Here's the story of Rick's trip from the UK to Lanzarote in April 2010.

'Well, we all got back safe and sound around 6am yesterday morning.

The trip was pretty uneventful really, we got to Cologne around 8pm on Monday evening and stayed in a very pleasant little hotel near the station. ( The rooms were on the 4th floor so it’s a good job that the Poddys were’nt being picked up until the next day) The lovely people in the hotel looked after us very well indeed, finding us a free parking space for the night and extending it through the following day until we were ready to leave.

We spent Tuesday walking round Cologne, viewing what I think is the most amazing cathedral that I’ve ever seen and wandering down by the Rhine- in England there is very little industrial river traffic so stuff like that is very interesting to me!

We got to the airport in good time to pick up the dogs, meeting Agora and Pintada who came from Dusseldorf and were able to be walked and fed before the others arrived. I would like to write and thank the lovely flight partners who made everything so easy by dropping them off, if you have an email address for them I’d really appreciate it.

The second dogs arrived nicely on time and we headed off in good spirits back home- Pintada was the only one who didn’t settle to well in the car and she didn’t have a problem travelling she was just pissed off with being caged up! The roads were brilliant and we arrived back in Calais in really good time to catch the ferry.

I only went wrong twice on the roads and I’m pleased to say that as I was in my car that my Sat Nav worked properly and I was quickly redirected. ( Before we left our cleaner asked if my Sat Nav gave directions in Germany,  daft bitch – the fucking cars German!)

My co pilot drove all the way back from Dover although I couldn’t really sleep as I kept remembering my friend falling asleep at the wheel last time! Still, this friend was made of tougher stuff and I need’nt have worried and we arrived home in time to walk the dogs ,feed them and settle them down before I took Charlie to catch his school bus.

I don’t remember too much of the rest of the morning really as sleep took over.

The dogs have settled really quite well, Pintada and Agora are behaving as though  they have lived with us all their lives. The other two are slightly more reserved but very sweet and I feel sure that in a short time they will be the same as the others. The real work now starts to find them all homes- I’ll keep you posted on that score.

Can you please thank Laura for getting the passports perfect( which was good because I don’t think that the bloody miserable official at Calais would have been as understanding as the last one) Can you also thank Klaus for the cages which I will return ASAP- I struggled to fit one of the cages in my car as it was really rather large. I appreciate that it would be difficult for him to judge the sizes required to keep the dogs comfortable and fit in my car also and of course we are learning all the time about this venture. Still perhaps I can be more scientific about this next time and I can liase with Klaus when I’m out next?

So all in all the trip went very well, much better than the last although perhaps not as amusing to the onlookers.'

Well done to everyone involved in this amazing journey for the podencos looking for their forever homes.  Email Rick  if you want to know more.