Estrella, saved from the Jaen perrera, happy in a French home

Readers may remember Estrella, the podenca who shared a death cell at the Jaen perrera with 3 galgos. At 8 years old, she had been taken there by her owner, as he no longer had a use for her. The three galgos were rescued, but the podenca was left behind. She was obviously intended to leave as well, as she had a blood test showing she had ehrlichia, but somehow she got overlooked.

Two weeks later she was still there, discovered, and rescued. L'Europe des Levriers arranged for her to travel in the rescue at the beginning of February. Estrella came out in the van with me, and became my foster dog. She was skinny, not surprising as this is one of the symptoms of ehrlichia, and unfortunately she had not been put on medication for it.

I took her to my vet for examination, antibiotics were immediately started for the ehrlichia, plus a vitamin supplement, and a diet of special plan croquettes and fresh chicken.

She weight just 10 kilos when I brought her home but, with 4 small meals every day, she had put on 2 kilos in 3 weeks.

The poor podenca had obviously been used as a breeding machine from the size of her teats, but she was not fearful of men - unusual in most of the dogs we bring out of Spain. Gradually her personality blossomed, she loved walking in the meadows with our other dogs, and had started to scamper and bound around the courtyard, obviously joyful at finding life could be fun, if you lived in the right place.

One of my GN readers had fallen in love with Estrella and her sad story and so, after much toing and froing of emails full of information and photos, Frances and Ross were accepted to adopt Estrella. Since they had already been accepted by another association as suitable adoptants for 2 horses, and Frances rescues chickens and rabbits from the market, to save them from death and the table!, they sounded like the ideal people to offer this deserving podenca a loving home.

So she is now settling into her forever home in France, cuddling up on the sofa with Frances and their two other rescued dogs, and walking the meadows with Ross.

Would that all galgos and podencos who have suffered a life of misery and cruelty at the hands of the galgueros could find such a wonderful home.