Our crazy Buffy is mad about water ....

Ohhhh! That's good!

Sock it to me, baby!

Gotcha!

You missed a bit!

That's more like it!

Yay! Direct hit!

A plea for Curro and Cisco

They had a family of their own and they thought it was a forever home. Until the economic situation forced their bosses to leave. So poor Curro and Cisco were dumped. Fabienne pleaded with the owners to send for them when they were settled back home. They said it was out of the question.

Read their story on Fabienne's Diary. It's so sad. They are both golden oldies - Curro is 9 and Cisco is 11 - and find life in the Refugio very difficult. However kind we are, however we try to find time for everyone, it can never compare to the family life they had before. Please, is there anyone out there who can offer these darlings a loving home for the rest of their lives, together.

                                                

                                                                    Curro and Cisco

Lisa - so happy in Denmark

Our wonderful Kirsten has send us these lovely pictures of Lisa, happy in her forever home.
Kirsten writes ..

Lisa in Denmark after a very long stay at ACE, she enjoys her garden, walks, bones, for ever sofa, mum and all the other things dogs should have  in their lives. Lisa is loved and cared for and she appreciates this very much.

 

Summer greetings from Denmark

Kirsten

Lisa having a lovely roll on the grass

Lisa with her bone

The Refugio on a normal working day

.... the love and healing goes on daily

Little Cara gets a check up

Our little Hope

Barud playing with Choupette

Candy is having lessons in taking a cookie nicely

We would like to make Yody, Saltino and Susan more social

Menolo is getting better, little by little.

Summer Moments ... photos from Fabienne

Fabienne and Dirk's dog children enjoying life and being loved.

The good life!

Can we go for a swim now? Dirk! Dirk!  Can we go for a swim?

Playing together.

No. It's not time yet. Swim later.

Hey! Don't eat that hosepipe.

C'mon, Dirk. Don't tease ...

... open the gate. Perleese!

Who's going in first?

Last one in's a sissy!

Triple

There's so much I love about El Refugio. One of the most striking things, and that certainly sets it apart from so many other shelters, it the attitude towards the dogs I call 'the halt and the lame'. The dogs with broken backs, injured paws, mangled bodies. The oldies, the deaf ones and the blind. The attitude of a shelter starts with its founder and in Fabienne, ever single dog gets a chance. There's no question of only taking those that are pretty and healthy.  I salute her, all the teams and volunteers and those amazing people who open their hearts and their homes to these deserving dogs. Below is a message from Roelf and Astrid who adopted Luz, whom they now call Triple. You can see why :)

"She's been with us more than five weeks now. She's a real sweetheart. She's getting on very well with our other two ACE dogs and our old cat. She doesn't appear to suffer from the absence of her left front leg. She seems completely unaffected by it. We have a trolley for her if we go for long walks on the beach or sometimes we use a baby carrier.

She came to France with us for two weeks. She enjoyed the beach where they could all run around. Potty training is going well. She eats very well too. Outside she finds many things still very exciting. 
We are very pleased with our Triple!"

                                                                                        Sincerely, Roelf and Astrid

What's this?

Bliss. A forever home and a forever lap to cuddle on.

And my very own, golden basket. (It's lovely and soft and, actually, it's purple.)

Chilling with my new siblings. 

I love grass. We didn't have grass at El Refugio. Except if we went to the field.

In my forever basket in my forever garden. Love from Triple.

Big Ears ...

... great personalities. Our Podencos. Some of the most loyal and noble dogs you could ever wish to meet. Sadly they are the most horribly abused by hunters and we have very many of them in El Refugio. The breed is not well known outside Spain, so they are often overlooked by adopters because they are not familiar. With their big ears and engaging personalities, they are darling, sensitive and loving and deserving of wonderful forever homes.

More joyful arrivals at Schiphol

   This afternoon, 19th July, four super cute and sweet dogs arrived at the airport at Schiphol.  

The carriers have finally arrived!! 

You can just see Madeleine and Frida in the carrier; they were quite eager to get out.

 Sidney, is the white fellow with a black head, Lona the little white one on the right. In the background you can see Frida, just taken out of the carrier. Also with the adopters is my lovely friend, and volunteer, Odette, who works devotedly to make sure everything goes smoothly.  

Here again Sidney, on the left, then Frida as well Lona. 

Sidney is exploring, Frida getting cuddles and Lona has a welcome drink of water.

Finally it's time to take Madeleine from her carrier.  

She seems quite happy with her new mum! 

Frida still found it all a bit scary and is carried by the owner and reassured. 

El Refugio - in the heat of summer

One of our lovely students hiding the medicine in a lovely treat!

Kisses and cuddles matter so much to everyone.

Our wonderful vet. Healing wounds, preventing unwanted pregnancies.

Eager faces at the gate.

Curly coats are hot - my turn next for a nice wash and trim.

"Sitting in the noonday sun ....

... watching the world go by!"

Update: Our Precious Peonita - going home at last

A special day at the beach

I've written before about our precious Peonita. You can read her story on the English Blog. Our darling girl was found by some workmen on a building site, she was  just a little puppy. They fed her and looked out for her but inevitably the work finished and they had to leave. None of them could offer her a home; they begged us to take her and find her a lovely home.

That was four years ago, in 2010. She's waited so long the angel. She won our hearts and all we wanted was for her to have a loving forever home. She didn't give up and nor did we. And now the day has come. She has flown out to Belgium to our brilliant foster mum Nancy. We so hope the golden basket will follow swiftly.

Everyone will miss her but we are so very happy for her. It's been a long, long wait. It's always memorable and moving when one of our dear 'long stayers' goes home. At last.

We'll miss you darling girl, but we're so happy for you.