Podenco Post

Category: Rehoming stories

  • Chained in a cave in Gran Canaria – used as a breeding machine!

    Lynn Destiny 1 400 Apologies to Lynn Paulrodos…this story should have been published at the beginning of October 2017!

    Lynn Paulrodos lives in northern France and has opened Avalon Animal Sanctuary as her collection of rescued animals has increased, which includes dogs, horses, goats… Here is the story of her most recent arrival – Destiny, a Gran Canary podenca found starving, chained up in a cave, and obviously used as a breeding machine!

    ‘DESTINY aka Cave Girl was found chained up in a cave in Gran Canary in August 2017 and taken to Pet Pals GC. She was under 8kgs and had a large mammary tumour with a cluster of smaller tumours inside and also tumours on her lungs—she’s only just 5yrs old!!

    It was decided to give her a chance and she was operated on on 4 Sept –the vet removed 14 mammary tumours and 2 hernias!! I was asked to help her as it’s not known how long she will live and no-one else was interested to take her—she is also Filaria (heartworm) positive.

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  • Renovating a house on Fuerteventura – no chance when the podencos are lost!

    David Tomlinson
    I always love receiving stories of podencos which have found loving forever homes. Here’s a rescue and rehoming story with a difference – David Tomlinson’s tale is one which so many Brits moving to Spain and the Spanish Islands experience.

    ‘We came to Fuerteventura (Canary Islands) to renovate an old stone house on a finca, about 20,000 sq meters in the middle of 400,000 meters. We live in a area used during the hunting season (here it’s Bank Holidays and Sundays only Aug to Nov) by hunters with dogs, hunting rabbits. It seems now that frequently the dogs chase the rabbits for miles, get lost and the hunters leave them behind.

    So one Monday in July 2005, a stray Podenco, turned up on our land. She was in pretty poor shape so we fed and watered her. We didn’t know what the system was so we contacted the local Police. They were very helpful but as the dog wasn’t microchipped they asked us if we wanted to keep her. The alternative was that she went to the dogs home and would be destroyed after 21 days. We were also told that if the owner turned up we could recover our costs. We agreed to keep her.

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  • Podenca Bebe – a little dog with a huge character

    Bebe Seville 1 400
    This is a photo I received 7 years ago, along with an appeal for help for the little podenca, rescued with a hind leg injury from a Seville motorway. There were not the facilities in the shelter to care for her post operation, so I said I would take her. She had been rescued by a young woman called Marisa (same name as my daughter) who had named the little podenca Bebe (my nickname at school, derivitive of Beryl!). So of course she had to come to me!

    The operation on her hind leg was a success, the vet wasn’t sure if she would use her hind leg properly. No problem…she was fast as grease lightening on 4 legs! She weights 6.5 kilos, is the boss of the galgos, and the first to warn us if there is someone at the door. She’s been on many adventures…it took us a couple of years to make the garden completely escape proof…she could get through very small spaces! And would espy an opportunity if a door was not shut properly!

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  • Podenca X Lady landed on her feet!

    Liz Wright podenco 400 12 2017
    I always love to receive stories about happy homings of podencos… here’s a lovely one I received from Liz.

    ‘I adopted a 2 year old Podenco cross, little girl (although I think she’s more Pod than cross!) 4 months ago from a killing station. I had never heard of the breed, but fell in love with her picture on the rescue site in Spain. Everything the foster home told me seemed too good to be true, good with children, cats & other dogs with a sweet nature!

    Well, she is everything & more;she’s a social butterfly & everyone she meets loves her. She’s such a clown with the biggest heart & has made such an amazing difference to my life. I’m disabled & have to ride a mobility scooter when I go out. From the first day my little Lady came into my life, she trotted next to me by my scooter like she’d done it all her life. She is so intelligent, I only have to teach her something once & she’s got it.

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  • Podenca Tilly – changed the life of Beverly and Warren forever

    Bev Tilly hunting 400
    Lovely story from Beverly Farmer of Podenco Friends about the start of her journey in podenco rescue and rehoming.

