Springtime Shuttles

April and May 2019 have been the months of shuttles and military operations! We have been through organisational nightmares over the last 8 weeks with our partners in the USA, Canada, Holland, Belgium, France and Italy. We have, however, successfully moved mountains and with large scale international co-operation we have transported 189 dogs and 69 cats to homes in mainland Europe and the USA.

Daphne Legacy Tour set itself the objective of taking many more galgos to greyhound adoption agencies in the USA than last year’s haul of 24. By May 3rd this year, the last consignment left Protectora y Santuario Scooby taking the total number of galgos transported on this year’s Daphne Legacy Tour to the USA to 39. At the time of writing, all bar 2 are in homes with vetted families and the remaining 2 are in foster homes.

The Daphne Legacy Tour team from the USA arrived at the end of April with 7 suitcases of much needed supplies for which we were very grateful. Their arrival came after a few weeks of headaches during which we’d worked through checking we’d selected the right dogs to travel, a new USDA import process, transport plans, budgets and intricate logistics.

In addition Chris, Ray and Mysti signed up for the Medina del Campo 10k run and we appealed for sponsorship funds for the run. Thanks to donors in Europe and the USA, we raised just over €1,000 which contributed towards the cost of the Daphne Legacy Tour 2019 mission. Sadly Mysti had to withdraw due to injury. Then we discovered that the Medina del Campo 10k run had been postponed to October to make way for Spain’s General Election. Not perturbed by this, Chris and Ray signed up for a run in Madrid and didn’t let the donors down.

Hot on the heels of the 2019 Daphne Legacy Tour were transports to Holland, Franceand Italy

During the first weekend of May we had a transport with 31 dogs and 36 cats mainly for Scooby Katjes and Dierenopvang Koningen. As always we came back with our van loaded with wonderful goods for our dogs and cats, thanks to the generosity of our donors.

The second week was also very hectic. In this case we had two transports, one to Italy with 20 galgos for Pet Levrieri. This time they came with their own van. The second trip was to Holland loaded with 28 dogs and 5 cats for different organisations including ADL, Greyhound Friends, GINN, Galgos de la Estrella and Rescani, Scooby Katjes and Scooby Deutschland. And again we came back loaded, exhausted but full of hopes for all our animals that went abroad to get a second chance in life.

The third weekend again saw us on the road. This time we were en route for Italy with 23 dogs for Scooby Italia, ADL, Progetto Galgo Onlus, Gineta and Slovenian Sighthound World. At the risk of repeating ourselves, we came back loaded with goods and happiness. Whilst this trip was happening, other Scooby colleagues were travelling back and forth to Madrid airport with dogs for Scooby Canada, EGP and SHUG. Sixteen in total were flying to Montreal and Chicago. Plus another 4 were bound for Finland.

Last weekend we went to Holland again with 28 dogs and 28 cats mainly for Scooby Katjes and Dierenopvang Koningen.

These last two months have been awful in some respects and wonderful in other ways but one thing is for sure - we are exhausted but happy with everything we have achieved. Thousands of kilometers and hundreds of animals have been given their second chance in life, their golden ticket.

There is no greater sense of gratitude and achievement than seeing these dogs and cats land super homes with loving families. Protectora y Santuario Scooby is immensely grateful to the drivers, co-ordinators and the homing agencies who do the best for our animals. Often we don’t know the full background of our rescued animals and finding the right home is imperative. We cannot overemphasise how thankful we are to every person who plays a role in the transportation, placement and rehabilitation of our rescues. The one certain aspect in all of this is that everyone who is involved is totally overwhelmed by the success of these intricate operations and we trust the families and their new pet experience mutual reward and fulfilment.