This is why CAS exists and how it helps.

Nico & Elsa were the dogs of Lynn. Lynn was born in Australia, lived in Holland for a while, and moved to Spain a little over 2 years ago. She lived in a house in the campo near Velez Malaga. On the way to her house she passed an old Spanish house every day. There was a young dog, tied to a short chain the whole day without any shelter for sun or rain. So, one day she had enough! She went to the house, unchained the dog and took it with her. The dog she named Elsa, was about 6 months. A few weeks later when she went to the basura to throw away her rubbish, she heard a soft yelping in one of the containers. She looked in and saw a puppy of only a few days old. She climbed into the container and took the puppy home. The first thing she did was give the puppy (and herself) a good wash :-)

Some time ago, Lynn was diagnosed with breast cancer. After months of chemo therapy she planned to go back to Australia to finish her treatment. As she felt she was not fit enough to take proper care of her dogs, she asked CAS to re-home Elsa (2.5 years old) Nico (2 years old).

 

It is nearly impossible to re-home 2 large dogs together, so Nico and Elsa were separated and fostered by 2 different families in Spain, whilst waiting for a permanent home. Separating them was needed in order to prepare Nico for his new life. He was the younger of the two and was not used to making decisions on his own. He just followed his leader, Elsa.

A permanent home for Nico was found within a few weeks and he flew to Holland mid September. In the weeks at the foster home, waiting for his flight, Nico was taught the basic commands (sit, down, come, etc) in Dutch.

 

Nico is doing great, according to the feedback from his new family. He went with the children to school the first day after the holiday. The whole class came to greet him and scratch his belly. He loves the children and the children love him; running back after school to walk with Nico and play with him. For the moment, they don’t have much time for their human friends anymore.

 

A new home was found for Elsa a few weeks later, and she flew to Holland mid October. She has joined an English speaking household out there and the two boys made a Count Down Clock which ticked off the seconds until Elsa arrived at the airport.

She was fostered by Jane (editor of CAS E-News) & her husband, Brian.

They also had a Count Down Clock – but a sadder one that told them how little time they had left with this big bear of a dog. Putting her into a flight cage was difficult emotionally as well as physically (she’s 39 kilos!)

 

In Holland, Elsa was amazed to be confronted by something called “Stairs” in her new home – all her life had been spent in or around single storey homes!

A few lessons with Jennifer, Tim & the boys soon had her almost trotting up and down. The new family stayed in close touch with us whilst both families waited for Elsa to do her very first tiddle in Holland ! We all had to wait over 28 hours!

 

Epilogue: from the editor

After spending several weeks emailing back & forth with Jennifer- answering questions from her and, especially, the two boys; sending photographs of Elsa and describing her behaviour etc. – our two families became “E-mail Friends”.

We shared their joy when they collected Elsa from the airport and when her settling-in process was underway.

So, it was with horror that we read an email from her husband, Tim, telling us that Jennifer had been killed in a traffic accident!

Elsa has now become an even more important member of their family, giving back twice as much love as she receives.

 

Carpe diem!