Chapter 11: Dog Charities (A True Story)

I don’t know if it was because Sue was in the room down the hallway or if it was due to sheer exhaustion, but I actually managed to get a couple of hours to sleep on the sofa, all snuggled up with all of my babies. However, it was now 4am, and I was awake. My mind was racing, thought after thought. Where is George? Who has George? Is George hurt? I knew that I had to actually slap myself out of this, so that is what I did, smack, smack. Right cup of tea and then a shower is required, I told myself.

I am not sure why, yet the amount of times that I spent just sitting on the toilet having a wee, I would begin to sob, sob like a baby, then I would finish my wee flush the toilet and immediately stop crying (strange).

I took a shower, and today was the first time that I actually looked at myself in the mirror. I actually spoke to myself. “Holy shit, oh my god, what the hell, you, you, must never let anyone take a photo of you.” Then I just looked away; I didn’t have the energy to truly care.

After printing the day’s orders and replying to my emails, then reposting on Facebook, I went downstairs, and there was Sue, “You alright, mate,” she said. “No,” I sobbed. We had a quick hug. Sue and I are kind of like geezers when it comes to our friendship; in fact, sometimes I think we knew each other in a previous life, and we were actually both boys.

Tea, Dressing Gowns, and George

“What is the plan for today?” asked Sue. “We are now off to check all my pieces of the dressing gown,” I said. I actually think if I had said that today we are going to walk the tracks naked playing the recorder that Sue would have done it.

When I say check all my pieces of the dressing gown, I literally meant that you see, I had read that a lost dog can smell its owner’s belongings and that one particular lost dog was found on an item of clothing that its owner had left out in the wild.

On our return from checking all my pieces of the dressing gown, we both knew that we needed to spend some time with all of my boys as my next plan involved leaving them for a good few hours.

Sue is amazing with all of my dogs. She seriously loves them all; trust me, she does. Some of my friends pretend to love them all, and I understand that. My Kerry only loves Steve, Claudia only loves Jeremy, for Gary, it’s a toss-up between Peter and Kev, as for Gordon, he is 100% a Kev lover, and as for Carol, she just thinks they are all adorable.

After lots of cuddles and love, Sue and I then headed off to my warehouse to pack up the day’s orders and drop them into Acox, which is up in the town where Gary, Claudia, and Roxanne work. David, my TNT driver, is such a wonderful man that all it took was a quick WhatsApp message from me saying, “Please collect today from Acox,” immediately, he replied with just a simple thumbs-up emoji.

The Kindness That Cracked Me

As I walked into Acox, the first person that I saw was Roxanne. I will never forget as I so regret what I did. She went to hug me, and I held my hand up and said, “NO, don’t talk to me.”

Any kindness towards me just broke me, which meant I couldn’t focus. I needed to focus and stop bloody breaking.

“Here are the orders for TNT,” I said. Then it was silence in the office. Claudia walked over and simply said, “I have printed some more posters, and just tell me if there is anything else you need.”

Sue and I were now sitting in the car, looking at all the messages on my phone. Bloody hell, my phone was now bleeping 10 to the dozen.

Carol had said that I should go to the dog pound to check as even though she had called them that I should go and check. Next, she told me that I must go to the charity shops to put up more posters. I could actually write the complete list that she sent me; however, it would be longer than this book. I know she meant well, but bloody hell, there are only so many hours in a day.

I looked at her list and said to Sue, “Right, we go to the charity shop in Alhaurín el Grande; here is my phone; please deal with all the messages.” Then I had a little paddy, “Why does everyone keep messaging me? Tell them all to piss off,” I said. (I am so sorry if you are reading this and you were messaging me at the time xx).

The Shop That Changed Everything

The first thing we had to do was to google as to where the charity shop was in Alhaurín. At this point, I just wanted to curl up into a ball, I was so tired, and I was starting to lose all hope yet again.

It was when Sue and I walked into the charity shop that things were about to change.

As we walked in, we didn’t actually know why we were there, yet we had some posters of George, so we approached the counter and simply asked if they could possibly hand some out to their customers.