    ’14 years ago on 7th December 2003 I made a decision to visit a local shelter to adopt a dog here in Spain at the time not knowing it would be a life changing decision. Tilly was curled up in the back of kennel shaking. Not knowing what a podenco was, we asked to take her. She looked so fragile, so we signed the papers and took her home, Her story was that she was discovered in a dumpster under the rubbish with a broken front leg. We thought we had chosen a quiet and demure dog which she was for 24 hours. Then the honeymoon was over and the real Tilly revealed herself, stubborn crazy a real diva she tested me to my limits.

    Almost 3 months after, I considered returning her to the shelter for it was not a good relationship.

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  • From Lanzarote perrera to comfort and love in Norway

    Bev Athena Lanzarote 1 400I’ve been publicising about the plight of the podencos in the Canary Islands for several years now. At that time SARA Protectora on Lanzarote worked hard to home some, both in Germany and the UK. The first story I published was about Rick and Lesley Beauchamp who help home rescued Lanzarote podencos in the UK. I’ve plugged and plugged away to try and get more help for these fabulous hounds, both from Lanzarote and Gran Canaria and finally in the last couple of years, people are coming forward to help the volunteers on the Islands struggling to save the podencos, most of which end up in perreras.

    Bev and Warren of Podenco Friends now help foster and home podencos from both Islands. This stunning podenca is Athena, saved from the perrera by Laura Johnson of TheKennelKlub on Lanzarote and flown to Bev in Murcia. She has just arrived in her forever home in Norway. These are the before and after photos.

    If you want to read more about Rick’s journey to the UK, here’s Part 2 and Part 3

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  • Happy Podenco family

    Janice Ball pods 2 400Looking through my years of folders of podenco photos from 2007 when I first started my blog, I found this delightful one of 4 of those adopted by Janice Ball in the UK.

  • Lucas and Maya – 2 lucky podencos sharing a forever home.

    Jude 2 pods 400This is the story of how someone who had never heard of podencos is now the proud adoptant of 2! Jude tells the story.

    We adopted Lucas, our Podenco Maneto, in 2012 through Podenco SOS. We’d made the decision to get a dog a while before and wanted to adopt a rescue dog rather than buy from a breeder or a pet shop. We’d been in a lot of contact with the RSPCA and the Dogs Trust but they weren’t able to rehome any of the dogs in their care with us and we ended up on a waiting list.

    My wife, Seiko, found out about podencos and the wonderful rescue organisations online. I’d never heard of podencos before! We enquired with Podenco SOS about a few of the dogs that they’d put on their facebook page but they’d all just been found homes. They suggested we visit Lucas, a Podenco Maneto, who was with a foster family in Surrey, a short drive from our home in Brighton.

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  • Podencos in Need Scotland – join in the fun!

    Podenco play school 2 400I received a request from a Podenco adopter living in the Edinburgh area who wanted to meet up with other podenco people to share knowledge, experiences etc. Pam Mcleod of Podencos in Need Scotland got in touch with me to tell me about the Dog Play School in the area. Here’s the story of how it came about.

    ‘2 years ago I spent the day with 500 dogs in the perrera Tierra Blanca on Tenerife, and so the dream was born. I met Pacita, who, at 11 years old, had been found, heavily pregnant, caught and brought into the perrera, only to deliver 9 pups the following day, all but 2 of whom died to parvo virus. Pacita was still distraught at losing her pups and my heart broke for her. I met Pasha and Nico as well as many nameless hounds and fell in love with them all.

    The next month was spent on a vertical learning curve about the practicalities and logistics of rescuing a dog from another country, and getting together the funds to fly Pacita from Tenerife to Edinburgh. Flying Fleeces was born to help raise funds and, after we got her home in February, PINS was born and, with it, the mission to make Scotland, Podenco-Central.

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  • GPAC – flying the flag for Podencos in Canada

    Mary Macdonald 1 400 4 2017Mary Macdonald is flying the flag for Podencos in Canada. She’s already adopted 2 and is about to get her third one. Here she tells her story.

    “I am a volunteer for Greyhound Pets of Atlantic Canada (Branch Rep for my province of Prince Edward Island) and Galgos and Podencos of Atlantic Canada. It was though GPAC that I found out about these beautiful souls. I do meet and greets across my province, adoption applications and home visits.

    We currently have 4 Podencos on PEI which I think is so wonderful for such a small Island. Our meet and greets and ” word of mouth ” are bringing attention to the podencos here and the rest of Atlantic Canada .

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