Preparation

The idea began in the late winter/early spring 2002. So many galgos… I knew about Scooby, as well as the other refuges in Spain, and had heard Fermín talk at Dewey in 2000. Between my medical skills, my comfort level with Spanish and Spanish culture, and my love of greyhounds I thought I could make a contribution. On the other hand my responsibilities at home and at work made the whole idea seem very very distant.

I wrote to Suzanne Stack, who was encouraging. She got me in touch with Pat Colitsas, a good friend and supporter of Fermín. Pat "adopted" me and my goal without hesitation. She knew who to contact, was able to get through to Fermín, and was always rapidly available when questions arose.

When this idea was borne, I was simply going to go alone and do the best I could. Little did I realize how this project would grow! At that time Bev Hollis, a wonderful vet, was working at my hospital. Bev has been involved with greyhounds for several years and when she heard about my crazy idea, she signed on without hesitation. Over the following months, Kathy Kunkle, another Nashville vet, joined the group. Finally Laura Tarkenton and Hiland Langhan signed on. It was amazing and inspiring to see the willingness and commitment of people who knew nothing about Scooby to begin with, and in the case of Hiland and Laura, were not even involved with greyhounds. By summer, our group had grown to 5. We finally had to turn away a 6^th volunteer because I was afraid if we grew too large there would be logistical problems moving us around!

I wanted to go at the end of the hunting season, when so many galgos were suddenly unwanted. The stories of their deaths horrified me – hanging, burning, dragged by cars, thrown in wells. So, we settled on early February, for a 10 day trip.

Pat got me in touch with Linda Piaggio. Linda had visited Scooby and was a wonder resource for information. We were starved to know as much as possible. She recommended a hotel (La Mota) and described her experiences.

Bev searched the ‘net and made our reservations through Delta – flying through Atlanta then directly to Madrid.

Kathy had many contacts and had an offer to ship a box for free by Fed Ex. Initially, we were going to take just a few things – the bare essentials – since we felt that Scooby had supplies. But, the offer of free shipping was too good to pass up! Ultimately we received supplies from Suzanne Stack, some drug companies, and private contributors.

As the time for departure approached, were scrambling to get the supplies there. We were advised by everyone not to try to ship directly to Spain, because of the risk of losing the supplies in their customs. Pat suggested sending the FedEx box to Mireille in Belgium and then she could easily get it to Spain.

So, because of customs considerations, the items were divided into non-drug things to go through FedEx, true medications to through the PO to Belgium at our own expense, and drugs and supplies to go with us in suitcases and pockets. We hoped if one group was lost, we would have back-up supplies coming in another way!

Kathy packed the boxes and off they went. To our relief, they arrived uneventfully in Belgium. All that worry for nothing!

Personal preparations were relatively simple. We thought the weather was going to be frigid and pretty miserable and were prepared for the Arctic! We didn’t know whether food was going to be a problem, so we packed snacks and "survival" items.

Electrical appliances were going to need plug adapters and power converters. US current is 110; the rest of the world is 220. European plugs are 2 rounded prongs.

Finally, the planning was over and it was time…………

Travel To and From

Ohhhhh, jet lag. Medina del Campo is 7 hours ahead of Nashville time. The flight from Atlanta to Madrid was 8 hrs and 15 minutes. Returning it was 10 hrs. I tried to sleep on the way over because we were arriving in the morning with a full day ahead of us. I was only partially successful. On the way back, we took off at 11:30 AM and arrived in Atlanta at 3:30 PM – a very very long day with the sun following us the whole time.

While we were there, security at the airports was increased and the trip back was a constant series of security checks. No one objected and the security people everywhere were courteous, helpful and a pleasure to deal with.

Arrival in Spain

Despite our worry about the medications that we were carrying with us, we passed through Spanish customs without any difficulty.

Maria Jose, the only full time employed worker at Scooby, met us at the airport. She loaded us in the Scooby van and off we went. The ride was amazingly windy and Maria Jose had her hands full keeping it on the road. The ride to Scooby was about 2 hrs. and she deposited us at the hotel.

