stray dogs Granada

On new years eve my boyfriend and i found a dog bolting down the road in La Zubia,on the outskirts of Granada city. She was completely freaked out (from fireworks) collarless and a bit on the thin side,so we took her in for the night.

Not knowing what to do with her the locals have all said that if we take her to a dog home in Granada she will be put down if nobody claims her.We are pretty sure she is stray but she looks alot like a border terrior.Since reading what Joanna wrote on the 'living with stray dogs in spain' forum i realised then maybe she was.

We have grown really attatched to her now and have decided that we want to take her back to the uk with us.We think this is a difficult expensive process and Zubia (named after the place) would have to stay in Spain for 6 months before she can leave.I have found it difficult to find any info about this on the internet,does anyone know of any good vets/or homes in Granada who would help us?

Please help Lucy

Lucy, hi,

Difficult this one! We too took in a stray and she is now an integral part of our pack of three!

We live in a small village about 40 kms to the southwest of Granada. Since we have no intention of returning to the UK the question of the legalities of a transfer for this third dog doesnt arise.

Our own vet is in Santa Fe; its a two man partnership and one of the guys speaks a little English.

If we have a problem with any of the dogs we carefully note symptoms etc and use babelfish for a translation service. This and a little Spanish is normally sufficient to get by.

By law, all animals must be vaccinated against rabies and the other doggy infections; also dogs and cats must be microchipped. When we had our pack at the vets last time our original two were due for annual booster injections + biennial rabies renewal shots and the stray needed  all the shots plus microchipping. All three also had worming tablets supplied. the bill for the visit came to 150Euros. Sounds a lot but in the UK it would have been double this figure. (This was when the exchange rate was about 1.3:1). We also paid 120 Euros to get the stray spayed as well because like a lot of street dogs she was in a state of near perpetual season and each session caused her to get a urinary tract infection.

My first reaction to your plight would be to find a local vet and see if she has been chipped; chances are she hasn't but she might just be a runaway and this will at least let you know whether she has an official owner! I doubt a vet would charge for this service. It only needs a quick scan witha handheld wand...

I notice you only have two posts on here so the pm service isnt available to you yet, but if you make a third post and want to talk further about this you could then pm me...

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Thanks Fox bat, we went to the vets in Granada and she has been chipped and the vet owner spoke to the owner who said they gave the dog to a friend. We are now waiting for the previous owner to contact the friend and get in touch with us,we got the feeling the owner didn't want anything to do with it.

This was yesterday and nobody has been in touch with the vet or us as yet.Our spanish isn't that great,as you said you get by-lots of guessing!

I'm a bit concerned as to the owners now,as we found her in not the best shape without name/address ...

Will let you know how it turns out and thanks for your help,imagine i will be back for more soon!

Thanks again

Lucy

Lucy,

Good luck with her.

These Spanish strays and runaways make wonderful pets for the Brits, who tend to feel sorry for them and of  course the dog reacts to that emotion and plays on it.

Most Brits out here permanently seem to adopt a local stray, usually to the amusement of the Spanish who generally tend to be a bit blind when it comes to stray animals.

it can be a bit of a trap though because we now tend to be the centre of attention in the village when there are new puppies around. At least once a month we have some young village kid come around with an armful of puppies...If it were possible we'd take them but ours is the smallest house in the village; we dont have a garden or outside patio so out pack of three have to be walked several times a day. generally we can let Sox, (the stray) out on her own and leave her to do her own thing, but  we couldnt do that for the other two.

One is a Greyhound, the other a Saluki and the hunting instinct is well developed in both. As we live in a farming community with lots of sheep and goats (and shepherds with rifles and shotguns), the risk is just too great. The dogs safety and that of the sheep/goats is most important.

We have an all weather Sports arena in the village which is totally enclosed so we take our lot up there and let them race and chase each other.

Good Luck with your rescue; if you need any advise or help just send a pm.

ive put a link here to a Residntial Kennels in Ventas de Huelma; they come highly recommended; I dont know what their charges are but the estate agent who sold us our house used to use this place regularly when she had to make trips back to the UK.

Anyway good luck...

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Don't want to put you off bringing your dog back to england, but we found a stray Ibizan Hound last summer, who is coming back to England in a couple of weeks, and the cost of kennels for 6 months, rabies jabs etc, and the flight back to England has been about £2500.  She is lovely though!

We are not resident in Spain  so 1600 euros was kennel fees and 800 euros flight back to Gatwick.