Today, yet another ‘hound’ type dog left for an experienced, happy home in the UK. Jaffa, a stunning three year old Griffon Khortal is being driven by James, one of our super volunteers, to meet his forever family who will be waiting for him with bated breath! Until they meet tomorrow, the adopters will only have seen pictures of him so I can only imagine their excitement! As well as Jaffa, James is also picking up Alexis, another SPA dog who has been staying with a foster family near Toulouse until she could join her owners in the UK. Next month there will be another dog going off to live in Scotland and one of our lucky foster dogs is going to the Outer Hebrides for his holidays! Our dogs are certainly becoming international travelers; you never know where you might meet an SPA Carcassonne dog!!
Jaffa, enroute to the UK
Unfortunately for every lucky ‘hound’ we have lots more still waiting.
At the end of the hunting season many dogs who are either too old or do not excel at hunting are abandoned and the fate of these dogs is not always rosy! A lot of French people do not consider hound type dogs to be suitable family pets so these dogs can wait a long time before being re-homed. They are in most cases kennel dogs who have never lived in a home environment and have not been socialized with humans, so are often fearful and very stressed when they arrive at the refuge. Having lived in a kennel also means that you may need to go back to basics with things like toilet training so this requires a lot of patience and understanding.
Luckily ‘hound’ type dogs do seem to have become favorites with us Brits and here are some of our lucky ‘hounds’ who have gone to fantastic families in the UK. Seeing how well these dogs have settled down into family lives really validates the effort of getting the dogs there and when you compare their previous lives to what they have now you really realize how much better off they are.
Here are some of our happy hounds who have gone to families in the UK.
Casper,who now lives in the Cotswolds.
Munro who lives near Bath.
Gwen who lives near London.
Yessa, who is now Gwens big ‘sister’!
…and don’t forget the lovely Harlequin who lives in Northampton with his ‘Mum’ Shirley and other dogs, having a wonderful time learning agility.
He now has his certificate from the kennel club to take part in competitions and will be known as ‘Wiccaweys French Harlequin’
Watch out for another SPA Carcassonne dog.