Last Friday, that is to say two days ago, we started preparing the trip to take the dogs to Europe. I came to the shelter directly from my job, without even eating, to load them. The thing began not too good, because I hadn’t received the blood samples, so I called the lab and they told me that they were all negatives and that they could travel. We started loading, a bit in a hurry because they were to leave soon, since Aline in France was waiting for them before than she had other times, and we were delayed. In the end, between mixed dogs and galgos, we loaded 37 dogs in the van. We I drove the van out, I saw that a red light was on, but after seeing what it was, we saw it was nothing to be worried about and Maria and Ma José started the long road to Holland.

Around midnight Ma José called me to tell me they were worried because the van had done a strange thing, but as everything went on well, we didn’t attach any importance to it. They got to Bordeaux, downloaded five galgos and when they were going to begin the road to Orleans, the disaster occurred, the van didn’t start and weird fumes were coming out of it. Around 1.30am they called me to tell me about it and since then, the longest night began, my worst nightmare had become true. I had a stuck van with 32 of our dear dogs in it. We started making calls to the insurance, for them to send a breakdown van while me, at home, called them every once in a while to see how things were going. The van was definitely not working and they were going to be towed to a garage, where they would have to wait till the next day. I couldn’t sleep anymore, and around 7.30am I got up from bed and through my mobile phone I started alerting everyone. Before that Aline had called me not knowing what to do, so I sent her home till we knew something else.

In the meantime, they had contacted IVECO to see what could be done. IVECO contacted the service in Medina, to whom I’m very thankful, and they confirmed that we did all the service with them and that they guaranteed that we would pay the price. That was of great help. In the garage, they couldn’t find the problem. In the meantime I came to the shelter and woke up Jeff for him to go to Madrid to look for Catherine at the airport with my car, since she is coming for a long period of time to the shelter and had lots of luggage. The rescue operation was beginning. I called Sandra to alert her and for them to have a van ready to go look for the dogs if necessary. Once I discarded the idea of picking up a van myself and go fetch them, I called Virginia from Passion Levriers, whom I knew lived near there, to ask her for help. At the same time, she knew people from the shelter in Bordeaux, and at 10am she had obtained from them a free patio and vehicles to pick up the dogs. Thanks Virginia, you’ve been of great help. In the meantime Holland had a van ready to go look for them, everything was ready and we were only waiting for news from our van.

Around 9.30am, things were going really bad. Not only they couldn’t fix it, but it seemed the end of the van. But then the miracle occurred, and all of a sudden they began to see the light, it looked as if it could be fixed and so it was that at 11am, the van was fixed and they started the road to the north. I called Sandra and Virginia to tell them so and now we had another problem. Our wonderful drivers had been awake a long time and we had to keep them that way, so all of us called them all the time. Things were going ok, they got to Orleans and left two galgos there, which by the way, pissed and shit all over them. They got to the north of Paris and left another two. They got to Tournai and left two others and they got to Geleen, where they downloaded all the mixed breeds. From there, Jan took them to Sandra’s house to sleep and someone took the van to Resy’s house to unload the rest of them. I received a message from Ma José telling me they had arrived ok. It was 2.36pm and finally everything had come to an end. The longest night, the longest day had ended and I was able to fall asleep till this morning.

By the way, I was told I was a bit hysterical and I don’t know if it is true, the only thing I know is that I couldn’t stop, and that I walked circles around the shelter several times, walking as I was making phone calls. Maybe, but as I have already said, it was my worst nightmare, the responsibility of having those dogs in the van is very big, so today I saw in the mirror some new grey hairs.

Fermín

PS: thanks to everybody, we are a wonderful team, and especially thanks to Maria and Ma José. Girls, you’ve done a great job, remind me that as soon as I can I rise your salaries.