Well, we're here and the dogs love it but the ferry journey is not one I would put the pups through again. I know it is the only way the ferry company can transport the dogs, to them they are cargo but it broke my heart to see where my beloved pups were going to spend 19 hours. In future, if I need to take them home, I will fly them home - just because the time element is so much shorter. As you will know I have been keeping a record of our move and the pups on my blogs and have loved posting photos, but I wouldn't take a photo of the pups in the kennel as I didn't want a reminder.
Don't get me wrong, the area was clean and as practical as it could be with the ability to walk the dogs on the deck but the area they are kept is stark. There are metal kennels (cages) small ones on top of larger ones which you need to take any bedding, toys, food, treats etc. Water is available and there are food/water dishes attached to the cage door but it just looks as if they are in prison. A number of the dogs were unhappy, and there was so much noise from them all barking that my 2 just looked so small and unhappy. I had paid for 2 small kennels but one was big enough for them both so we put them together for the trip and this helped. They were so scared to start with that they wouldn't even go for a walk. At least we were able to spend asmuch time with them as we wanted but it wasn't the nicest place to spend sitting with them.
There was all sorts of chaos through the journey, a large retriever managed to break the door off his cage, a lurcher got stuck halfway through the cage bars and when we managed to free him we moved him to a smaller kennel and 2 chihuaha's, whose owner had booked them into a large cage obviously thinking they were being good to the dogs by giving them more room, were found running freely around the place as they could walk through the cage bars.
Some dogs did settle but they tended to be the much older dogs and these dogs seemed to be veterans of the journey, but it 's not something I want to repeat. Neil & I had a lovely cabin and we would have been so much happier to have had the dogs with us in the cabin. Needless to say we were up early in the morning to go and get them out of the cage and sit with them until we were ready to leave the ferry.
Fortunately, both dogs forgave us and within an hour of leaving the ferry port were back to their normal selves. They travelled very well through Spain and have settled at the villa fabulously, they love being outside in the warmth.