back.

Back again as cheeky as ever, once again that wonderfully naughty blessed little scamp of ours. We hope we will have you with us for years. We never want to lose you!

                                       

My coat is warm, but do I have to go out?                      Deep in sleep, with my tongue sticking out!