People who have read the various posts I have made over the last couple of years, may have noted that I used a Toyota Vigo truck to run about in.

Being very useful for transporting anything & everything in the back and indeed, very handy for taking several dog transportation cages, it made for me a very easy time of what I now have come to realise can be quite the opposite.

Transporting dogs in cages albeit slightly barbaric, is very practical and enables many to be moved in one journey in a fairly organised way, handling at pick up and drop off that much easier and what aftermath you have of stress & excitement, can be easily hosed out from the rugged plastic liner fitted to the truck cargo bay.

But I am stating here and now for the record, Karin Hawelka and her Toyota Vios have certainly experienced quite a different story.

For quite some time, Karin’s family runabout has been the 4 door Vios saloon and only in the last year has she made any modifications to it, in the form of heavy gauge plastic seat liners and a grill between front and rear of the passenger area.

Before this time, what ever dogs she picked up from a street, a temple, to the vet, to the shelter, where ever they were going, they just sat in the car.

I say ’sat’ but in fact they just congregated. Passing off criticisms for keeping hot dogs waiting in closed window cars, she would tell her critics that the air conditioning was always on and in fact the engine was always left running.

Personally I have often wondered how the car was never stolen by a grinning thief, seeing her alight from the car leaving it for maybe half an hour with the keys in the ignition and the engine running. But I guess the grinning thief had the smile wiped off his face by the prospect of being ravaged by the cool occupants inside.

Karin once told me the record number of dogs she managed to get into her car and still drive quite a distance. Horrified, I immediately forgot the exact number. In my truck however, I recall having carried 10 - 14 on many occasions but I think she beat that number in her car.

The purpose of me telling you this ?? Well I sold the truck and now my family has a car without a cargo area, it’s clean, it’s going to stay that way and my family insist they come first. So, as a result, I have used Karin’s car for the last 2 Monday vet trips.

It’s different. Now it’s not just the smell. It’s not the residue of something that was sticky but now dry on the brake handle or on the steering wheel, let alone the snudges (nose smudges) on the windows (every window) it’s the overall experience of a family outing. The togetherness, the ‘we’ factor, “excuse me can you move your head, mind the mirror, not you Sweetie, you Orio..! Thank you, I’ll take that…”

Today was a gentle introduction to the experience. I had a tender little pup on my lap (Sweetie) and Orio a larger girl who liked to look out 360 degrees and occasionally think about vomiting in the foot well, at least it was the passengers side but seemingly never quite did, just reached a bit.

In the back were Willie & Jumbo. Now on previous occasions I have slated Max for being a terrible winger but I take it all back. Willie takes the biscuit in the annoyance noise awards and constantly sat with her nose pressed to the side window and just when you thought she had stopped, she would start shrilling in a silly voice and to be quite honest upsetting the rest of the family on the outing.

I say outing, I had said to them as we left the shelter, that if they were very good children, I would take them for a run on the beach and they could have ice cream and play in the sand. After that, they seemed more eager to get in the car.

Jumbo, well he had never heard of playing, let alone beaches and ice cream. Today we picked him up from a house in the village near the shelter to ascertain what his skin problems were. A few days ago, one of the guys from the shelter went to Jumbo’s home and sprayed him for Ticks & Fleas so today he was on his own so to speak, just him and his thin coat hanging on a skeleton.

Jumbo, a 3 - 4 year old Alsatian, weighed in at 21kg. He has some hair on his body but not a lot but he has none on his hips or tail. Just a leathery skin, dark and wrinkly. He took well to the trip and despite his noisy companion, seemed only slightly stressed from his first journey to the seaside.

As we arrived on the forecourt of the veterinarian clinic, Sweetie realised the fun bit was over and decided to urinate a full bladder in my lap as I had reached for the door handle to get out of the car.

Never mind, I think if the tables were turned, I would possibly do the same.

The vet took a look at a scrape of Sweetie’s skin under the microscope and couldn’t find anything wrong. Maybe she had something a while back and is growing her hair back slowly. As for Willie, she had a scrape too and the vet found yeast. Amazingly the vet translated her name as Lilli and the trip back home was quite peaceful. Maybe an issue we need to discuss another day!

Jumbo had his skin scraped too and despite a second scrape, the microscope showed no signs of mange, bacteria, yeast of other reason for the hair loss. His blood tests proved he was slightly anemic but his liver and kidneys are fine.

As with many dogs living in similar neighbourhoods, food is quite scarce and the dogs are the last to be considered. Today when we collected Jumbo, the chickens and more importantly the cocks, were being washed. Yes washed by 2 men, sat with bowls of soapy water and giving them a thorough massage too. But dogs, no such luck.

So Jumbo will need to have his blood pepped up a bit with FBC and ironically, be given a regular special shampoo every 2 -3 days after which we will let the vet check him again to see if his condition has changed.

Last to be examined today was Oreo.

A month ago she had a hernia operated on, in her left groin. Then last week, she has started to limp on her right leg, quite badly at times.

The vet manipulated the leg and it was immediately apparent that she was suffering tremendous pain and discomfort from a luxating patella or to you and me, a knee cap which won’t stay in place.

The vet recommended an operation and when they open her knee up, they will know if the course of action will be to tighten the tension of a ligament or to make a deeper groove in the rear of the patella. Tomorrow we shall know.

Whilst I tended to the finer points of the consultations such as receiving medications and paying the bills, the extremely helpful staff at the clinic convinced the 4 to get back in the car and get ready for the next most important trip of their lives… back to the shelter.

If anyone feels inclined to donate funds or even the use of a pick up truck, I would be very happy. Moreover, future trips and promises of visits to the seaside and ice cream in order to get the dogs into the car will be less stressful for everyone.