Podenco Post

Category: Rehoming stories

  • Lost, abandoned – how to choose a family

    Jan Hammond Maite 1 400Jan 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.

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  • Podenco Pablo – from Torrox to Northumberland

    Jane Colton Pablo 400 11 2016Jane Colton tells the story of how she came to adopt her Podenco Pablo.

    ‘I worked for the rescue dogs and cats here in Torrox Costa. It is not a registered charity, just a kind German lady who started a long time ago by taking in stray dogs. She was reported to the council and was told she could not keep the animals in her penthouse apartment. She moved to the campo and lived in a large shed for a few years. Now she has a larger building with land and has built concrete kennels for the larger dogs, the smaller dogs and cats live in a gated area adjoining her home, she has 60 dogs now.

    My dog and I live in Spain only in the winter now, he does miss the sunshine, so I work in the Spanish market every Monday selling 2nd hand goods. We also have extremely kind people who donate and help in different ways. My rescue Great Dane had recently died of old age and I decided no more dogs, as I was so devastated to lose her.

    Then after a couple of months an Ibizan Hound was taken in and I knew I couldn’t resist him, he took two hours to catch, his name is Pablo and I have had him for nearly nine years. I live in the country in Northumberland so in his younger days he caught many rabbits. He carried them home. He enjoyed every last morsel…there have been times when I have waited for him whilst he is hunting and thought I had lost him but as every Podenco owner knows too well, they always return but when?

    I would just love another one, but not just yet.’

  • Podenca Alma – from campo in Spain to comfort in the UK

    Beevers pup 400 8 2016I spotted some lovely photos of a happy little podenca on one of my facebook pages and contacted her adoptant to ask if she would write the story of how she came to acquire a podenco. Jane is very happy to tell you Alma’s story……..

    I was teaching at Molino Del Rey (a yoga retreat in the Andalucian mountains in Spain) in July this year, and one morning, one of the students told me she hadn’t slept well the previous night…..a couple of them had found three puppies dumped at the end of a field, with no food or water, just left in a box, abandoned. So, off we went, just a short walk up the road from the retreat and found them. We only had cows milk given to us very kindly by the retreat owners so we fed them where they were and they drank immediately.

    Alma looked very different from the other two (who turned out to be mastadors, a cross between mastiff and lab), and from the moment I picked her up in my arms, she started to suckle on my neck (she was about 12 inches in length, so very small, and very young). I don’t have children, and this little mite felt like the baby I never had. I was immediately attached to her.

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  • Podenco Canarios Romeo and Valentino – from perrera to forever homes

    Patricia Herrera 2 250I’ve always advertised the Canary Islands podenco rescue associations as they desperately need help to rehome these fabulous hounds. Here’s a lovely story about two of them rehomed with Patricia Herrera and her husband.

    ‘After finding out just how easy it was to adopt a podenco from Gran Canaria through the Saving the Gran Canaria Podencos page, thanks to the amazing help of a certain wonderful someone … I decided that one podenco is never enough and decided to get a pod pal for Valentino, who at 1 needed a playmate as my other dogs are 11, 12 and maybe 16 years old!

    As you can see it was a rip roaring success and Romeo and Valentino adore each other and coming from the perrera were both very well socialised and surprisingly also house trained despite their harsh upbringing.
    Podencos are such beautiful, gentle and sensitive dogs they can find pound life unbearably stressful and often give up eating and lose the will to live and are so terribly grateful for being saved and shown the love they have longed for all their lives so adopting or fostering is incredibly rewarding.

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  • Have you an adopted SARA Lanzarote podenco – via Rick & Lesley Beauchamp?

    A message from Rick Beauchamp.

    Can anyone who has adopted a Podenco off us from SARA on Lanzarote please forward me a photo of your dog/dogs? SARA have asked for photos of the UK dogs to add to their site. I have many but recently cleared down many photos not believing that they would be used again!

    Contact Rick here

  • Portuguese Podengos needing forever homes – Happy Ending!

    Last month I posted an appeal for forever homes for Mom and Son Portuguese Podengos needing forever homes. I’m thrilled to bits to report that, thanks to Podenco Post, a lady in the US who had lived in Portugal and adopted Portuguese Podengos spotted my post, contacted Jacky Dias, and both dogs are now with her, together!

    Once they have settled in and their characters developed, I’ve been promised an update about them, which of course I will share with you.

