Jan Hammond loves podencos and here she writes about rescuing Maite.

‘On our return journey from England so Spain in September 2015, with our 3 Spanish rescue dogs, we pulled in with our Motorhome to a service area near Valencia for a welcome coffee stop. On entering the lorry parking area we both noticed a small brown head peering over a concrete block and at once looked at each other and said ‘did you see what I saw’.

Behold a very thin young Podenco female emerged with a 5cm thick lump of rope round and hanging from her neck. Just able to stand but wagging the tail in a small movement to say Hallo! She knew instantly we would not hurt her,we had found a friend for life. On seeing our family she staggered over to greet them, so dehydrated and malnourished she went for the water first before a bowl of food.

We think possible 8 months old and at least 3 kilos under weight, her ears were full of mites and sores; she was very dirty with quite a nasty cough and a large scrape on the inside of her back leg, covered in mud from sleeping rough. In all, a bit of a mess, bless her.

After eating and drinking it was clean up time, out came the baby wipes and she climbed into the Motorhome, laid on some covers on the floor between my feet, to keep her away from the others dogs and slept all the way for 3 hrs to home, determined not to be left behind.

On arriving home we made her comfortable, no grumbles from her then off to the vets next morning. Herblood tests results were ok so after some injections to clear the cough and a heart murmur detected, we had a new addition to the family. The other dogs all accepted her and we christened her Maite Moo. On coming into what we think was her first season, we kept her safe as she was still to thin and with the heart murmur to operate, without concern.

Maite has become a vibrant lovely playmate for the other rescues. People need to know how abused this breedis, still classed as farm animals in Spain. They hold no grudges, make wonderful loving reliable friends for life.

In the year or so since we found her, Maite has grown into a handsome dog, increased her weight by 3.5 kilos and sleeps on her back with her legs in air – tart! Happy Dog!

Lovely story, thank you for sharing it, Jan.