Adopting an animal in Andalusia

Early May we lost our beloved dog 🐶 Seppi after 15 years. He was our companion throughout our busy and sometimes crazy life. He was our friend, and our child as we have no own kids. We were devastated. There are no words describing the pain we went through. If you ever lost your pet, you know.

We thought we ll definitely have another pet, probably in autumn.

Early June my husband René was sitting on the terrace with his iPad and a cup of coffee. He suddenly looked up, handing over his iPad saying: “look”.

I looked.

Looked again.

Then looked at him.

Saying “you know you can’t just show this to me. You know I will take action immediately”

He nodded.

He showed me a Facebook posting of an animal shelter in Rincon de la Victoria called Apariv. 2 puppies were looking for forever homes. Knowing that all puppies are cute, but these 2 little ones touched our hearts.

I took action immediately: contacted the shelter. Filled in the questionnaire (detailed questions about us, where and how we live, allergies, kids in the house, how long will the dog be alone during the day, are we okay to clean 💩 , etc). Quite a detailed questionnaire which I liked.

That was on a Friday.

The entire weekend we talked about the 2 little ones.

But we didn’t hear anything until Tuesday and I almost panicked they could have been adopted already.

On Tuesday evening we got a message that we could see the puppies in the shelter on Thursday. With lots of excitement we went.

The first impression of the shelter was a WOW

Huge kennels, probably 5 meters x 4 meters. Clean. Huge dog houses for the dogs to sleep in.

And then there were the 2. 2? No, it was a pack of 4 brothers!

One sweeter than the other.

The black and white one (Panda bear looking) run straight into my husband’s arms. Love at first sight. All 4 were super friendly and used to people.

We were told that 3 are adopted already but the Panda Bear is still available.

‘Yes! Please we want to adopt him', we said.

And we wanted to take him home straight away. But no no no.

First home check, paper works, next vaccinations, microchip, and then…. You can take him. Impatient as usual, but I really appreciated that they follow a strict process, and do not give the animals to anyone they don’t know.

The home check was on Friday evening and Chus from the shelter took her time, sat with us, talked to us and checked if we are the right persons to adopt the pet. I liked it. They make sure that we are reliable and responsible people to look after the pet for the next hopefully 15 years.

Another weekend of waiting and on Monday we could pick up our Rocky - that’s how we named our panda bear - from the vet in Rincon. We paid 160euros, that included up to date vaccinations, microchip and castration in a few month.

Now - almost 2 weeks later - we are completely utterly madly in love with him.

He took our hearts by storm. He is a super friendly, confident, playful pet.

Thanks a million to Aparif and their volunteers- they did an amazing job treating the pets with lots of love and care.

I know that there are lots of animal shelters around and all need donations and support. Aparif needs water 💦 especially in the summer, and volunteers to help. I am always aiming to support the local community and charities rather than sending money abroad (and yes, this is needed too). I recommend Aparif. 5 stars. Thank you for raising our Rocky and allowing us to adopt him - we are in love with Rocky 💓

If you like to support the Charity and donate 1euro a month, you can join my teaming page called "From Rocky with Love" :

https://apariv.es/

https://www.facebook.com/Apariv