Podenco Post

Podenca pup left for dead at the side of the road

From Betty Morena on facebook.

A few days ago we got the notice of a dog next to the highway crawling from its back legs. After hours of search we were able to find her. She's barely 7-Months old, just a puppy that was run over a long time ago and has been without any kind of attention or food. We quickly took her to the clinic for our vet to examine. After doing different tests it has been possible to see that she has several injuries on the 2 legs that have healed badly. She has at the bottom of the femur a callused body due to a untreated breakage that will have to return to its natural place.

She must be operated as soon as possible to make a femur rectification by shortening a piece to return the articulation to the vertical angle and return the kneecap to its natural site. Trying to increase the mobility of the joint and avoiding the advanced wear in the leg or short or long term which might result in amputation.

Podenco Orito Foxy - happy in his forever motor home!

It's always great to publish a happy ending story for a lucky podenco...so many appeals for help and reports of cruelty cases...so enjoy reading the story of Foxy.

'My name is Linda and I travel around Spain and Portugal in my small motorhome. In 2017 in the summer a small (now I found out) Podenco Orito was clearly abandoned and was trying to survive on his own. He must have been on his own for a while as he was very skinny, scabs on his ears and nose and he was covered in over 40 ticks.

I don’t know why, but for some reason he picked me, he would come to me even though I did not even feed him. After about two days we became friends and he let me touch him and, with the help of a friend, we removed all the ticks. He was afraid to come inside my motorhome, but the moment I bought him a doggie bed, he was inside and claiming his space!

Podenco Spirit with Refugio La Candela

Two years ago this little podenco was rescued - shot in the mouth and without his lower jaw.

Update on Podenco Spirit 21 10 2018 - The journey THAT SAVED SPIRIT'S LIFE

Two years of struggle, of love, but above all of survival, Of making possible the impossible and of not admitting, even for a second, an ending other than this one.

A journey in which we traveled many kilometers to bring back our hearts full of love and compassion: full of gratitude for all your efforts, which made it possible for Spirit to be treated in the best hospital in Spain.

Today Spirit lives with Lucia in the Sanctuary where he has found his family: everything we had promised him and that finally, thanks to your help, we have been able to give him.

Podenco Ricardo - from a hard life in Spain to a comfortable home in Italy

Another moving story from the world of Podenco Friends. Bev Farmer tells the story of Ricardo.

'21 10 2017

Ricardo arrived yesterday and we took him to our vet. The first round of blood tests that have come in are good and we wait for more detailed lab reports which will be here next week... This just could be a case of neglect and Ricardo is suffering from the effects of malnutrition. He his 30% below his normal body weight. Under his coat he is skin and bone with a number of pressure sores. His lungs and heart sound good so the laboured breathing could be due to stress or he is just exhausted and his body is depleted.

Next week we will return to our vet with him for xrays and a ultrasound just to make sure there is no other reason for him been in such a terrible condition. He has had a bath as he smelt like rancid cheese and now smells a bit sweeter. His DOB declared in his passport is 5th September 2005 which makes him 12 years old but still he should not have ended his final days in a perrera. Ricardo is a real gentleman I bet he has some stories to tell.

Update 22 10 2018.

Podenco Rene finds his forever family

You may remember earlier in the year I posted an appeal for a forever home for Podenco Rene, who sounded the perfect hound. Well, good news, his forever home has been found. Here is the update from Polly Mathewson.

'Happy, happy, happy news for our sweet Rene podenco -

RENE HAS A FAMILY AT LONG LAST. It's been such a long wait for Rene to find his forever home with lots of false starts over several years since we saved this beautiful, cheeky, gentle soul from a terrifying fate in the pound in Spain: too often the tragic circumstances of this most abandoned and abused of breeds.

Happily Rene has been so well cared for and loved in his foster-kennels with Becky Reed and Allison Reid since then, all my heartfelt thanks to them for giving him such safety and fun with their other rescue dogs, and I know they will miss him a lot. But it is the best news that Rene will be moving to a family of his own this December when his forever Mum Deborah Ashton retires and she and Steve are going to give him the loveliest life imaginable: lots of walks in the Lake District, trips off in their new caravan (Rene fans know how he loves a road trip), a sofa to nestle on and a big garden, and above all so much love for this most affectionate of lads.

