Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Our Final Day at Scooby

Well it is our final day at Scooby. The day has been bitter sweet. All of us cried today. Thank goodness not at the same time. The girls girls cleaned the quarantine area, Gayle did her medication round and I ran into town and did all kinds of other things that I don´t remember.

All the dogs are together in a large gated area.


They were all given baths today. The pictures below are of Paula and Gayle giving Trude a bath and one of her after her bath. She is a beautiful blue and white galgo. Trude will be going to Forever Home Greyhounds where she will receive medical attention for her spine.



On the other side of the compound Claire, Julie, Amy, and Ralf washed the remainder of the dogs. The pictures below are of Claire and Ralf washing Rafia who has been adopted in Washington State.



Tonight we are going out to dinner with Fermin, Sandra and some of the Dutch volunteers.

I probably won´t blog again until we arrive home. Stay tuned for our adventure home!

Love,
Amy, Claire, Diane, Gayle, Julie and Paula

Monday, September 28, 2009

Another day in the neighborhood

Paula and I left for the US Embassy around 8:45 this morning. We got lost inside Madrid, so with 25 minutes left to spare, we tracked down a taxi driver to lead us to the embassy. We arrived 10 minutes before they closed. I dropped Paula at the door and began circluing until I found a parking spot.

We finished at the embassy at 1:30 and headed back to Scooby. We stopped briefly for lunch and arrived back at Scooby at 4:30. Paula began working with the girls and I worked with Fermin on the animals we are bringing home.

Tonight we will be laying low, eating baked potatoes with butter, cheese and salsa (yum!). I believe we will have lost weight by the time we arrive home.

Claire is very sick today. She drank some of the water without thinking.

Tomorrow evening we will have dinner with Fermin and Sandra.

Love,
Diane, Paula, Amy, Claire, Julie and Gayle

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Another beautiful day in Spain

We have been quite busy at the shelter. Last night we stayed up very late just talking and laughing. We had a sleep over with a beautiful spaniel-setter mix we would love to bring home.

She is one very, very sweet dog.

We went out for pizza last night and had a wonderful time. We came home and talked and laughed until 3 in the morning. I am so happy with the group of volunteers that joined me on this trip. Everyone is wonderful and we are enjoying each other. It is really a great blend of personalities and cultures. Every night has been like a big pajama party.



Today, we are here alone. The Dutch volunteers have gone to the mountains for the day. Fermin is at a family meeting so we are here with Christiana from Germany who is taking pictures for the adoption pages (www.scoobymedina.com).

Here are pictures of the galgo puppies coming home with us. The black and white is standing over the fawn. They absolutely love one another and are always snuggled together in a little ball. They are just darling little creatures.





Two of the mixed breed pups that were to come home with us are to large to carry on. So in their place are these two sweet creatures. They have quite the personality so they should be a joy on the plane (ha!). I think I will delegate their watch to Julie and Amy ;-)



Well the girls are all out bathing our dogs so I think it is time for me to go help!

Tomorrow I am taking Paula to Madrid to get her passport! Wish us luck.

Hugs,
Diane

Saturday, September 26, 2009

We made it but it wasn´t easy

We are here and we all had a good nights sleep. We arrived at the Madrid airport at 9:30 on Friday morning. We never left until 3 PM. Here is an account of what happened.

The flight was great and very smooth. Some of us slept and some stayed up through the entire flight. We arrived in Madrid and got through customs without a hitch, we picked up luggage and crates and headed to the rental car counter. This is where our day went to hell! Paula and I did all the necessary paperwork and we headed out to the cars. As we were loading everything into the cars, Paula noticed her purse was missing and Gayle was missing her laptop. Paula and Gayle headed back to the airport to see if they could locate the missing items. They had to report everything to the police.

Paula´s purse contained her passport, credit card, gps, wallet, etc. My the time Paula and Gayle finished filing a police report it was 3 PM and we were headed to the US Embassy in Madrid. We arrived at the Embassy and there was no place to park. At this point, we lost Julie and Paula and got lost ourselves trying to get back to the Embassy. We finally found a nice taxi driver that we paid to get us back to the Embassy in hopes of meeting up with Julie and Paula. When we arrived at the Embassy, Julie and Paula were no where to be found. We had no choice but to head to Scooby.

Thank goodness Gayle had the Medina Guide that contained instructions to get to Scooby. We had a manual transmission bus and I was the only one able to drive. It was quite nerve wracking because I was tired and found myself drifting. We finally pulled over so I could get something to eat and drive (Powerade and a snicker´s bar). We arrived at Scooby at approximately 7:00 PM. Met some volunteers and played with some dogs. There was also a surprise for me; Christiane from Germany was at Scooby. Christiane is in charge of the virtual adoptions for Germany and the Dutch countries. She also takes pictures for the adoption pages and the virtual adoption web pages. We had never met, only communicated through Skype, email and phone. It was wonderful to finally meet her and to be able to spend some time with her.

Although it was joyous to meet Christiane, our nerves were still very rattled because we left Paula and Julie behind in Madrid. We decided to take care of stress by going to the grocery store and shopping for FOOD, BEER AND WINE. When we arrived back at the shelter at 9:30, we were greeted by Paula and Julie. It was a wonderful, joyous reunion.

We went to our dorm, prepared our beds, ate, drank and laughed away our day until 12:30 AM. Fermin stopped by to visit us and welcome us all to Scooby.

We awoke at 8:30 AM and started working. Everyone has their jobs and they are all working very hard. There is so much to do and it is very hot here.

I will try to post some pictures tonight.

Love to everyone,
Diane, Paula, Gayle, Claire, Julia, Amy

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

1 day left

Well everyone is packed and anticipating our flights. The majority of us will be leaving from Philadelphia tomorrow. We head to Atlanta where we hook up with 2 more volunteers and then off to Madrid.

Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers.

Next stop: Medina del Campo and the Scooby shelter.

Hugs to all,
Diane

Sunday, September 20, 2009

4 days and couning

The stress is building up. Too much to do and not enough time. Today will be packing day! Medications have arrived; they will be divided up between 2 small shelters in Spain (Apanot and Las Nieves). We are delivering these for GRIN (Galgo Rescue International). Collars, leashes and coats have arrived from many individuals to take to the Scooby shelter. And thanks to many wonderful people, financial donations have arrived to help bring the dogs home and take over all these wonderful supplies.

We will be coming home with 12 dogs. 2 will be going to Los Angeles; 5 to South Bend, Indiana; 1 to Ohio; 1 to Virginia; 3 to New York State. Out of these 12 dogs, 6 are puppies. Three of the pups are only 9 pounds and will travel with us in the cabin.

Well it's time to get to work. More later.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

2 weeks and counting

Well it is only 2 weeks away and I will be leaving for Spain. This past weekend I picked up 2 airline kennels from Greyhound Angels. They are being stored at my sister's so I don't have to transport them from Virginia to Philadelpia. The crates are all nice and clean for some of the dogs coming home to the US.

Goods (coats, collars, leads) are coming in from various donors. We have even received some financial donations. Thanks to all of you.

I should know today what dogs will be coming home to the US.