There were a few special guests at the first Poitou area fundraising event today. Eight of them had made the journey from Madrid in the last 24 hours and five of them were only 10 weeks old.
Joanna Simm had driven up from the Aude on Saturday, and David and Fran from the Dordogne braved the weather to stopover in their caravan, complete with their 2 dogs.
There's always a hiccup, of course, and in heating up the soup on the Baby Belling, the power fused twice, but kind host Steve Blake, armed with torch, sorted it all out! Barman Alan was busy, hardly having chance to grab a plateful of lunch - but then, he did volunteer to collect the ticket money too.
The superb selection of hot and cold food provided by our stalwart team of volunteers would have done justice to a 4-star restaurant, and the wonderful selection of raffle prizes persuaded everyone to dig in their pockets to buy some winning tickets.
The stars of the day were the galgos and podencos, making their appearance after coffee. Whilst all the dogs enjoyed the fuss and attention, it was the puppies who stole everyone's hearts.
We raised the princely sum of 1,615 euros, which L'Europe des Levriers president Beatrice Monnet accepted with tears in her eyes.
She professed herself absolutely overwhelmed and very impressed with the efforts of our team, and feels honoured that we all care so much to want to help the association with their work to improve life for the Spanish galgos, especially since no one took out money for expenses.
I'm happy to report that Jazmin has found her permanent family, and Joanna headed back to the Aude with Blanquita (she's being adopted by English couple there) and 2 puppies in the back of her car which she's fostering.
In fact, it seems strangely quiet in the house this evening, without the boisterous Blanquita, and Jazmin snoozing on the sofa. Can't wait for the next foster dog to arrive!
We all had a great deal of fun planning and preparing for the lunch, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and said we must do it all over again next year! Great news for the galgos.
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