More than 10 years ago I made a 4 hour trip that changed my life.
It started like with so many others, I had a husband, a child and a nice house.
So it was time to get a dog. I wanted a puppy, not too big since I was scared of dogs.
With a puppy, I hoped I would get over that fear.
But somehow we got distracted. A little message in a magazine spoke about the greyhounds in Spain that needed help. Pictures of beautiful creatures with broken legs that still showed trust and love for their new owners made us choose differently. We found a phone number and called Greyhounds in Nood Nederland.
Several weeks later we adopted Isa, our first Galgo Espagnol, she was dumped in Spain by her owner who had no use for her after the hunting season.
She taught me all about the beautiful character these dogs have, about their gentleness, about their preydrive, about their beauty, outside and inside and I was hooked. A few months later we adopted our second dog, Kit who introduced me to my other love, the greyhound. Kit was also adopted from Greyhounds in Nood Nederland and through her I learned about the Irish greyhounds. How the small females were raised in ireland and after their career as a racer over there, were sold to Spain for their last races in horrible conditions.
They both helped me over my fear for dogs.
A few months later I started as a volunteer for Greyhounds In Nood Nederland and I learned how mankind uses and abuses the breeds I love so much. I learned about greyhound racing all over the word, about hunting with sighthounds in Spain and soon I learned the hard lesson that the bad things I heard about even happened close to home.
Twice I got to visit Scooby in the North-West of Spain, the place most of my dogs came from. And PAWS-Patas, another shelter in Spain that is located on the South East part of Spain. All experiences I will never forget.
I witnessed how hard the people from both shelters work to save the lives of these dogs after their owners get rid of them and how much help is needed.
For 10 years I tried that by doing my volunteer work for GINN as a adoption representative, as a board member, by being a foster home and in my last year as the chairwoman.
But life can lead you in surprising directions.
Mine lead me to Pennsylvania, a long way from the Netherlands and GINN, which makes it really hard to still volunteer for them.
So that is why I am trying to find my own way in making a differences for these dogs.
If you want to learn more, please take a look at the different links that are posted.
Petra
Isa (galgo from Scooby)
Kit ( grey rescued from Mallorca where she run with a broken hock)
Fynn ( galgo left at Scooby, too sick to hunt)
Teddy (whippet adopted because his owner went into hospital and shelters thought he was too old)\
Tom ( Dutch greyhound that was to be euthanised since he wasn't good enough to race)
Paquita ( adopted from Scooby at 4 weeks old since her mom was too weak to feed her)
Cara ( white galgo, bad color for hunting and thrown over the fence at Scooby)
Johnny ( American greyhound, found as a stray in TX, from the scars it looks like he was used as a coyote hunter after a few years at the track)
Tex ( American greyhound, adopted after he raced intil he was almost 7)
