Nancy is one of our APARIV dogs that had the good luck to be adopted by a loving family. Nancy is her new ‘person’ and she wrote us a letter to describe her experiences: “Nancy is our absolute dream dog”

The search…..
After a long time without a dog at the end of August it was time again to think getting a new dog. We finally made the decision: We do want a new dog! We searched the internet, and we quickly learned that the conditions for homeless dogs abroad are at times heartbreaking and so the decision was quickly made! We would get a dog from Spain.

And there she was…..Nancy! An eight years old red-brown female mix from Malaga who had spent almost her whole life at the Shelter. According to the description Nancy was calm and a little shy and we thought she sounded just right for us. We quickly took contact to the contact person, Maria.

The first contact!
Shortly after having sent the initial contact note to Maria we received a phone call back. She told us what she knew about Nancy and made us aware that getting a dog from Spain can be a bit of a ‘’surprise package’’! It can be that the behavior shown by a dog at the Shelter changes when in a new environment and a new home.
This meant that we prepared ourselves for all kind of possible problems, but we stayed with our decision to get Nancy! We think that Nancy has deserved a nice life and we would deal with any problems if and when they would occur. The close contact to Maria, who was always ready with advice and tips, made us feel confident that we made the right decision.

The preparations!
Now it was time for us to show that we were the right family for Nancy!
The pre-control visit was coming up, and thank God, we passed!

The Countdown
We had some organization to do ourselves. The holiday was changed so that someone would be there with Nancy the first couple of weeks. We went shopping for everything Nancy would need and then all that was left to do was to count the days!

Nancy arrives
Of course we arrived much too early at the Düsseldorf airport and that meant a three hours wait as the plane was delayed. Thankfully we were not alone as we were joined by Elke, also a member of the organization. Together we used the extra time talking about the first hours together with Nancy and Elke took away some of our initial nervousness. Elke explained that it could be that Nancy at first didn’t want to leave her box and that she might be very fearful. I felt a quiet moment of doubts! Did we really make the right decision? Would we be able to solve potential problems? Did we make the decision too fast? But, as it turned out, I didn’t have too much time to re-think because before I knew it Nancy’s plane had touched down and landed. When I then saw her, moving nervous in her transport box. Through many tears of joy I had to apologize to Elke who tried to take some nice photos of the arrival but I probably ruined them J

Coming home
We quickly made our way home. When we arrived we placed the transport box in the living room, opened the door and realized that all our concerns if she would come out or not were unfounded. We simply couldn’t believe how quickly she settled in! The rest of the evening Nancy slept peacefully on her own new pillow.

In the end I can just say that Nancy is our absolute dream dog and I would wish that many more wonderful dogs like her would find a new home. They have all deserved it.
We never want to be without Nancy and when I look at her, a sleep, lightly snoring, by my feet, then I am sure I can see a little smile on her face saying that she would also not trade in her new life, not even for all the delicious ‘’pigs ears’’ in the whole world.

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choosing a dog, taking a refuge dog home