The hotel – La Mota – was a pleasant surprise! The staff was very nice and the rooms were better than expected. The heat was radiant heat – in the bedroom and in the bath. Windows opened, and there were security shades. Each room had a TV with 5 channels, and a phone. The bathroom was very nice also. It was quite a comfortable "home" to return to each day.

The electrical plugs were unexpected and made for some initial problems. I expected the 2 rounded prongs, but did not expect them to be recessed and inaccessible. Aaack! Panic! The voltage converters couldn’t plug right into the wall! Fortunately, I had one adapter that received the European plug and could use that for the voltage converter. All the other adapters were a wasted effort – useless. BRING A GROUNDED CONVERTER!!

We were given use of the van as our transportation to Scooby. Laura was an experienced driver and did a superb job with the gears! All the cars are standard transmission and not especially smooth.

Getting to Work

Fermín picked us up at the hotel and drove us to Scooby around 3:30. He showed us around the area we’d be using. There are 2 rooms for surgery. The main medical room is a nice size (approximately 20x30 ft). It has 3 cabinets for supplies and they are organized by type of item. That room uses an isoflurane vaporizer. The surgery lamp is relatively new apparently and is a rectangular dental (??) light. It has a good surgery table.

The second surgery room is actually the men’s bathroom and a storage room, but it had a fine surgery table. The anesthetic machine there was halothane. The sink was a bit more awkward for scrubbing but OK. We ended up using one of the V troughs turned on end as an instrument stand. The light was a halogen floor lamp.

The two rooms had small but effective stand-alone heaters.

We unloaded our bags of supplies that we had brought with us and then went through the cabinets looking at surgery instruments. First job was to put together some surgery packs and get them autoclaved. There are lots of instruments and we fashioned some starter packs. Hiland and Laura cut drapes and got them ready for autoclaving. They also made gown packs. The Scooby staff had some galgos ready for us to start with and we began surgeries.

The protocol we followed was to pre-medicate with Butorphanol (.1cc/10lb but we dropped the dose to .4 for most galgos) and Ace (tiny amount in the hub) given SQ. Galgos weigh less that the American racing greys – probably in the 50-55 lb range. When that had taken effect, the galgos were led to their respective surgery rooms and given IV Telazol (.1cc/10lb but also decreased as we went along). The dogs were intubated (good selection of trache tubes) and placed on their respective inhalation machines. Scooby has 2 sets of clippers.

Prepping was tying, clipping, and scrubbing. The soap was a chlorhexidene scrub and we used alcohol after that. Cotton was available. The surgeon had available brushes (non autoclaved), cap and mask, chlorhexidene scrub, gowns, and gloves.  The females were each tattooed in an ear to indicate they had been spayed.

We decided to start with castrations to get a feel for how things were going to go. The first afternoon we did 6 castrations. The first were a bit awkward but things improved as we got more comfortable with how we were doing things. The first day ended at 9PM. We decided we needed to set a goal for leaving each day.

Fermín drove us back to town and showed us a good place to eat – Picasso Restaurant. He also pointed out an internet café!! The Picasso had great food. That was a hot night in the room. The radiant heat was too high and we hadn’t opened the windows! Never again!

Wednesday, February 5^th

Bad start to the day! The electrical plugs were a surprise so we started the day with no appliances. Also no coffee in the room – went downstairs to the corner restaurant and had coffee and croissant. The coffee was con leche, but was fine!

We were at Scooby from 9:30 to 7:10PM. We did 10 spays and 7 castrations. Amelia brought home cooking lunches and they were delicious! Tortilla patata, rice with vegetables, salads, noodle dishes.

Had dinner at the Restaurante Madrid bar – cheese, olives, wine. Bev and Kathy and Hiland went in search of the internet café – La Union. Laura and I retired for the night!

Thursday, Feb. 6th

The days at Scooby start around 9:30. The gate to the private road is locked so even if we arrived earlier, we wouldn’t be able to get in. The morning started much better – electricity! Coffee, hair dryer and curling iron all working! Laura is driving the van and doing a fabulous job. The gears are rough!!

