I adopted a Spanish Stray Dog – A love story

It seems right to write a blog on our Spanish Stray Dog, Diego, now that it is a year to the day he arrived in our lives.

We can’t say we choose him really, I think he chose us. I love all animals but hadn’t really considered getting a dog. We had cats and kids, we were all good. I follow a few animal rescue sites, and one night I was scrolling through Facebook and a sponsored link popped up and it was titled Cornwall Corner who was collaborating with Spanish Stray Dogs. When I clicked on it the most beautiful little dog I had ever seen was staring back at me. He captured my heart there and then and I just knew he was destined for me. I quickly messaged the charity and couldn’t believe the answer I got back, an old friend who I hadn’t seen in ages was his fosterer.

My husband was slightly mortified, he said  “ I wasn’t ready for a dog” which of course made me even more determined. That night I couldn’t get this dog out of my mind and I dreamt I was walking him to heel, he was perfectly trained and I was so happy. A few days later Matutano was round our house, meeting the kids and the cats and the husband! We all fell in love there and then ( of course!). He became our dog and we named him the suitable Spanish name, Diego.

Diego’s life had not been easy, he was taken into the pound by a farmer in Spain with 15 other dogs as they were hanging about and being according to him “pests”. He became very unhappy in the pound and the wonderful Spanish Stray Dogs charity volunteers made the decision to bring him out and over to England into foster. Here he had two wonderful foster homes before he found us.

Perfectly behaved and house trained he arrived as a little bag of nerves. He shook and cowered lots and his little tail was between his legs most days. To be honest, I am the crazy cat lady and I knew nothing about dogs, so with the help of the charity and lots and lots of googling I taught myself all I needed to know to help him. I decided on a very basic principle, I decided to trust my heart and I decided he just needed calm love at a very slow pace. We gave him space to sleep and relax, we spoke gently to him always and on walks we took our time with him, encouraging him and letting him sniff and taking it all in. It worked, slowly, slowly the shaking stopped, the tail lifted, he got to grips with my tall husband and he looked at us with love.

He has had a few adventures over the year, he has chewed through leads and to our horror escaped, by jumping a six-foot-high garden wall. We found him on our front doorstep waiting patiently to be let in.

This little Spanish hunting dog is so loved, by us, by all. He is always surrounded by children at school, they pet him gently and on the beach he goes to sit by people until they stroke him. I’m stopped 3 or 4 times a day, people saying what a lovely dog I have. He is very, very special. He seems to bring out a calmness in everyone, until he is let off the lead, then he runs faster than a greyhound, and the look of joy on his face, when he is in full pelt is something else.

He doesn’t play with toys yet, maybe he never will, but he did pick up a stick the other day and we cheered so loudly he quickly dropped it again. He has only snuggled into us once or twice, that will come, again with time. He has changed our lives. I walk so much every day, he comes everywhere with me, I have made so many local friends since I have had him and I also now volunteer for a dog rescue charity and am helping bring a lot of dogs over to England to give them a second chance.

What have the negatives been? there are some. My business has suffered, instead of working away in my office, I see that little doggy face and we are off, on another beach adventure! I am late for everything, one last walk, one last stroke before I go. I can’t leave the schoolyard on time as I always have a million kids wanting to say hi to Diego, then the ladies in the office want to come out and pet him. He is the cause of my missing classes, late for meetings with friends, and a severe lack of social media presence and catching up on emails for my work. Is he worth it? ABSOLUTELY!  would I do it all again ? in a second.

Thank you Spanish Stray Dogs for everything this year, the help, the free training, the advice, but most of all thank you for giving us the perfect dog, we can’t imagine life without him.

Written by Spanish Stray Dogs Adopter Jenny Ingerson Vitulli