What our dogs do for us

The decision to adopt a dog will ultimately change our lives in ways that we could not imagine. They give us all the love that sometimes we crave, the joy that sometimes life cruelly took away and the courage to try many new experiences opening our hearts and minds. Sometimes they go one-step further as these adopters and their dogs show: 

When Jenny’s dog died and she retired she found that she had lots of time in her hands so the idea of getting a dog quickly took shape. She heard of the terrible situation that dogs in Spain endured and she approached Spanish Stray Dogs to adopt a dog. Soon, one dog became two and today she is the mum of Snoop and Berry, two Spanish strays.

Jenny was anxious to ensure that both dogs had friend dogs to play and walk with.  This is how Jenny decided to set up a Facebook group asking local people to bring their dogs and join Berry and Snoopy for walks. She expected just a couple of people. However, she soon was flooded with requests to join the group and today it counts more than 400 members, making it one of the most successful groups in the area.  They all meet regularly to walk the dogs and managing this group is a highlight in Jenny’s life.

Jenny says:

I had never done something like this before and I was so pleasantly surprised. We now walk 20 dogs at the same time most of the time.  The dogs do not stop playing and running with their friends and I now have 400 friends. When I adopted both dogs I promised them that they would be free to run and enjoy themselves and never be in a cage again and I am so pleased that I kept this promise and they have a life full of games, and lots of friends.  

I met so many people from different walks of life and learnt so much.  Many walkers are very experienced and they have helped me solve some minor issues with Berry and Snoop. I now feel so much more confident.  We also do doggy parties. In Christmas, we had a party with 30 dogs and so we decided to repeat this experience with a picnic this summer. We all had a great time.

Luckily Snoop and Berry good nature rubs on all the dogs, who are very well behaved and never had a quarrel. 

When Jenny is sick, she no longer has to worry about the dogs not getting enough exercise which is wonderful.

When my rheumatoid arthritis stops me being active, I do not have to worry, I have an army of walkers that happily take Berry and Snoop for their walks. These dogs have changed my life in so many ways and I am having lots of fun

Jim and Gywneth did not know which breed of dog they wanted but with encouragement from a friend and volunteer at the pound, they fell in love with Mauri. They were so anxious to get him that they drove all the way to the West of France to meet him and bring him to the UK. 

We’ve now had him for almost a year and we can’t quite believe how happy he has made us. He has his bed in our bedroom, goes to bed when we do and wakes up in the morning with the alarm clock. The icing on the cake is that all of our friends love him and he’s had several overnighters with friends. When we are invited out to dinner the invitation always includes Mauri, he also loves going out for a walk which includes a coffee stop”. The added benefit is that all the walks and exercise have helped Jim lose weight, and he was delighted about it. He really hopes that his new level of fitness will be maintained thanks to this little bundle of energy.

Happier and healthier. We think this is a great result.

This is not a surprise. The latest medical and nutritional research shows that dogs increase the diversity of microbe species living in our bodies. By living with a dog we exchange a lot of our microbes with them, which may increase our capacity to fight off illness and may even help us lose weight.

We have seen that dogs can bring our social life alive, makes us healthier but what about safer?

Aedan and Jennifer had no long adopted a Spanish stray Pipo, when he showed them their worth by scaring off a burglar from their home in the middle of the night ensuring that the family and their belongings were safe.

Aeda says:

This playful, usually quiet (almost silent) little hero managed to bark his head off nonstop in the middle of the night. In doing so, he successfully frightened off a burglar who had made their way into our flat and started amassing a collection of our things on the bed in the spare room whilst we slept. Nothing was taken and everyone is ok… Thank you, Pipo!

This is the work of a hero and their adopters will be forever thankful that Pipo protected his new family with so much enthusiasm.

We, at Spanish Stray Dogs UK know that the pounds in Spain are full of heroes waiting for us to see what they can do for us. For us, they are all heroes and everyone should have a hero in their life.

Blog written by Victoria Vazquez (SSDUK VP)