One of many, Lucre

Lucrecio`s (Lucre) history is both sad and common in Spain. He is just one of the many thousands of galgos abandoned in Spain every year. Just all in a day’s work here, nothing special…

When he was first seen in the streets he was estimated to be some 5 months old, by now he is roughly one year.

As a pup he had a hard time wandering around all by himself. It was winter, with nights that were freezing cold and nothing to give him even the slightest bit of warmth, no warm blanket or basket, his bed were the cold hard cobblestones in the street, it’s a miracle this tiny, thin  galgopuppy managed to survive at all…

He was attacked by a larger dog which almost cost him his life, he sustained many injuries but miraculously healed. He was chased and had rocks thrown at him which made him very frightful, afraid to go out to scavenge for food, extremely weakening him. To get to some food he had to cross a busy road which also nearly cost him his life 3 times so he refrained from doing that, thank heavens.

On top of all that he caught on Kennel Cough but got well again. Life in the streets is unforgiving for a pup, they don’t belong in the streets, neither do grown up dogs for that matter.

He was lonely, lost, scared, hungry, cold, how was he going to get on with this life?

One day a human with a dog came close to him which panicked him and caused him to run for it, but the next day that human and the other dog were there again and again the next day, little by little he gained some confidence in them, especially since they always took him some food which he gladly had since he was terribly hungry and had basically given up, he would rather leave this world which had been far from pretty for him.

Thanks to this human and most of all thanks to the food, he regained his strengths. This person, which was a woman as you already might have guessed, saved his life. He grew like a pup should grow and very slowly his confidence in this specific human increased.
This person was allowed to touch him if she really wanted, well okay and he really liked it a lot, but only this human and no one else.

In the mean time he became a well known dog in the neighbourhood and more people came to him to bring him food. He wasn’t as frightened of them anymore as before and even sometimes played with other neighbourhood dogs. But obviously such a young dog couldn’t live in the streets for the rest of his life, he needs a family of his own, a warm home, love, care and attention.

So one day Fermín Perez, Scooby’s chef, got a phone call with the question whether it was okay to bring Lucre to Scooby if they could manage to catch him, to get adopted by a loving family, and thankfully that was okay by Fermín.

Lucre himself however didn’t share those thoughts. A brief stroke on the head or being caught and put in a car were two very different things indeed and he wouldn’t have that. As a dog you never know what will happen to you and he had become very cautious towards people, despite their promises all would be better for him from now on.

After a couple of weeks and some failed attempts to take him they decided to put some tranquillizer tablets into his food and after waiting for a couple of hours, they could get him – with a little effort – and put him into the car. At last.

Because he lived very close to Valladolid he was taken to the Scooby residencia and he is there still.

The next day he was freed of some 80 ticks that used him as an appartment and got treated for other nasty critters, both inside and outside.

He socialised with astonishing speed. He loves to play a lot with the other galgos in his kennel and in the garden. He comes up to you all by himself and indulges in a good cuddle, he is friendly and sweet and no longer afraid, as you can see in the accompanying pictures he is a gorgeous galgo.

Again it has to be said and I’ve said it before: people have no idea of what they are throwing away and in the streets you can find real gems.

Lucre’s days of misery and despair are over, he is now waiting for someone to fall in love with him and adopt him, but there are still thousands of Lucres roaming Spain and hopefully their bizarre life journey of misery ends just as well as Lucre’s.

Cobie