Amaliah lives in Holland and is passionate about podencos. Here is her story.

‘In 1990 I had already 2 Podencos, only the situation was completely different from my current one.

I was living in a very small village, my first neighbour was a 15 minutes walk away so, as you can imagine, I had a lot of meadow myself and a lot ofland nearby.

My husband didn’t like the dogs into our home……yes a big shame……… so the dogs lived in their own house, (with central heating!), there were six all together:

2 Podenco’s, 2 dachshund and 2 American Buldog, living happily without fighting, all the dogs were at peace.

Sadly my husband had a fatal accident. The same evening I opened my door and all the dogs came straight into my house and were immediately lying on the couches, haha!!
And sleeping all around me! Yes, I survived the loss of my husband because of the love of my dogs.

But there was a big difference; Podencos need love, family, cosy, warmth, and these 2 Podencos grew up with too much freedom. During the day they could run where they wanted, chasing the rabbits and the hares, but in the evening they were locked up all together. They were too free, they didn’t listen very well, in fact they hadn’t had
any education,.

After a half year, finally I had to leave the house, so I called the Podenco association in Germany and they found me a very good address in Switzerland, a woman who was living in the mountains, she had already 3 Podencos and she loved to have my ones. So the 2 podencos moved to Switzerland, the American Buldogs moved to another very nice owner and I left with the dachshunds to live in the city.

After my dachshunds passed away, I was absolutely sure I needed to have a Podenco again in my life!

Introducing Chokla, the chocolate brown Podenca, found at about 4 weeks old, with her brother, who was totally black.

A week after she was found, she came from Spain to Holland, and at that time we had already 2 cats, one was a half year old and one 4 years old. The young cat immediatly smashed the dog straight in the face, and that was that…… no war! So, the dog was very impressed by this little tiny one and …..showed respect immediately! We also had a siamese, who was not fond of the Podenco, but accepted the situation.

The next year, the siamese died, and we decide to take another young cat as a companion for the surviving cat. There wasn’t a problem with Chokla, even though the new cat was frightened, because Chokla was very relaxed around the cats. After 1 week, everything was settled, the new cat was relaxed, and the dog
accepted the new situation completely.

Last year we adopted another cat, same situation, no war, Chokla showed respect to the cats.

When I walk outside, and there is a strange cat cruising our path, Chokla wants immediatly to chase after this stranger!! So, she respects our own family cats, but not strange cats!

Chokla is now 11 years in the family, and i am sure,after this one, (let her be in our family for much longer, please) I will have a Podenco again and again, they are so extremely nice, intelligent, kind, friendly, they
really have character! Chokla looks at you, and she immeditaly knows what is going round in your head, unbelieveble!

Every dog is different, I am afraid I can’t tell you how it works, our dog protects our family against strangers, and inside the house the cats are absolutely the boss.’

So, that is the story of a Podenco lover!!

So there we go, make sure your cat learns to box before you introduce your dog! Joking apart, I have found a similar situation. Our first greyhound was a stray which we adopted. As our cats were already used to living with two dogs, she accepted the cats too, even going as far as to let them snuggle up against her tum in front of the fire.