My 20th Visit to Scooby in Spain — Meeting a Special Little Black Dog
It has been almost two years since my last visit to Spain and Scooby. I’m way past due to update my blog with new adventures. Pardon my long pause. I’ve been lazy. But here we go! Better late than never.
In late April, 2022, my husband, Darrell, and I took another fantastic trip to Spain, Scooby and some other Spanish destinations.
Our first night, we stayed downtown in San Diego, close to the airport. It was a fun area, with lots of great restaurants and bars. But the road that the hotel was on was so busy and noisy, and with the anticipation of our trip, we didn’t sleep at all. We were up very early and caught a Lyft to get to our American flight to Philadelphia. We had all of the appropriate COVID paperwork done ahead of time. All went well. We arrived in Philadelphia on time and had a decent layover for our next leg to Madrid.
Darrell had an aisle seat and I was in the dreadful middle seat, which was not so bad with my flight partner to hug. We arrived early morning in Madrid and everything went smoothly to get us through immigration.
Madrid!
We took a cab to our hotel, but there was a lot of construction in the area, so the cab left us near Puerta del Soul We had a bit of trouble locating our Hotel Francisco 1, but once we did, we found it to be a delight. It was such a beautiful and well appointed place, and for a small fee, we got early checkin and a superior room with a huge balcony and super views. The hotel was in a prime area, with access to many restaurants and shops. We enjoyed two nights there.
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| View from our hotel patio |
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| View from our hotel patio |
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| View from our hotel patio |
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| View from our hotel patio |
The third day, we left early morning to take the fast train to Medina del Campo and Scooby. When we arrived at the Medina station, the very kind attendant called a cab for us, and we went to my favorite hotel there, the Reina Isabel.
The staff there is like family, and they greeted us warmly. They had never met my husband, so it was extra special. And their lovely daughter was working at the desk, which was another surprise. We had a larger, very nice, clean, comfortable, quiet room, with a fridge. Had time to freshen up, and then took a cab to Scooby.
Sometimes, it’s difficult to get a cab to get to or from Scooby. The very kind daughter always helped us with cabs. In fact, one day, Mother’s Day, she and her brother came to Scooby to give us a ride to the hotel, letting us know we are like family. I love them so much!
Back at Scooby
It’s always exciting to pull into the driveway at Scooby. Just before you enter the gates, Fermin’s dogs come to the front fence to greet you with tail wags. You hear all of the familiar sounds of the dogs barking.
We entered the gates and experienced all of those warm and familiar feelings of being back where you belong. Said our greetings to the staff and volunteer friends who were there. We met up with friends from Spain, the UK and Slovenia, After that, it was time to visit the animals.
There were many dogs of all sorts: galgos, podencos, mastins and mixed breeds. Each and every dog wants to meet and greet you. Tails are wagging, the dogs are gathering and jumping up on the fences and walls, hoping for your love and attention. It is such a wonderful feeling to be so wanted and welcome!
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| Scooby Galgos |
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| Scooby Galgos |
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| Scooby Dogs |
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| Scooby Galgo |
Each day, we got up, had a nice breakfast at the hotel, and took a cab to Scooby. We visited the local Dia grocery store for supplies and brought our lunches to the shelter. For dinner, we walked to the local restaurants in Medina.
On this visit, we mostly socialized with the dogs and did a bit of cleaning.
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| Scooby Galgos |
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| Darrell in Rita’s Paddock |
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| Galgos Priscilla and Sting (Henry) now living in CA |
A Special Little Black Dog
In Spring, 2021, Scooby posted photos of an extremely sad looking fuzzy mix black dog that they picked up from the streets of Zamora. She looked young, and soon delivered eight puppies when she was at the shelter. She appeared to have mange and was severely neglected. My heart went out to her and her puppies. I posted her photo, asking someone to adopt her. No one did.
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| Rita in her paddock at Scooby |
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| Rita was hard to catch at Scooby |
I asked a friend from Slovenia to check on her in Fall, 2021. She was still there with one of her puppies. She sent me photos. I wasn’t sure about adding her to our pack because she was extremely shy. When I visited the shelter in the Fall of 2021, she was still there. She was in a kennel with a mixed bunch of dogs of all sizes and doing so much better. I vowed that if no one adopted her by next visit in Spring, 2022, we would. No one did. So we did!