Podencos from Spain to Canada and forever homes

Mary Macdonald and 2 friends of GAPC of Canada travelled in May to Spain to visit a couple of refuges and to take back 3 podencos for forever homes. Here is her story.

'I went to Spain recently accompanied by 2 other GPAC volunteers, Rhonda Martins and her daughter Isabella. It was my first time being in Spain and a flight patron (flight buddy). We stayed a week volunteering at Podenco Friends, which was a very exciting and rewarding opportunity for me. I can’t express enough my gratitude and admiration for Bev and Warren who run Podenco Friends and all they do to help the dogs.

We flew back to Canada with 5 Podencos which were pre adopted, 3 from Podenco Friends and 2 from SOS Podenco Rescue. A couple of our adopters had offered to drive to Montreal to pick us up at the airport and drive us back home to Atlantic, Canada. This was a huge help when transporting the dogs and goes to show how dedicated our adopters are. When you adopt through GPAC, you are joining a family.

Here are some photos of our trip.'

Mary is back in Spain end of August to collect yet more podencos going to forever homes in Canada.

From Mairena perrera to a happy forever home - Podenca Selina

On my first trip to Spain in July 2007 with the French rescue association L'Europe des Levriers, we brought back to France 2 tripods, one a galgo and the other a podenca. It was the first time I had met tripod canines and I was very impressed how having 3 legs instead of 4 didn't hinder them from haring around and playing with the other hounds.

One of my readers, Diane, adopted a tripod from the hellhole that was Mairena perrera, a privately owned killing station where the dogs hardly received the basics of life. Here Diane writes about Podenca Selina.

'16th January 2014– I was looking at my Facebook notifications from ‘For the Love of Dogs and Cats’ (FLODAC) rescue group in Spain, and saw a horrific news video of a notorious perrera‘Mairena’ near Seville, taken on Christmas Day 2013, which had been discovered to have been in an appalling state – dogs with no food or water; no staff or vet attendance over the 2 week holiday; pens flooded with water, dogs paddling in their own excrement; tiny mothers trying to protect new born puppies; dead dogs. This same perrera had been described by Beryl Brennan in 2011 as ‘cold, wet and dirty, the dogs are starving’. It seemed nothing had changed. The film created a furore when it was shown on Spanish television.

From Lanzarote to Scotland with Podencos In Need Scotland

Tino Ramirez lives in Scotland, a far cry from Lanzarote, Canary Islands. Here Lorna tells his adoption story

'My husband and I had been talking about the possibility of getting a dog for some months through 2017, and always knew we would adopt a rescue dog. We knew we wanted a hound-type of dog and were thinking of a rescue greyhound or lurcher. At this point we had not even heard of the Podenco breed.

A friend who already has a rescue Podenco suggested going to the Podencos in Need Scotland (PINS) charity and rescuing a dog from Spain. When I researched the breed and realised the cruelty these dogs suffer in Spain, it was a no brainer and I contacted PINS to adopt a dog. Tino was being fostered in Edinburgh and came to visit us in our home first to see if he would be ok with our 3 cats, and introductions went well. He came to live with us at the end of September 2017.

He had been a stray in Lanzarote for over 2 years and unsurprisingly did struggle at first, particularly with men and with dogs he didn’t know. Watching him blossom over the last 4 months has been fabulous. He is brilliant with people and other dogs now, although does still have an issue with the letter box! He is also brilliant with our cats (so it is absolutely not true that sight-hounds cant live with cats!) and regularly sleeps on our bed with our boy cat Woody and with our older girl Venus on the sofa. Our lives have been changed hugely for the better, we love him to bits!'

Thank you for sharing your story of Tino, wishing you lots of years of fun with him.

Chained in a cave in Gran Canaria - used as a breeding machine!

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.

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

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.