The weather was good. Sunny and nice. Probably most days it was in the mid to upper 40’s.

Surgeries – we did 8 castrations and 5 spays. In the afternoon I did a galgo that had been attacked in the paddock by an unknown dog. He had wounds all over. It took most of the afternoon to clean him up and suture the wounds. He was my fawn boy while at Scooby! I gave him my personal Antirobe plus Baytril. He was doing well when we left. There was also a galgo with a small seroma that I drained that day.

We left Scooby at 4:30 and had dinner at a random small restaurant. Minor disaster! We were seated by a table of youngsters celebrating a birthday and they were LOUD!! Food was OK but it turned out to be the worst of our meals there.

The rest of the evening was great! There is a grocery store similar to US stores and they had yogurt! Also got some great cheese. Went to La Union (my first visit) and emailed home hoping for the best. The computer was something else! Weird key board and it looked like a juke box! Julio, the owner, was very nice – as was everyone – and helpful. The thing had a major timing problem and would cut out before the time was actually out. The cost was 20 min for 1EU. It was fast access – DSL. What a pleasant surprise though! Also, across the street from La Union was a great bakery with butterfly cookies!

Friday, Feb 7th

Worked 9:30 to 5 PM. We did 7 castrations and 9 spays. Fermín came by once. My fawn fight galgo was a bit better. It was a colder and cloudy day. Brrrr.

The power went out several times during the day at the refuge. The main medical room has no windows and when the power goes out you’re SUNK! We were really using the electricity between the heaters, the autoclave, surgery lights, clippers… Ended up having to unplug something to keep the lights on. My little purse emergency light came in so handy so many times – for tubing, for the power outages.

After returning to the hotel, we walked to the main square and got post cards. Ate at a pizza place – good – and quiet. Also went back to La Union and found out that my emails had been received! Yeah!

Saturday, Feb 8th

Our coldest morning – a hard freeze overnight, but no snow. We went to the castle early but it was closed again. We went inside the walls and walked around a little in the rampart area.

At Scooby, we did 7 castrations and 8 spays. A galgo was brought into the surgery room that had been found with a degloving tail injury. I amputated the tail that morning, so we totaled 16 surgeries for the day.

A wonderful English group of 5 ladies from Greyhound Compassion arrived late Friday night to spend the weekend working at Scooby. Several had been before and Saturday they went right to work! We were quite impressed at their cleaning skills! A couple also left with Fermín to retrieve galgos from the pound.

After we were done with surgery, we saw that Fermín had taken the van to pick up some galgos from the "dog pound" in Toledo so we hung around a while waiting for transportation. We found out that the van had broken down and he was stuck near Toledo. While we were waiting, up drove a hunter with a car full of galgos to leave! We grabbed leashes and Maria Jose called Fermín. He said it was OK to take them in and to find an empty room somewhere to place them. It was the large ladies bathroom! A total of 13 galgos went in the bathroom! They were in reasonably good condition and milled around wanting attention. They were a mixture of short and wiry haired, and as sweet as can be.

No sooner were they settled when another car pulled up. This turned out to be some friends of Scooby that help Fermín bringing galgos to the shelter. They had met him and the broken down van, retrieved the load of galgos and brought them on the Scooby.

What a difference in the two groups of galgos! These dogs had been left at the Toledo pound 3 weeks before. They, along with another group still at the pound, had been confined to a tiny area and left without food for the entire time. They were emaciated, had skin sores, were subdued, but walked to the isolation where they were to live for a while. Once they were all moved into the big run, we brought food down to them and they went after it!! They were starved. They ate and ate.

These were all females. The galgos that Fermín left at the pound were the males. Another group had been called and was on the way to get them right then. Hopefully they would soon be fed for the first time in 3 weeks too.

We finally left for the hotel in Fermín’s car and used it for a few days to get to and from the refuge.

We ate at a Chinese restaurant that night. Excellent food and unbelievable desserts. We tried to go back there Monday night and it turned out they are only open on weekends. We were lucky to have hit it right Saturday night.