It never ceases to amaze me just how much maltreatment can be meted out on dogs, and yet they survive. And, once rescued from the horrors of their daily life, they can still offer love to the hand which saves them.
This is the story of Welo, an podenco, or Ibizan Hound. Virginie Labat, a volunteer with Passion Levriers, tells his story.
About the middle of August 2008 I received an email from Spain about Welo, a 14 year old Andaluz podenco. He was dying in the perrera (dogpound) of Los Barrios, Algeciras. He had been abandoned by his owner because of his age, too old to be wanted any more.
Los Barrios is one of the hundreds of perreras in Spain, they feed the dogs when they remember; and no vaccinations, no vets, nothing, they just leave them to die!
Welo is a very old podenco, no rescue association was interested in him, too weak, too ugly, too ill ...
I did not know what to do first ... I called my best friend Evelyne, who was on holiday and I told her about him. She said, 'take him out of that perrera and we will cure him and find a family in France to adopt him.
I immediately called Sonia (a Spanish volunteer), she was the one who told me about Welo, and told her to go and take him out of the perrera and take him to a vet clinic immediately. This all happened on a Sunday. Sonia said she would go the following day, Monday, but she couldn't borrow a car to get there. She borrowed a car on Tuesday, but the perrera was closed! She went back on the Wednesday, the perrera was open, and she was able to rescue him. He was very weak, he hadn't eaten for days.
Welo was examined by the vet - we had first thought his back was broken (from the photos) but it is arthritis. He stayed at the clinic for a week and a half, cared for, fed, with a love of tenderness from the vets. They could not believe someone was interested in Welo. They surely thought : those French are crazy!
As he was not vaccinated for rabies, he could not leave Spain straight away, so we found a dog kennel for him with Paul and April Carrier at their Alpha Dog School at Rota, near Cadiz. They went to Los Barrios for him and took him back to Cadiz. It was the first time anyone took him in their arms, giving him kisses (quite afraid, poor little one). Every day, they took him into the garden to walk a little but he was still very weak and needed a lot of rest.
The next problem was that our next rescue was from Guarena in Extramadura and Welo was in Cadiz, but could not travel by the usual MRW transport, so I emailed all my contacts in Spain with an SOS - who can help us get Welo from Cariz to Guarena?
Nieves and her friend volunteered to do it, so Welo travelled by car for 3 days before his final departure for France.
Fatima, a very good friend of Passion Levriers, took him home with her other 19 dogs (she owns a protectora in Guarena) to keep him until the time of our next rescue. She told me, 'Virginia, I hope he is not going to die during the rescue because he is very weak'. I explained that we would be taking him out of Spain in the next rescue and that Evelyne wanted to adopt him (she has already got 3 rescue Ibizan podencos).
And, finally, on 13th September, Welo arrived at the border in Irun with Fatima and the other hounds and dogs of Passion Levriers. He travelled 1000 kms more to his forever home with Evelyne in northern France. She took him to the vet: he is quite blind, bad arthritis, and has brain damage from 3 accidents. But the vet said he is not suffering, he can walk and move about quite well, wags his tail when he sees Evelyne and his family, he has got his own bed, his toys (because he loves toys!).
Sometimes he is very tired but walking is a pleasure for him, he is always ready to go for a walk, and each day he gets a little stronger.
We now know that his first owner was a hunter and always left him chained up on 50 cms. He could never move, 13 years of never moving. That is why he has no muscles. But with regular massage, he is moving better now.
Everyone involved in his rescue, and everyone who meets him says 'this podenco has a weak body but a very very strong will to live.
This is the story of Welo, an example of the amazing resilience of dogs, surviving against seemingly impossible odds.
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