19th Feb – 9:30 am
After a great deal of changing Sky Kennels around to accommodate 15 dogs, we eventually set off to pick up Pappy from Kourkoumelata and Allie, Scamp, Balto, Benjamin, Joshua and Cleo from Antonia’s (not to mention Felix the cat). Safely aboard in their kennels were, Willie II, Junior, Indie, Rusty, Flossie, Teddy, Cassie and Sonny, plus Dennis and Willie I, who were being left with Antonia. 

Our original plan had been to camp on board, and place most of the dogs in the dog village taking our time to do this, as there are 7 flights of stairs to manipulate, and believe me the dogs don’t like the open tread stairs and usually have to be carried. As plans often do, this went awry when we boarded to find they were sticking to the rules and there was no camping on board, wonderful, I can’t describe how we felt after carrying all those dogs up 7 flights of stairs, it felt like mount Everest by the final ones. Next morning we did it in reverse!

The first day we made it as far as the Brenner Pass where we parked up, had something to eat and found a space to sleep in. Saturday morning we headed off to take Sonny and Rusty to Gisela, that hurt and made us wonder why we do this, it is too easy to get very fond of them and want to keep them all. Sonny is a very special dog, and we will miss him badly. 

The next drop was at Gaby’s where their new owners were to collect their chosen dog. On to Kerstin to drop off Benjamin and pick up the stuff she had collected for us. She did warn us she had a lot…..but we were very surprised, to put it mildly, about the amount of stuff she had for us. We never fail to be amazed by the generosity of people, and in fact had to leave some stuff behind until the next trip. Next time she tells me she has a lot I am going to panic, and see if we can hire a lorry! Benjamin is a very lucky dog, the whole family was so nice, and he is going to be so happy there. 

15 dogs stacked like pallets (and a cat in the toilet!)

Then we were off again, this time to leave Felix the cat with Diana near Stuttgart; it was nice to see her again, she is very much a cat lover. Finally, little Allie, not so sad this one, as she is staying in the family, Nina, Antonia’s sister, who lives near Munich with her family, was happy to adopt her, and the boys were waiting up to greet her. 

Wow, just us, and peace and quiet - now what? We decided to sleep until 4am and then set off and try to catch the Sunday ferry, another great idea that went pear shaped: we went to bed at 9pm, overslept and missed the ferry!

The journey progressed without incident, but it was much too quiet, we were soon fed up without any dogs for company, we had to resort to talking to each other, not something we do much, and guess what? we talked about the dogs, how we were going to miss them, and how much easier it would be when we got home, there is not much hope for us.

On Wednesday, Vesna from Greek Animal Rescue phoned, to discuss the trip in March!