PAWS ends 2011 on a high note
Smokey becomes the 300th dog to be homed during the year.

PAWS,has already homed more than 300 dogs this year (2011). It is the highest total of dogs homed in a year since 2005. This is an astonishing turnaround from February when the main outlet for homing dogs abroad, PAWS Holland, closed its doors and brought a temporary shut down for the PAWS in March.

New homing partnerships were rapidly put together in The Netherlands and Germany, and a transport van with 23 dogs left the Los Gallardos Shelter in early December taking them to new lives in Holland. It was the sixth consignment of PAWS dogs to go abroad this year.

But one special dog stayed behind. Smokey had been a long-term resident of the PAWS Shelter. He had a nervous habit of attacking and biting his own tail, and it was thought he might never be suitable for homing. But Chris and Sandra Jarrad, a local couple who had walked him regularly, took him into foster care for a while – and his behaviour improved dramatically. So Chris and Sandra have offered him a permanent home, making him the 300th dog to be homed this year.

“It is a tremendous tribute to the hard work of the Shelter management team,” said committee member Janet Franklin. “And at a time when we are desperately short of volunteers at the Shelter it is even more creditable.” But success comes at a price. “Every transport abroad costs at least €1,500, so we have spent more than €9,000 to achieve this result. We are now receiving far less compensation for providing dogs than previously, so it is a permanent struggle to make ends meet.”

Preparations are already in hand for a shipment of dogs to the UK in January and more dogs will go to Holland late February or the beginning of March if PAWS has the funds to send them.