Update from Polly Mathewson
A happy update on our terrified shy podenco brothers CAMILO & ELOY. Our once “IN KENNELS & IN-VISIBLE” brothers are now progressing on their way in little steps towards their ultimate goal which is a loving forever home! They are now graduating to their next stage..
You will remember their first step on from the large rural Spanish kennels (where they had become so invisible and overlooked for FIVE long years) was to our friends at Bedrock Kennels near Mijas. With our grateful thanks to Michelle and Alan and family at Bedrock the boys have already come on so much. They were so petrified when they arrived a month ago and with the happy, loving atmosphere there they are much more assured.
They have been enjoying some lovely unknown freedoms like being able to come out of their kennel themselves to start to explore the communal run, they have been choosing to come closer to Michelle and Alan, and developing their natural poddie curiosity, despite their so deep-rooted fear of close human contact. All thanks to the Batchelor family for their kind welcome to the boys, it has been a really important step for them to come to you when we were giving up hope how to ever help them directly from the big kennels. The next stepping stone on from Bedrock was to have been to foster with Anita and Carl of Paws awhile Dog Rescue, but at present they have a lovely loud foster puppy mayhem there that we all think might be a bit much just now, and in their house itself one very poorly dog needing his own extra TLC .
BUT meanwhile a new opportunity has come up for the boys which we believe will build on Bedrock’s good foundations! Camilo and Eloy have the chance now to move just down the road where they are going to be able to have DAILY, gentle one-to-one focused support sessions that can help them gradually gain yet more confidence in being close to people. We really hope this individual help – and some separate sessions for each boy as they are not identical in their nerviness – will help them come on more, so that they can sooner get out of kennels and into a HOME.
Our brothers are now around age seven. In their half-a-life-span they have maybe known one tough year with a hunter or on the streets before their four-walls-existence started…rounded up to a kill pound, a sad year in a tricky place that didn’t work out, and then their five years at the kennels. Things cannot be rushed for Camilo and Eloy with their extreme timidity, but with dedicated help we believe this is their best chance at finding a loving family sooner than later. HOWEVER until that wonderful day, a big thank you to everyone in the growing extended temporary family for Camilo and Eloy that is gathering around them. In particular their original kennel parents Mari Carmen, Josejuan and Rosa Maria, their Bedrock family this last month, their special extra PodGodMums Chris, Deborah, Courtney and Marissa, and to the new family members forming to help them now (more in their next post).
And this doesn’t even start to mention the long list of lovely friends these sweetest of brothers have gained through all your sharing, offering of help and fundraising support since we discovered their invisible plight about a year and a half ago. It’s been a LONG journey already to find help for our boys and they have many steps ahead but we will not give up on them until they are truly happy.
If anyone would like to join us core group to help the boys, perhaps to become a PodGodParent donor for their monthly living costs and for training treats etc., then please get in touch with me Polly Mathewson. We will be doing fundraisers shortly too so there will be other ways to help. More updates, photos and videos soon. For now our Camilo and Eloy just wanted to say a particular thank you to all at Bedrock!
To donate to their kennel fees etc please paypal helpvalenciadogs@gmail.com, make sure it is Friends and Family and put Camilo & Eloy in the message box. Thank you.