Hi Abby -Here's Pinta's adoption story & pictures. She's the podenco we adopted from G.R.I.N. 3 years ago and we absolutely love her!
-Teri Ruhl
Pinta comes to America
In the fall of 2007, G.R.I.N. received a call for help from Virginie LaBat of Passion Levriers in France about a Podenco Andaluz female dog and her five young pups.
They'd been found abandoned and were taken to a pound in Caceres, Spain and they needed to be rescued quickly. G.R.I.N. sent out photos pups asking who could commit to adopt immediately. I'd already submitted an application to adopt an adult galgo from the Scooby shelter and I had been anxiously awaiting a list of galgos that matched the profile I'd filled out. I really hadn't planned on getting a puppy, but the photos of the little red podenco pups were hard to resist. I asked G.R.I.N. if I could have the adorable little red & white girl. I wanted to choose a Spanish name that started with “P” for podenco and since she came to us on Columbus day weekend, Pinta “the painted one”, smallest & fastest of Columbus' ships, seemed like a perfect name.
When Pinta came to us, my girls (ages 8 & 11) and I met her at the airport, and we were surprised by how small she was for 4 months old – she looked so much bigger in the photos. At home she met our 6 dogs – 3 greyhounds and 3 whippets. Pinta quickly lost her shyness and turned into a crazy and playful girl and our whippet Maisy instantly took to being her mom and kept her under control.
I figured a podenco would be similar to my other sight hounds, since they are all rabbit hunters, but I learned that Pinta has a much better sense of smell than the others, and also much more interested in birds. My greys & whippets love squirrels & deer, but Pinta notices everything – birds, butterflies, caterpillars, earthworms - anything that moves! She's more of a typical dog – she barks, digs & fetches and she absolutely loves to eat! I had hoped her floppy ears would eventually stand up, but they rarely do. Pinta has a ton of different expressions - cute, sad, guilty, playful, tired...her face says it all. She's really good with the other dogs, she plays, she snuggles, shares her toys. We have a black and white whippet named Lovey that is Pinta's very best friend. They are so cute & playful together. One of the funniest things Pinta does is the way she arranges blankets. Usually dogs just turn in a circle digging at a blanket and bunching it up, but Pinta picks up the blanket in her mouth and hops around to spread it out the way she wants it. She makes us laugh.
My girls call Pinta the heartbeat of our house. She's always following us around, always so adorable, so playful, so kissable. Pinta is now 3 years old, but we still call her Pinta Pup because she's still as cute, happy & squishy as a puppy. It's hard to imagine life without our podenco.
I'd like to thank G.R.I.N. & everyone involved in this rescue – Isabel from Spain; Virginie from France; & the foster moms who made this all possible. Thanks!
Teri Ruhl
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