  • Introducing Hobo – happy on his sofa in his forever home!

    Anne Parkes podenco window 250 2 2016Anna Parkes wrote this story about her stunning Podenco X Hobo, another one rescued from Spain and now living a life of luxury in the UK.

    ‘I spent a week with an animal rescue charity named the ‘Asociacion de Animales de Berja‘ back in March 2013, ever since I have been following their progress over Facebook. Gradually friends and family members also followed the page, including my boyfriend, Josh. One day in January or February 2015 I awoke to see that he had tagged me in a post on Facebook; a beautiful brindle 6 month old male Podenco had been awaiting for a home since being thrown from a moving car a number of months earlier. He had spent time in foster but he could no longer stay there as they were due to go travelling. Despite multiple pleas for a new home, no one offered him one and the situation was becoming so desperate that the charity were soon left with no option but to send him to a shelter, which they were so keen not to do.

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  • The Story of Izzy – happy ending for a failed podenco huntress

    Izzy 3 170Michelle tells the story of how she came to offer a forever home to podenca Izzy.

    ‘It started with a photo. Not a great nor clear photo, but poignant and heart-breakingnever the less. It was of a tiny female Andalusian hound chained to a wall in a filthy Spanish cellar. No windows, no bed, just damp concrete to sleep on and a rusty dirt encrusted water bowl that was bigger than the dog.

    The reason – she wasn’t good at hunting, and like many Spanish hounds in her position, she was thus regarded as trash. The luckier ones are rescued, but many are abandoned, hanged, burned alive, thrown down wells, or stabbed to death. She needed someone to offer her a home, otherwise she would most likely have suffered one of these fates.

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  • Podenca Zarita – from the Spanish campo to agility in the UK

    Bev Zarita sack 250The story of Zarita. Bev Farmer of Podenco Friends tells her story.

    Late one Friday night back in September 2014 a post was shared of a Podenco heavily pregnant lying on an old feed sack under a bush. She desperately needed help. Just one look at her face and I was in contact and within a couple of hours arrangements were made for her to come to Podenco Friends.

    I collected her the following evening and she was fit to burst and it was obvious she was going to give birth soon. Having never done this before and with no idea what to do, Janette Lopez called round and gave me a crash course. A couple of hours later she was in labour and 5 pups had come into the world. I sat with her throughout and it was so wondrous to see them been born and take their first breath and mum was totally calm taking great care of these babies.

    Bev Zarita running 250Zarita is one of these angels who walks the earth, a generous loving nature who is friends with everyone. She also has a great sense of humor and could be naughty. She stole the bags of corn hung from the trees left there by the owners of the racing pigeons. We had to confess to them what happened so they could put the rest in a safe place. Everything she did she gave 100% whether it was a hug or having a blast out running, she really knows how to enjoy life

    So now this little family have found new homes. Tosca and Little Roo are in America, Ayra in Belgium, Orlando in France and of course disabled Hope who is with us. Now its Zarita’s turn to have her own forever sofa and she has gone to a family that very much want and need her and will give her the chance to be the super star I know she is.

    Helen Veal reports back that Zarita is so quick to learn new skills and at her first agility lesson she took every thing in her stride. I have always believed that podencos have all the attributes to excel at agility and with the guidance and experience of Helen who has competed in dog agility at top flight in the UK we look forward to watching her progress. This year two more of our rescues have gone to families that also compete so maybe in the future we will have Agility Team Podenco UK

    Just look at her now! Podencos make brilliant agility dogs.

  • Introducing George – a ‘child’ of the olive groves

    George's arrival at 8 months 250 Dec 2012The introductory story to George was included in an email from Yvonne Warwick. So I asked her to write the full story of how he came to work his way into her heart and home.

    The original message.     This is my beautiful George! He arrived on our land at around 8 months old. We’d seen him in the village and on our land in the mountains with his parents and two sisters. We believe that the DaddyDog told him to go off
    and seek his fortune when he got to 6 months. He came to us when we were picking our olives…skinny and starving with a wound on his nose.

    We thought long (OK, 3 days!) about what to do…in the meantime he made up his mind that he was staying. Very brave of him to come so close to us….it was meant to be! He is 3 and a bit now and a fantastic dog. Luckily he wasn’t taken as a pup by a hunter. His feral upbringing has meant he has lovely manners and is the sweetest dog ever, though his recall skills could do with improvement!

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