5/29/2011

Men, men, men

I am convinced that the same thing happens to you, you are hoping to let a man come in to your life, I know you have an urgent need to have a man in your house, they are so adorable and sexy as well, so muscular, noble and really a little goofy, at least the ones that are with me, I know that every now and then some mark their territory and you would love to strangle them, but in the end you never do because your love for them is bigger than the problems they are giving you.



They bully a little, especially when there are a lot of them together, but this is also part of the masculine behavior and happens with men of every species. If you don’t have a man, you don’t know what you’re missing, we have a lot of them and I am sure you will want to adopt them all, so don’t be shy, there is one for everyone, even for your neighbours and friends so don’t feel shy.



You are proud of your dogs at Scooby, so don’t be quiet about it, tell the whole world that they need a Scooby dog, and even better, a male dog, because Isabel in Sevilla has a lot more galgos ready for us, a lot of them males, so take a men in your life!

Greetings,

Fermin

5/27/2011

Why adopt a Scooby dog?

I don’t know if I already discussed this with you or if I have just been turning this issue over in my mind so that it feels like I already did, but it is probably because this is a recurring item because of the need.

You might ask: what need? Scooby is a large organisation and apparently with money available to them.



And I will tell you that that is not the case, Scooby is big in generosity, simply because we don’t know how to say no. Well that is not completely true, there are times that we just can’t deal with it and there is nothing else to do but close our eyes, sometimes I have to tell my collegues we just cannot take more dogs because that would put the rest of the dogs and the economic viability of the refuge in jeopardy. Yes, our shelter is big and at this moment, like I have been telling you before, we are trying to make it better, improve the fences, set up more quarantine cages, of course improve the housing so they keep them warmer in winter and cooler in summer, but still this is not enough.



With the number of dogs we have already taken up, the increased cost of food is enormous, we are talking about almost 6000 euro a month for food only, fortunately for us we can pay this, at least, at the moment, because if this continues we cannot go on like this much longer. Therefore we need food, lots and lots of food! We also give them bread to save a little on cost, so for our readers around here: we need bread so if you know of any bakery or bread factory that could donate, that would be just perfect.

For all our European friends: if you could collect food for us, please do so, we come up to your countries at least once a month (or even three times like this month), so we can come and collect food from where ever you store it, if it fits our schedule of course. If it is very far away we cannot come maybe but we will look at ways to come and collect it anyway.



And this is only concerning food, if then we add the costs of our workers, the vet, the money we spend in medicine, electricity, fuel, insurance and other things, the final number is absolutely astronomic, so that when the end of the month comes near I don’t know if I have enough to pay for everything, and it is a bit frustrating to have to think about costs continually and how to reduce them. I think of having one worker less, but then when we take our dogs on a trip that lasts at least 4 days, there is only one left for the whole shelter, so that would mean that practically nothing can be cleaned, and there is only time to feed them, so that makes the volunteers indispensable, to help us out with the cleaning and the distribution of food, and simply most daily chores.



Oh well.. like always I start to tell you something and then at the end I start talking about other things , but what I was trying to tell you is that we need to have our dogs out for adoption, because we need to decrease their quantity here in the shelter, but later on when we have space again we can then collect more galgos from the south of Spain, because like Isabel tells me, we are their only hope. So, really, if you know of any organisation that for example takes care of podencos, please tell us. Mabel, who works for the foundation Benjamin Menert and is absolutely decicated to them, tells me that every time they go and pick up galgos, in the same region and kennels there are also podencos being used for the hunt and who are a lot harder to place for adoption, so if you know of any organisation that could take care of these podencos or other mixed breeds, tell us so we can get in touch with them.

That’s all for now because since I am on leave, the people having to do the translations for the website are loaded with work.

A greeting!

Fermin

5/25/2011

Sando the puppy needs a home!

The summer is here, so what better way to enjoy the outdoors than with a beautiful  puppy!
Sando is a 3 month old galgo-mix puppy who currently was in foster care is now at the shelter.
This from his foster mom Sandra, "Sando is kind, very willing to learn, extremely affection. He has manners and as you can see he is very beautiful."
Now is the perfect time to give him the perfect start to the rest of his wonderful life.
If you are interested in adopting Sando, please email us at SCOOBY.

5/22/2011

Hello again!

So I am back to tell you more about the projects we are doing and for which we certainly need your help. On the other hand, for everything we do, without you and your generosity, it would be impossible for us to get any work done and rescue no one.



As you know from the various news items we put on the webpage, we have been collecting dogs from southern Spain, specifically we have rescued dogs from Sevilla but also from several kennels in Jaen, Moron, Granada, Talavera de la Reina, some in Madrid, and this beside the usual collections of galgos, dogs of other breeds, cats and other animals from Valladolid, Zamora, Salamanca and Segovia. This means that although we place a lot of animals, especially dogs, we need to find more homes for them but also food for the ones that are here.. we need lots and lots of food.



So to all of you, all of you without whom we could not exist, if you know of any organization to house some or our animals or of somebody who could give us food or funds, please tell them about our dogs and how wonderful they are. We know from experience that when placed in a shelter in the Netherlands or Germany, our dogs are being adopted rather quickly since they are very sociable and adapt fast to a home. Besides, I still think this is Europe and although the abandonment is a Spanish problem and therefore must be solved here, it is also true that on the animal welfare front big improvements are being made here, in fact since I started in the world of animal protection, the number of abandoned dogs has decreased a lot and instead the adoption rates have risen sharply, almost a 20% increase here in Spain each year, where they used to be 0%.



But I am also one of those people who think the love for animals knows no boundaries, if there is an animal in need anywhere, we can help, it is our duty to do so as human “animals”. The suffering should not be decided upon by limits we call borders. Like if you are born in Spain, too bad, you have to suffer abandonment and neglect, and if you are born just a few miles further you’re in luck, you won the lottery and the probability to a good life is really high.



I am absolutely convinced that sooner rather than later, here in Spain we will be able to place the vast majority of abandoned animals, but meanwhile we need you to continue helping them, and they will thank you for it.

Greetings,
Fermin