Spanish sojourn – Día de Andalucía

Saturday

Freezing cold on the journey up from Gib to the finca, well relatively speaking, and snow on the sierras that line the eastern edge of La Axarquía, with the top of the high peak of Maroma nicely covered. We were still wearing shorts though. And down on the costa, the sun was shining nicely.

In the afternoon he took Snowy out for a walk. And came back with a snapped harness. Oh dear. These come from Dog Games in the UK. They are ideal because they come in three parts all of which come in different sizes so that each dog can get a perfectly fitted harness. Hence the name: Perfect Fit. Not so perfect when I’m in Spain with no internet to order a new part.

Even if I’d wanted to use roaming on the mobile to look up the site – internet usage just eats up the pounds, even worse than downloading large photos – I didn’t have enough money on Partner’s phone. I didn’t even have my phone. That had no credit on so I’d left it behind. ‘I’ll have a frugal week,’ I thought, ‘no emails.’ Lesson learned. Always top up your mobile.

With the help of a good UK-based friend, I wrote a short note, which she copied and pasted to the DG website for them to contact me.

Meanwhile, we pondered how to sort a makeshift harness. The material is too tough for domestic sewing needles. That was a non starter. Eventually Partner used some cord and soldered the ends. A temporary fix until we got back to Gib and hopefully collected the new one.

Sunday, 28 February – Día de Andalucía

It’s to mark the establishment of Andalucía as an autonomous community back in 1970 or 80 something.

In our pueblo, nothing happens. Years ago we were travelling through Almería and there were street parties in every village.

Taking Snowy out for a walk, Partner returned and entered our patio and shouted ‘I’ve got something for you. Come here! Now!’

Then I heard him say, ‘Good girl’. Me? Or … Good girl? Snowy’s a boy.

‘And bring some dog biscuits and treats.’

There, in our patio, was a timid-looking female Podenco. I gave her some biscuits. She scarfed them down. I gave her some more. She scarfed those too.

‘She followed us home. I couldn’t leave her,’ he said feebly. ‘It was only ’cos she was a Podenco.’

Yeah right and he’d have ignored every other stray dog wanting a home and a pack? As if.

‘She’s had pups,’ I said, looking at her distended nipples.

‘No,’ he said. A little later … ‘Oh, you could be right.’

Had she been thrown out after she’d given birth? Or before? At least she was thrown out, not killed.

After she’d eaten more biscuits in a few minutes than Snowy eats in a month (he likes to live on gourmet treats), she drank some water.

‘We’ll leave her in the patio tonight to see how she goes,’ he said. Fair enough, we’d done that with Snowy as a pup for his first few nights when he was peeing and pooing all over the place.

‘Let’s take them on the terrace,’ he decided.

We took them through the house and opened up the front door. But it started to mizzle, so while he was sorting the washing, I brought them both inside.

‘I’ll get one of the rugs for her,’ I said. (Pippa used to lie on his rug under the table. It was his den.) And she promptly went to lie on it.

Next we started to work out some sort of lead and harness. Podencos are similar to galgos and greyhounds with delicate long necks.

We’d kept chains from previous dogs, but that was the last thing we wanted to use. Pippa’s harness would fit two or three Podencos. We had a halti that Pippa didn’t like (and we don’t recommend them either), so we looked at that and managed to turn it into a harness for her. Result. A carabiner clip and some climbing webbing and she had a long lead too. Off we all went for a walk together.

‘I think we’ll leave her in the kitchen tonight. We can leave a light on in case there’s any mess.’

He took Snowy out again and I retrieved another rug and put it in the bedroom in case she wanted to join us. She did.

Our plans for the week – and month – were now totally up in the air.

Sporadic intermittent blogging service will be the norm for now. For those of you who celebrate Easter, have a lovely few days. For those of you who don’t, have a lovely few days too.

My temporary wifi office.