Spain update 18 February 2025
Tuesday the 18th of February 2025
After Hyppolythe's last visit to Dr. De Frutos and X number of blood tests that showed that he suffered from Anaplasma and he had been taking loads of heavy medication for weeks, he was tested again and there was a slight improvement. Unfortunately, after the slight improvement, his condition deteriorated again, and he did not want to eat much or at all for the past week. He does not even touch his breakfast in the morning with me alone in the kitchen, which he used to enjoy so much. So, I made an appointment with Dr. De Frutos for today where we are expected to be there this morning at 9:00h with 3 patients. Hyppolythe for blood and other tests, Titabah for a check of her hind leg and the galgo female who was found abandoned somewhere in the field this week for sterilization, because she is suspected to be pregnant. As usual Loulou travels along as moral support. Anyway, if we want to be on time, it means that we must leave at 8:00h at the latest so I hope Marie-Carmen will be there in time with the galgo lady. We are waiting in the van in our street for about 10 minutes when Dirk gets excited and starts to look out. Luckily not for long because a minute later she is there with the dog. One glance is enough to see that she is a milked dry breeding female, she is dark brindle, fine and small and apathetic. As if nothing cares anymore, what will come must come her whole attitude says… My heart breaks, poor dog.
On the way to Talavera the rising sun colors the white morning clouds in the sky pink and here on earth the first white blossoms are also given a delicate touch of pink as a gift… A beautiful scene that is rudely interrupted when I see off-road vehicles, read hunters, standing in the fields. The “die hard” continue until the bitter end which is fortunately near because the hunting season is almost over. Again, fortunately because I think that there has been as much shooting and as many casualties as in war zones. After the hunt there will be even more casualties, about 50,000 annually! Yes, you read that right, 50,000! One of them is in the van. When we arrive in busy Talavera it is just before 9:00h and rush hour which is also made more difficult by pedestrians who cross the road without looking with their iPhone in their hands. It gives me the creeps and I am not the only one... Luckily, we can park in the dead-end street behind the clinic and with our three patients we must cross the alley before we get there. As soon as we open the glass door, I sigh at Dirk that we are not the first ones. While we wait for Dr. De Frutos, the "secretary" fills in the document for the operation and asks for the dog's name as usual. Because last year it was with the letter “I’ it is now with the ‘J’ and I let her write down Joséphine. The first ‘J’ of the year, I wonder how many more will follow. After about five minutes Dr. De Frutos enters and his wife a little later. A fact that makes me hope that it will go quickly. Indeed, Joséphine is immediately taken to the operating room, Titabah must parade outside while the doctor watches closely, nods approvingly and goes back inside satisfied. We follow and go to wait in the now half-full waiting room for Teresa who will evaluate Hippolyte’s blood tests when they are ready.
An hour later we are called in and receive bad news, his values that were already so bad have deteriorated even more after all the medication he has taken. There are underlying problems that are increasing because his weakened body can no longer defend itself. We are devastated because despite everything, the person who sees it is blind in these matters. You know it but you do not want to know and do not want to see the deterioration. He has been with us for nine years and is 13 to 14 years old. The medication cannot be repeated because that would be harmful to his organs. While I suppress my tears, we decide together to let him go and I say to Teresa "He has had a very happy life, and we want him to die happily" he must not suffer unnecessarily. So, while tears are running down my cheeks, I say goodbye to Hyppolythe while he gets his injection and dies within a few seconds in Dirk's arms. Teresa leaves us alone with him and during our tête à tête Dirk and I wish him a safe journey to heaven where Pistorius and all his other friends will be waiting for him when he arrives. We know it is a fable, but it is a fable that we will need to comfort us. When he is cremated individually, he will come home and be placed with his many friends. We will miss you Hyppolyte and Tito your big friend on 3 legs who is the last of the many galgos we have had will miss you too. While we drive to Calypo without Hyppolythe but with Titabah, LouLou-Babalou and Joséphine I think of the thousands of storks that flew over yesterday on their way back from Africa. Hyppolythe was also lying on his lounger in the garden looking at the sky not knowing that it was the last time he would see and hear this great natural phenomenon because the storks announce themselves high in the sky from miles away. Maybe a sign that the next day he would leave beyond the storks to dog heaven …
Tuesday the 25th of February 2025
It has been a week since we said goodbye to Hyppolythe, a week in which Joséphine recovered from her sterilization in Casa Belgica and tried without much success to comfort Tito who missed his long-time companion very much. He was not alone by the way; out of habit we even regularly asked each other "where is Hyppolythe" and only then realized that he had left forever. After all those years he was part of our family it was difficult to get used to, it would take time. In any case, the past week was not easy, but we still have Joséphine under our care and that will probably remain so until we leave for Belgium because in the meantime she already feels completely at home, sigh. After a week on the veranda, she was lying in a donut next to Tito in the kitchen last night, finally... She was rewarded for her patience because he was lying with his head next to her. Oh, she is so sweet and well-behaved and very clean and very discreet and soft and friendly and, and...
Finally, as for her personality and virtues and dark gray brindle coat, superlatives fall short to describe her, so we decided to take her to Belgium. Dirk is going to take a picture for the adoption site in the hope that she can charm someone, we keep our fingers crossed… So hopefully someone who has fallen for her charms will send an adoption application. Although an application is not always a certainty because even after I have spoken to candidates, a home visit has been planned and the dog is reserved on the site, some dare to cancel with the most unbelievable excuses. Disrespectful towards us and especially towards the dog who may have missed his true adoption because he is reserved.
Monday, the 3rd of March 2025
Last week we were enriched with 2 more returnees who are now being evaluated at Hof Rosa Canina. One is back because after a year and a half of adoption she turned out to be unmanageable and was going to be euthanized!! Fortunately, we were able to prevent that with the necessary pressure and the lady is now safe with us. A second lady was returned after half a year of adoption because once she was in the garden she did not want to go inside and barked incessantly at the annoyance of the neighbors. Another lady whose adopter is terminal is under supervision and will return when the lady can no longer stay at home. Fortunately, we were able to find out in extremis that the dog was offered on FB by helpful "acquaintances" without our knowledge!!! Helpful friends who knew very well that the dog belonged to GINB had interfered in the case and had written on FB that there was no "safety net" for her!!! Shame on them, how dare they. In any case, they had found a family in the Netherlands who would look to see if the dog was a good fit. When one of the ladies heard that I had vetoed her and called me, the conversation quickly degenerated into a “Trumpian” insulting discussion. Once again, I was told to be the worst person and that I had no heart and no conscience, etc. It was all very tiring and not very civilized…
And then to know that not a month goes by, without me getting a call from people who have adopted a galgo from somewhere in Spain that has either “destroyed” their house or broken the bench or is sick or scared or bites etc… Despite this, the organization does not want to take the dog back or they bring him back to Spain!! If we want to help. It even goes so far that Belgians who adopt from an organization in the Netherlands, which has recently been banned from exporting galgos to Belgium, call us to ask if we would like to pick up the dog, of which we do not know whether he is healthy and in order, and bring him to Belgium. The world upside down!!
