Thank you to Catherine who translated this article for me.

March, the month to remember Podencos.

During the past month of February we were reminded of galgos, mainly because of the documentary film ‘Febrero. El Mierdo de los Galgos’. So I decided that March will be the month, I will devote to remembering their cousins the podencos and their crosses. Other dogs that suffer even more than galgos because they are also the forgotten ones. I did this last year with the post ‘They are not greyhounds, but podencos and are just as good companions’.

They aren’t so elegant and glamorous, (Podenco Post thinks they are!)and adopters rarely fix on them, but they are also magnificent companions. My dog​​, my old Trojan, is a mixture of different breeds of hunting pooch, including podenco. A granny with pellets under her skin which remind us of her old job.

To help you remember these dogs here’s one of their representatives called Socks. Here’s his story:

Sock’s story is nothing special. It is the same as hundreds and thousands of podencos, the waste of hunters once the season is finished, returned to a dungeon where they have almost no food or water and never see sunlight or are abandoned or killed . Condemned to a long and painful death by the same people who have exploited them for years. We all know what we’re talking about .

Socks had a bit more luck , just a little . He ended up in a kennel.

Thanks to two wonderful people, Mari Bravo who cared for him in the kennel and Meri Rosas, who has been taking charge of him and all his expenses, Socks had a second chance. Socks traveled to Madrid and spent many months in a dog day care centre, waiting for someone to notice him. But three years of rough life in a hunter’s dungeon take their toll . Our Socks was not a normal dog. His social skills with people were non- existant, I’ve never seen a dog with such terror in his eyes. He was literally petrified if I’d even hint of approaching , however gentle I was. There was only one thing on his mind : panic. Flight. Fear.

This is the sad reality of hunting dogs in Spain . The only things Socks has known in his 4 years have been sticks, chains, hunger, cold and evil … loneliness and misery. The struggle to survive, to eat, to see one more day, one more whipping, being one of the lucky few who can be useful to the hunter for the next season.

It took a lot of effort on the part of those involved, many months of progress and some setbacks, keeping pain inside and fighting on to get Socks back to what he should be: a dog, with all that that entails. Not a tool, not a rag or a broken toy, but a friend.

I want to make clear that Socks even in his worst moments has never shown any kind of aggression either with people or with other dogs . He is loyal, gentle, sensitive, intelligent and extremely handsome. Very noble. Very authentic. VERY PODENCO .

Sock’s time has come. He is ready to take the next step, find himself a human family . Its true, Socks is special …. and always will be. He needs someone steady, calm, committed, who can face challenges and never give up . Someone unafraid of confronting his past the only way possible in these cases : by forgetting it. Socks already has.

We do not want adoptions out of pity, because that does not help. We want true love and loyalty, because this dog is going to give that in return, until the day he dies. We want this breed so cruelly treated, so harshly judged, so unknown, to no longer be invisible. We want Socks to be the beginning of something, a change for the long forgotten podencos, one of the noblest breeds in the world. We want your heart to beat hound.

Adopt Socks. Give him a home. Sponsor him. Help us help him. He’ll be vaccinated, micro chipped, sterilized and have an adoption contract.