Happy Endings is a small association in Chiclana, Cadiz, run by Margarita Gloerson, a Norwegian lady who could not stand by and see the abandoned, starving, injured podencos dying by the roadside.  This is the story of Happy Endings. 

'My name is Margarita Gloersen from http://www.happy-ending-final-feliz.eu/ in Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz.  I have been working with dogs since I arrived Chiclana in 2005. I am from Norway, and when I came I just could not believe my day to day experiences with animals lying in the road, killed by cars and all the others just left to themselves with no chances to survive in the long run. Sooner or later they would become run over by cars, since all the trash bins are alongside the roads. 

  I live in the countryside where there are big fields for the hunters and Podencos are the most abandonned dog in this area. But there are always any kind of dogs all over, so I have a very difficult task having to look away, because I do not have shelter for all of them.'

Her friend and supporter Kitty takes up the story.

'Like everyone, Margarita  has made mistakes and learnt the hard way. She uses her whole pension to fund this operation.

Her team are Sue Martin, who is trying to control the finances despite Margarita who has absolutely no respect for money and would starve before she stopped spending money on her dogs, Jan Hill – fund raiser, Tina and Karen hands on dogs. Andrew – secretary and Facebook boy and me but I’m just the web designer/ maintainer come dog pooh picker upper -  I am not on the committee.

Margarita is blessed to have the people she has on her team, they all love her and the dogs and work so hard to do the best that they can.
 
The aims of the association are  ……….

To provide clean and safe living environment.
A regular nutritious diet.
And veterinary care when needed.
To ensure ALL adopted dogs comply with current legislation: spaying/castration, micro chipping and vaccination.
To match dogs with suitable owners according to the charity's re-homing policy.
To create through education a better awareness of the needs of dogs in society
Help needed – aside from more hours in the day…….
We need contacts in other E.U. countries that we can trust with our precious dogs
People to take dogs to their new families in other countries
Cages to ship the dogs in or a system whereby we get the cages back quicker.
We need good advice and ideas from people who have been there and done it.
We always need help with caring for the dogs – foster homes, volunteers, people to help Margarita to clean, feed and medicate the dogs she has at her house and to do vet runs.
We need good solid kennels and fencing and concrete put down.
Mostly we need a system. Margarita, as you saw, is pretty frail. She has awful arthritis. She can barely move in the mornings. She has 20 dogs at her house who obviously need feeding, cleaning out, medication and exercise and visits to the vet. She tries to do this herself but its impossible.
And of course money would be nice, although the weekly car boot sale brings in some donations.
 
There are 3 podencos and two galgos at the moment.  One of the galgos has still to undergo treatment for leischmaniasis. Both galgos still need to be castrated and also chipped and vaccinated.  The podencos have all been done as far as I know but I think vaccinations and chips are still needed.'

If any associations can help in finding homes for 'The Great Forgotten' as PodencoWorld refers to these wonderful companion dogs, please get in touch with Happy Endings direct.