What I did in our Lockdown

Welcome everyone, Glad you're still here.

We are now in Day 63/64 of Lockdown and one week in from having moved from Fase 0 to Fase 1 so we can at least meet friends, limited in number and maintaining Social Distancing but not much open yet, hope this might change next Monday.

What have we been up to? Well lets begin at the beginning.

Firstly literally just as total lockdown started, we were asked to take on some foster pups and a slightly older pup that was scared of everyone, The pups were bottle fed every 2/3 hours  so that was fun! Our local rescue ran a fundraiser to name them and they became Lewis, Santos and  Snoopy.

Once they got onto soaked food and the new poos had settled into something we could pick up rather than mop up, they became  very good and by 6 weeks all three had found new homes.

At the start we already had one faster pup called Cola but Marta from the Shelter took him and we swapped him for a young guy called Leo (They had called him Lion)

Now Leo had a problem, he was found with some litter mates, semi buried in the Olives and whilst his siblings were fine, Leo was so scared of everyone he either hid or snapped at the carers, hence the name. He was getting worse and as usual Casa Dunbar was requested to come to their assistance.

Never ones to turn down a challenge with a dog, Cola went and Leo arrived. Poor thing was terrified but we popped him in a huge cage but left the door open and our brood (of which later) wandered round and investigated him and generally sniffed at him so much until he came out to check out what
was going on, found the food and water and a soft bed from which to keep an eye on everything, especially the hoomans.

He found the top patio and discovered it wasn't scary, he found the sofa and discovered that at least Mrs D was nice and whilst he is very suspicious of me, he can be bribed with cheese, chorizo, chicken, biscuits, in fact anything edible and my fingers always are worth checking out for smells and nice tasting juices.

When the puppies became more mobile, it turned out that Leo was brilliant with them, he made it his mission to train them, teach them about outside and poo pads and play, he was wonderful and gentle with them. He is going to Germany eventually and we understand that a special trainer is going to work with him to get him more trusting of hoomans and hopefully make him more adoptable.

Right, let me introduce you to the permanent family,

At their head is Sophie, officially Sofia Diamond Princess, a small, Miniature Poodle, she may be the smallest but rules with a rod of iron, a proper abuela you might say, her word is law and all the family respect her. Her super power is the loudest snore in the house and that is saying something, we would never tell her she snores as she would be mortified but on full song we do have to up the TV volume !

Next in pecking order is Marty, so named because we aquired him just after we decided that Martos was going to be our home. He is also a small Miniature Poodle, of the type known as a Parti Poodle due to his black & White coat, his father had a beautiful Tuxedo Parti
colouring but Marty is a bit more random. After we lost Jasper our bigger poodle just before we moved to Spain, Marty decided he had to be the Alpha Male and Sophie lets him believe that he is boss.

Logically the next one would be Billy, Proper name Billy Cotton as he was a second wedding anniversary present to us both  in 2009 (Cotton is the material for 2nd wedding anniversary) but unfortunately a couple of weeks ago his his joint issues spread into his spine and he crossed the rainbow bridge. Billy was special to us, he was a rescue, as a Poodle, bought as a present for an elderly mother and brought back the next day as she couldn't cope, we turned up and were told he was a pure blood poodle, they had seen the mum and dad, he clearly wasn't nand still had incredible blue eyes so may be 4/5 weeks old at best, we took him home and decided to keep him ourselves. At under a year he qualified as a PAT Dog (Pets as Therapy) one of the youngest ever to do so and was always a proper gentleman, he will be missed.

Those are our English Dogs, since we came to Spain we help out at several rescue centres and the others all came from them.

First to come was Heidi, she arrived with a smaller Podenco type called Pixie but Pixie was adopted
very quickly. Heidi unfortunately is totally unadoptable, she had sever Leishmaniasis, which took a year of meds to get under control and is now manageable, however she was in a right state when she arrived, nearly hairless and scared of everything but particularly doors and loud noises. To get her through doors for the first few moths she lived in a harness and had to be physically liffted through but is now a bit better but they do have to be fully open, partly open and she really doesn't want to know. Loud noises, in Spain, land of perpetual fiestas, is a bit more of a problem, Fireworks and Thunder scare her rigid, we have Pet Remedy and a ThunderJacket and that helps but in the early days a loud bang would send her into a corner or onto the bed for 2 or three days until; we got it a bit more controlable.

Next to arrive was Tutu (Long name Tucci Two (but that's another story) Tutu was a rescue from down south a bit and her brothers are all much bigger but fortunately Tutu stayed tiny but is a wild child, she lives for tummy tickles and if you just say the word "Tummy" she will throw herself onto her back for attention. She has goggle eyes, mismatched ears and an undershot lower jaw with a tooth on the left that sticks out and we love her to bits. She has one of the curliest waggliest tails you have ever seen, especially if you talk to her.

Next was yet another rescue a tiny Dachund GSD cross we called Milly. Yes
GSD really is a German Shepherd, if you can imagine a GSD on short fat hairy legs. She got quite big but still thinks she is tiny, still trying to teach her to lie down the length of the bed ( A Super King Size mind you) rather than across it. Since we lost Billy, she is pretty much the only one wanting to go out of the house for walks, usually only to the bins at each end of our road, (50mtrs from front door your honour)

Milly has giant ears that hear eveything but when running they lay flat and can swivel through about 180 degrees, independently.


Last to arrive was Evita and possibly the oldest dog we have. A rescue some distance away put out a call for washing machines, we didn't have one but did have a surplus to requirement tumble dryer, when told of this they said yes please so off we trundled. Of course when we got there, there were a lot of dogs and there was this little old lady, a bit overweight and getting very upset at all the younger ones wanting to play, so of course we brought her home. She quite likes walks, gentle ones, but having a very small head, has to be in a harness as  collars just fall off her. She is a bit grumpy with the younger dogs but they soon learn to leave her alone as she likes to sleep a lot and if you say "bed", she is standing at the door wagging her tail to get down to the bedroom, so she can get under the quilt,


So, that's our family at the moment, Leo is wearing the cone of Shame as he had just had "The Operation" and as soon as Lockdown eases a bit more he will probably be off to Germany and the
puppy rescue /Foster will start all over again.

One last thing, Mrs D bought a Tassimo Coffee machine and may have gone a bit overboard on buying Coffee, I'm saying nothing.

Stay Home, Stay Safe and see you on the Flipside.