12/31/2012

Review on 2012



I know, I know, Christiane is almost having a panic attack, and she did tell me well in advance: Fermin, you need to do the final year update, and I told her that now I have holidays it is a lot easier, and what a fool am I, now I am on holidays without being able to open my email. It ‘s almost too scary to open it, and if it is already like that now, what is going to happen when I get back to work.. Anyway, I know I have thanked you the last year, and I am not going to repeat myself. Not because you don’t deserve it, you do and a lot more, but I just don’t want to repeat myself, you already know I have you in my heart, what would Scooby be without you, so here you go, just consider yourselves kissed and hugged and I will tell you that if I contunue I get mushy and melancholic, although that is more or less normal at this time of the  year.
But to come back to normal, I am going to tell you about the things we started this year and we will continue with in the coming year with your help. Regarding the refuge, the improvements have been considerable for both the dogs and the other animals, we still have a few months left to perfect it and to open it to the public and organise school visits, to promote our refuge for what it is, a real safe haven for all the animals we have here and I don’t think there are a lot like this. It is definitely not the most luxurious one but I can assure you that the animals here are happy, and we want to attract school children to show them that the protection of animals is ageless.
We started with the heating and are renovating the perimeter fences that the dogs have been destroying, we are finishing the new cages of 7-3 and are starting to renovate patios 3A, B C and D creating a little corridor so when we have to move dogs, the other ones don’t bother them.
This year we have also added Rebeca to the team, who will be responsable for the promotion of Scooby, making sure we are getting published in the media and promoting our animals so they can find a home as soon as posible. I am sure you will hear a lot from and about her the next year, she is also responsable for drafting the complaints about animal abuse, and what is even more important, follow up on these complaints, so they will be handled and processed instead of disappearing into thin air.
And last but not least  I will tell you about the project that for me is the most ambitious, we have been sending letters to the hunting federations and the federation of galgos, to see if we can start up a combined project that at the end of the hunting season, the galgos and the other hunting dogs can be collected and the owners will be responsable, bringing them to the refuge and bringing in a small amount of money to arrange for change of ownership etc. etc.. so that they won’t say later on that we don’t want to work with them.
In total  this year, like all of them has been filled with activities that I will tell you about in more details later on, and like I told you, this has all been possible thanks to you, adopter, thanks to you partner, thanks to you volunteer, thanks to you employee, thanks to you who is helping us with funds, thanks to all of you organisations that place your animals with us. Thank you and now on to 2013 that will bring a lot of problems, but will also bring new energy to cope with them.
A big kiss and hug for all of you. Fermin