Before our Spring, 2022 trip, I convinced my husband that we should adopt her. Her name was Ranja, but I renamed her Rita, after my Mom. One of our primary goals during our visit was to socialize and get to know her. She was in a large paddock with several other mix dogs, at that time. We could barely catch her to pet her. So we went into her paddock and sat and waited for her to come to us. The third day, Darrell was able to grab her and we both were able to pet her.
Later, we learned from a volunteer vet that he took care of Rita and her puppies. All were adorable and adopted before they left the shelter. He treated all of them for skin conditions before they left.
We had Rita’s DNA tested. She’s a 21 different breed mix, most prominently German Shepherd, which you can’t see in her, except that she is a very good watch dog, and some of her puppies looked to be Shepherd. The others looked just like her.
We weren’t able to bring Rita home with us on that trip because of COVID and airline restrictions. Fortunately, our good friends at S.A.G..E. (Save A Galgo Espanol), were able to bring her to San Francisco, in June, 2022. We drove up to the Bay Area to get her.
Rita has been with us for over 1 1/2 years now. It took a while, but she has become relaxed and at home with us. She is loving and sweet. We are so happy to have her here! From a momma dog on the street who had eight beautiful puppies, that no one wanted and no one could touch, to our girlie girl who loves to be loved.
Animal rescue: this is what it’s all about!
Scooby Days
While we were there, I celebrated my 20th visit to Scooby, over the past 11 years. My friend, Melissa Beamish, from the UK was also there and celebrated her 11 year anniversary of animal rescue volunteer work. There was a small gathering of Scooby volunteers and staff to celebrate with pizza and snacks. It was such a nice get together, in the Scooby dorm.
We ended our visit with a last trip to Scooby to say our goodbyes and headed out very early morning for the Madrid airport. Next stop: Mallorca.
A Few Days in Mallorca
We wanted to do something special on this trip to celebrate getting through the pandemic, so we booked a four day trip to Mallorca. The plane trip from Madrid is only one hour, and the vacation was very inexpensive. When we arrived, we felt very James Bond to be there. The Island is much larger than imagined, and it has everything you would want. The people are warm and welcoming to tourists. In the area where we stayed, we discovered that most all of the tourists were from the UK. In fact, most of the restaurants, bars and entertainment cater to UK vacationers, making it easy to fit in and communicate.
We had booked an all-day tour to see the Island, but it didn’t work out. Cancelled and refunded, thankfully. So we mainly hung out in our area near the beach. There were plenty of good restaurants and a wonderful walkway along the beach where we visited various hotels, shops snd eateries. People watching was fun too.
We stayed at the ME Hotel in Magaluf on Mallorca. The package price was good, through Iberia Airlines, the hotel was well-appointed, as expected. Overall, we loved it, had an excellent time and would return.
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| Flying into Mallorca |
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| Our beach on Mallorca on a Cool Day |
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| Night View of Mallorca from our Room |
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| Our beach on Mallorca on a Hot Day |
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| Mallorca Sunset |
Back to Madrid
We returned to Madrid for two days before returning home. I booked us a very nice room at the Jardinis de Sabatini, near the Royal Palace. Another great place to stay, and close to so many fun things to see and do. We had fun exploring the area and immersing ourselves in the culture.
COVID tests were still required to fly, so we went to a local clinic for the tests, passed and traveled home. Flew through Charlotte on the way home. Feels like they can’t handle large international flights. Very tedious.
Finally made it home to our pets, who all did well with us being gone for over two weeks.
Thankful for another great adventure to visit Scooby and more, having Darrell with me, seeing all of the great staff and volunteer friends, being with Rita, and a fun few days on Mallorca.
Thank you for reading my blog. World Galgo Day is February 1st, where we remember the plight of the Spanish Galgo. Please consider a donation to Scooby via G.R.I.N. (Galgo Rescue International Network), http://www.galgorescue.org/, and please be sure to note that it’s for Scooby.
