Spain update June 2025
Tuesday, the 3rd of June 2025.
Exactly 13 days after Sabine and Nensie left for Belgium, Casa Belgica expects Buffalo today who will take up his task as co-driver and will be picked up at the airport by Dirk this afternoon. A lot has happened in that short period, on Sunday the 29th of May regional manager Tasch & co organized their first successful motorcycle tour that tastes more and all guests in our garden have been adopted!! Only Blanqui, the scared, distant unapproachable white young lady who came here dilapidated, horribly abused and terribly scared, is still "homeless". Better this way because after overcoming a long period of extreme distrust, she still only trusts Dirk and myself. Anyway, she is already playing with her fellow residents, and I am allowed to cuddle her when I sit with the ladies. In return she nibbles my toes, kisses, puts her head in my neck, gives love squeezes, pulls my skirt and at times is exuberant and silly as befits a 1-year-old. However, if someone comes into the garden she crawls back into her shell and runs as far away from the intruder as possible, even if she knows them.
So, I am very worried about her future. If she were to fall into the wrong hands it would be over forever, I often say to Dirk, she would run away from people and waste away in a corner. My concern is so great that every time I start talking about it, I can't hold back my tears because it would be terrible if she ended up like this. Even though Yolanda offered to take her in I thought it was irresponsible. Not because she would not have been lovingly taken in and protected, on the contrary, but irresponsible because Yolanda has taken in so many dogs and now also has Ellen’s Merle with her and the two Italians, one of whom now has metastatic cancer and needs her care. So, I certainly didn't want to take advantage of Yolanda and Luc who are such good people. When I had her on the phone and thanked her for her offer, Dirk who had been following the conversation let the white young lady into our garden and shouted don't worry ladies, WE are going to adopt them come on Mimi, then I will be rid of her nagging!!! So, in a good 2 weeks’ time I was 2 galgos richer and Tito, our old galgo on 3 legs, 2 young concubines with a battered soul richer… I named the white young lady with the endless registration number in her ear Clothilde and because we must go to Belgium she left today together with Astrid, Leopold, Maximus, Pompillio, Lola, LouLou Babalou and Clementine to the 5-star dog hotel. Titabah stays with me to watch over me while Dirk is in Belgium…
A big damper on the joy, this morning I had Annie on the phone who has been made life difficult for a few weeks by 2 adopters who adopted long before she was regional manager and now want to give up their dog. A 7-year-old female dog must go because the lady is unexpectedly pregnant, and the dog will be too much once the baby is there. The other female dog is 13 years old and must go after years and years of adoption because she no longer fits into the gentleman's schedule. While I was on the phone with Annie I cried with frustration and Annie with me. How can people be so bad, I can't take it anymore. I called HRC and on Saturday Annie will bring them, and they will be taken in by Christel. May the gods protect HRC and Christel because it is not all yet. In a few weeks there will be 2 more female dogs of 4 and 8 waiting for adoption because of divorcing owners. Before that happens, there will be many more who will be hit by the holiday monster… People, it is incomprehensible… It makes me sick, discouraged and above all sad, but no less combative for that.
Anyway, around 13:30h Dirk leaves for the airport to pick up his co-driver. An hour and a half later the men are home and start their obligatory task. The van is meticulously cleaned and polished as always and then the boxes with soft double Nancy Q pee towels are prepared for the travelers. While the men are busy, I sit down at the PC to make my update “a jour”. If everything meets the set standards it is time for the traditional “lucky aperitif” followed by my spicy rice dish. Just to keep the men a bit sharp… The next day the garden gets its umpteenth turn, the last leaf is swept away, and everything is hosed down for the umpteenth time. Then the take-out for the pigeons and wild birds that come from far and wide to eat and drink is filled to the brim with mixed grain, and finally everything is prepared for the six or seven street cats that have been regular guests for more than a year and a half who come to eat and sleep in Casa Belgica. After Dirk has explained everything to me for the umpteenth time and I have confirmed that everything will be fine, sigh…, the day is over, and we can sit down at the table and then go to sleep because tomorrow we must get up early.
Thursday the 5th of June 2025
At 7:00h it is already full activity. The dogs in the garden and Titabah know perfectly well that something is about to happen. When Dirk puts the van on the terrace to let Marie-C drive in with the lucky ones, the floodgates open and the 4 ladies in the garden bark extensively to show that they are ready. Both the old Luna for Marianne, Mara for Myriam, the black Nacha and Estrella who have all been adopted make themselves heard and squeak with excitement. In the meantime, I must wipe away another tear because they have been with us for so long and... Not much later Marie-C arrives with the other 11 chosen ones who are all loaded and ready to travel after fifteen minutes. It may not be financially responsible to make that long, expensive trip with so few passengers, but otherwise the dogs and the adopters would have to wait until September because we can’t go on the road with the masses of holidaymakers during the holidays and can’t risk ending up in endless traffic jams with the dogs on board. At 9:15h everyone is loaded and after a final warning from Dirk that I must be careful and put on my SOS medal in case something happens etc. etc. and then almost the same advice from Dirk Buffalo, my husband drives backwards, Dirk B closes the gate, and they leave. I’m left with Titabah who is whining to the whole neighbourhood because she’s not allowed to come along… Fortunately, I didn’t know yet what was in store for me. Anyway, I was left behind with my bedmate Titabah who had to protect me from all disaster and a few workers who had to waterproof the wall and who came often in the days that followed… The next day, to my great misery, the electricity and the PCs, the TV and everything else went out, so I had to call Dirk who had arrived during the night and had just returned home from Hof Rosa Canina where he had given his beloved van a bath. He almost had a fit when he heard about the misfortune and the misery and made me perform daredevil stunts to push the fuses against the ceiling back in. Then I had to look for one behind the heavy desks (which I first had to move and leave) among the fifty or so winding cables and plug it into another socket and so on and so forth. I almost died of stress because Dirk had no understanding of the fact that I understand O, OOOO about these things and had previously not found the cable etc. I felt so miserable that I considered for a second to press my SOS button… Anyway, I was left with a blue hand and a sore back that would not continue from struggling with the desks and SOS button, TINGING and WHISTLING eardrums from Dirk’s “noisy, hmm...” guidelines… Anyway, Saturday the adoption day ended well after a heavy rain shower, the dogs were picked up by their owners, Luc from Yolanda who was co-driver for the occasion arrived safely in De Pinte, after a short night they left the next day at 5:00h and arrived at Casa Belgica at 22:00h where we stayed until after midnight telling them about the adventures that had happened to me…