The lady behind the counter was very concerned, and she asked what had happened. I started blabbing away that how George is a male Chihuahua and how for some reason, I think that the so-called non-chihuahua breeders have him. Gosh what a small world as the lady behind the counter said that her friend had actually bought a puppy from the so-called non-chihuahua breeders. She then went on to say how lovely the people were. The next shocking thing was the lady stacking the shelves suddenly blurted out, “Anyone that breeds puppies is dead to me.” OK, so I understand people’s opinions, and actually, she had a point as what with all the stray dogs/

puppies roaming the streets you could literally pop out for an hour and find a puppy.

The Man Called Gerry

Then it was the man’s turn; he was neither behind the counter or stacking shelves. I must say what he said next regained my strength and hope. His name is Gerry; I actually just checked that I can use his real name while writing this, and he has just messaged me, “Feel free, no prob,” plus a thumbs-up emoji.

Well, one thing about Gerry is that wow can he talk? Holy moly, he just doesn’t stop. Sue and I didn’t know what to do yet then Gerry came into a leader, he told us to go to Chirrihana dog station, just to check and to give posters and then he said that he will make a BBQ tomorrow if we organize a search.

Sue and I just looked at each other, and then Sue said, “A search Gerry, what do you mean?”

“Put on Facebook the meeting point and time, and people will come,” he said.

I think Sue and I said it in sync, “Seriously?” “Yes,” said Gerry.

“OK,” we said, “So where do we tell people to meet?” We went on to say with a puzzled look on our faces. “At the old tent restaurant opposite where the photo of George was taken,” said Gerry.

Lasagna, A Poster, and a Sliver of Hope

I actually knew the tent restaurant thing that Gerry was talking about, and I said, “Brilliant, thank you, Gerry.”

Sue put his phone number in my phone and off we went back to the car. Uufff, thank goodness for google and thank goodness to Claudia for giving me a car plug-in charger.

Imagine maps and telephone boxes in a situation like this, shudder the thought.

So off we went, and on route to the dog pound, we had a call. I instantly knew it was regarding the La Trocha dog and not George, yet not once did Claudia or I ignore it, and we always checked. Sue took the call, and then Sue did the deed and telephoned Claudia, and off Claudia went again just to confirm that the dog wasn’t George. “It’s the La Trocha dog,” Claudia confirmed.

Sue and I were now at the Chirrihana dog pound. Gosh, it was beautiful, and it was clean; we headed to the reception, and we gave our posters. I must say all the staff was kind, very smart and it was so professional. George wasn’t there.

As Sue and I sauntered back to the car, I broke again. The ups and downs were now taking their toll. Sue was obviously hungry again; well, she had had no breakfast or lunch. I think at this point, Sue’s concern is that I hadn’t eaten were more for her benefit LOL.

Sadly, there was no time for lunch because as soon as we started the car the phone went again, a random person had called to say that possibly George is in the garden of a lady that catches dogs and she lives in a static home along a lane in Alhaurín el Grande. 2 and a half hours later and after many mixed messages of the location we actually found the static home. Then after 20 minutes of looking like stalkers as we were peering over the fence, a man appeared. “Hello can I help you?” he said. We then explained the situation, and he kindly offered us into his static home next door, and he explained how we could see the next door’s garden through his bedroom window. We thanked him and followed him into his bedroom. This wasn’t the first time that I put myself in danger looking for George, and as I carry on writing, you will see how stupid that I was.

No, George wasn’t there, so our next move was to feed Sue. You see, I am quite clever, and I remembered that we still had some leftover lasagna that Claudia had made, plus we needed to get back for the dogs.

Sue then mentioned that tonight we must make a new Facebook post for the search tomorrow. “Where is the tent restaurant thing,” said Sue. Hhhmm, good point, as although I knew how to see it from the main road, however, I had no clue as to how to drive to it. After another bloody hour, we found it.

Sue then made me stand in the road in front of the tent thing holding a poster then, YES CLICK WENT THE CAMERA.

Sue then made the post, and whilst Sue was microwaving some lasagna, I began to write what and where I needed people to search tomorrow.

Oh, we did laugh; Sue and I thought, wow, what a great man Gerry is, yet what idiot will turn up tomorrow on a Saturday to search the fields and help a person that they don’t know. I doubt Sue would admit this; however, I think all she was thinking about was the free BBQ.

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