When we adopted Moreno on 14th November 2006 it was as a result of a lot of deliberation for Sands and I. At the time I had decided to take a year off, and we had picked our apartment in Spain as the place for this time to reflect, recharge and decide on what would be our next step.
In adopting Moreno we decided to commit to living in Spain.
It was a big lifestyle decision for us and one that was to lead to a remarkably rewarding (if not exhausting) life helping abandoned cats and dogs: Sands through her Cat Re-Homing Project and myself through pet transport.
Since 14th November 2006 Sands and I have had one night away together: my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2011 when we met them for dinner in Barcelona.
There has not been one minute that we have regretted either the adoption of Moreno or the effect it had on our lives. Subsequent adoptions of Saidi (RIP), Orla (RIP), Oscar, Fleur, Dusky, Kasper, Teo (RIP), Tigra, Sophie (RIP), Tobi, Marti, Tito and Hollie followed naturally and without too much thought.
I write this because when Sands found Dinky and the Donuts in August 2020 many thought it was inevitable that we would adopt them, and it is fair to say that was our initial expectation.
Emotionally an easy decision, but as in November 2006 a big lifestyle decision. Having moved back to the UK we had accepted that for a number of years we would in effect just switch life around: both live in UK, go to Spain separately and whilst COVID-19 has put that plan on hold it was still very much our intention. Depending on how long we held onto Spain we thought we may spend winters there with the animals (Tobi, Marti and Tito at 4 years old are the youngest), before buying a smaller Cottage in the UK and possibly a mobile home so that we could spend in Europe visiting all the people we have got to know over the last 15 years or so.
Adopting Dinky and The Donuts would in effect put a stop to those plans. We would be signing up to another 15+ years (with luck) with a sizeable animal family so wintering in Spain would not be an option, nor would touring Europe in a mobile home as being a tad morbid at our age by the time we had got back down to a portable amount of animals, we would be too old.
So the decision to adopt Dinky Donuts was really: stick to our plan or scrap the plan and spend more years here in The Cottage and then downsize to a small cottage to see out of final years.
We ARE adopting Dinky, Cody, Evie, Ferdi, Millie and Xavi and we are looking forward to many more years not only with them but with the Spanish contingent. It does mean that we are signing up for “more of the same” regards our own lifestyle but it has served us well for the last 16+ years and if we are as happy as we have been for the next 16+ years we will be very content (and very fortunate). Hopefully we will get some use out of Spain in the next couple of years before we sell it as that part of the plan has gone. I think I will also stop the transports from 1st January 2020 as being away two weekends a month is a big ask on Sands now we have a bigger family.