Many people seem eager to contribute to society and do ‘something good’, ‘give back’, or as our beloved millennial generation would call it, find our ‘purpose’ or deliver positive ‘impact’.
Anyway, whatever you call it, we all like to do a good deed. Even though there are many ways to go about this, such as maximising your tax liabilities (not the most popular one, ask well-doer Bob Geldof), volunteering your time, or donating your hard earned cash to charitable organisations are some of the many options out there.
While many people and organisations already do great things, just as many people are struggling to follow through on their intentions. At the end of the day, we are all busy and many, in some cases for good reason, are skeptical towards mindlessly throwing money at charities.
It’s a bit of a personal experience, yet, I found that rescuing a dog can be an incredible rewarding experience. I didn’t grow up with dogs or anything like that, and even though we got a lab the year before, I could never imagine I would ‘rescue’ a dog. It is incredible to see you can have such a big impact on a loving but helpless little creature. The joy of seeing the little bugger happily and healthy goofing around is the best ‘thank you’ you can imagine.
Okay, so here is our story…
So, in the summer of 2018 we were driving out of a Spanish village, called El Rocío. While messing about with my GPS, trying to find our way to Gibraltar, I guess I ended up in the El Rocío backlands. While driving there my HOT Brazilian bitch beloved girlfriend noticed a dog crossing in front of us that was being chased away by some other dogs.
She felt pity and I must admit, I was more preoccupied in getting to Gibraltar, yet, we agreed to drive back and that, if we saw the dog again (a male Ratoneiro Bodegeiro it later turned out), and established it had no owner, we would show our grace and rescue the fucker.
And guess what… we get to the spot and there he was, hiding under a shed catching some shade. There was a fence, yet, that didn’t seem to be a problem, as he quickly approached us as he crawled from underneath the fence. He had curious eyes, yet, the little creature demeanour screamed fear. Whenever we wanted to stroke him or pick him up, he would threw himself to the ground. We also quickly noticed his right paw was broken.
Okay, there was no way out of this now, so, my girl brushed up on her Spanish and went out to speak to some of the Spanish horse keepers to check what’s going on. Long story short, they told us he had been like this for a while, didn’t have an owner and that we were more then welcome to take him. And so we did…
Here some photos as the story unfolds...
Day 1: This is him on day we found him. Obviously not doing very well, let alone the fact that his right paw was broken! Anyway there is no going back, we have to help this dog and took him to a vet in Almonte.
Day 2: This is him the next day. We fed him, popped some pills, gave him a good wash and lot’s of love. As you can see, he is already doing a lot better! In the meanwhile we named him Gib.
Day 30: By the end of August we had him completely fixed up. We got about 3 independent opinions, yet, unfortunately the paw had to be amputated because it had been broken for a while. We also had to castrate the fucker as he was peeing everywhere! I guess that’s some of the strong Spanish testosterone!
Today: And here is the happy ending… this is Gib today!!
I hope this story inspired you. Of course there are many similar stories out there, such as the one below. This video, shot by super hero dog rescuer Viktor Larkhill, features a Ratoneiro that ‘dumped’ in a dustbin in Spain…