Travel Tips

I've always been a cat lover; there have been cats in the family all through my childhood and when moving to Spain, my 12year old cat Mork (who is actually a girl) braved the indignity of being searched at Gatwick to board a BA flight with her mum (me) and head off on an adventure to Andalucia. She loves it here that is she did, until, in the space of a few months, I discovered my love of dogs!

Never had a dog; never wanted one. But the heartstrings got well and truly pulled moving to this rural part of northern Malaga. The Spaniards in and around this village are farmers, landowners and as such see dogs as another piece of equipment. They are not well treated or well fed and are often left for weeks on end with barrels of dry bread for food.

My involvement really started off in the form of an informal 'mobile biscuit kitchen'; I then found myself saving leftovers, buying cheap cuts and making up tasty dishes. And then Dolores the Dog came into my life and I loved her instantly. We were all sure she must have come from a circus; she had some great moves and a personality to match. She was a showgirl who was down on her luck and living on the street. Once the layers of grime were removed, she turned out to be quite a looker! She truly was the funniest dog ever. Sadly, whilst out visiting her public one day, she was killed by a car and her absence left a huge void.

Several months later, big responsibility hit when a couple of our 'regular diners' fell pregnant. One litter of 6, next one of 8. That?s a lot of mouths to feed. Suffice to say, with much care, fretting and formula mixing, all survived. My advice - never name them if you know they're going to have to be re-homed, its heartbreaking. As Fat Boy Slim, Tilly, Chunkers, Buddy, Elvis (he was a bugger) Lara, Rufus, Petal, Wolfy and all their siblings went off to new homes, my heart truly broke.

Well, I say all, Schubert and Spesh (short for Special coz he is) are now part of the family, along with Rudi, a 9 week old pup the size of a goat (the vet reckons he'll be a whopper) who was found thrown in one of the rubbish wheely bins in the village.

So am I a dog lover? You bet - I'm a woman who loves too much when it comes to dogs. But don't worry, I'm not gonna turn into one of those mad old bags who fills her house to the brim with all waifs and strays; Mork the Cat just wouldnt allow it!

On a more serious note.....

We have got together, a few of the English women in the village, to set up a fund to help the local animals in crisis. Our aim is to get a small piece of land, build some safe shelter and help those that need it most. So far, we've pooled our own resources to pay vet bills where needed, provided food and shelter to build animals strength and trust to enable us to re-home them. But our resources are limited. We are still haranguing locals (in our best Spanish of course) to let us have a small, out of the way piece of land we can use. We have lots of offers from the English lads in the community to build the shelters and now we're looking at how we can raise some funds. Ideas and support would be very much appreciated.

Frequently, very young pups and kittens are thrown from cars, dumped in bins or pregnant dogs are just abandoned without food or shelter. There are far worse cruelties too that I will not describe as the mental images are too distressing. There is no real RSPCA equivalent here and ignorance and tradition with regards to animals in Andalucia, make this region seem very backward.

There are groups here campaigning to make the government sit up and take notice - in the meantime, we just want to be able to do our bit locally and we need all the help we can get.