Ah Spain!

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[Music]
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Hola, welcome to Ah, Spain. Hello, Tanya. Buenos diaz. Buenos das. Today we're going to talk
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about pets, which I'm excited about because we love our pets. We do love our pets. And do you have an
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ah Spain that's maybe pet related? I actually do. So, if anyone's been listening, they probably know we have a
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German Shepherd among other pets. Mascotas in Spanish, by the way.
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And German Shepherds are well, they're they're known for being smart, right?
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Um, but funnily enough, she's Anyway, so she is very intelligent, sometimes too
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intelligent. And we have a regular hike that we go on in the mountains and we just like walk there and we walk up into
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the mountains, which is lovely. And we're right in the Sierra Calon Calderon Mountains and it's beautiful. You can
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walk for miles and blaze has been up there a bunch. Not a problem. Re more
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recently the hammons I mean I'm sorry the pigs
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have been coming down closer to the to the like houses. The pigs are wild boores.
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They're wild boores. I'm sure we could turn them into ham if we wanted to. If I catch them, that's what's happening to
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them, let me tell you. Anyway, so wild boores coming down from the mountain have been getting closer and closer to
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like our urbanization. And you can see because they dig into the into the
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ground. So you know when they're close because it looks like they've been digging for for truffles or something. I don't know
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what they're digging for, but it looks like they're digging for stuff. And you can kind of see the ground there. And so
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are these bores? Can I just ask a question? Are these bores with tusks? Are they those kind of wild boores? Have you seen them?
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I the first one that I saw was a dead one in the road that someone that had
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obviously been hit by a car and this was about 2 years after we had moved up here and I didn't know that they were that
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close and they they're not normally that close. It was enormous. It was the size of a small car. I mean absolutely enormous.
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They needed to get one of those um like uh a crane. They had to bring a
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crane to pick it up and put it on a flatbed to get it off the road. That's how big they are and not something I would want to come
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across to be honest at all. Um, and literally like a a like a month
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after that they put up signs all down the road. So obviously this is new. This is not this is a new thing for this area
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cuz they put up now we have the pretty signs with the wild boar on them like you know careful don't you know if
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you're driving down here. But do they have the tusks? Do they have those? They have the tusks. Yeah.
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I don't think they're that dangerous. I did have a conversation with somebody. Obviously, all animals are more dangerous if they have babies around
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them and things like that. And of course, I wouldn't know anything about what's going on with that particular wild boar. So, I'm just staying clear.
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And Blaze, all of a sudden, a walk that we've done a thousand times, we went up
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the road and she got halfway up the road and she just she was smelling and she
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just turned around and I have never been pulled so hard by her back to the car. I
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couldn't even if I had wanted to got get her to walk up that road again. And that
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So, she saved your life. She probably saved my life. She could obviously smell the the wild boards and
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was like, "Oh, no. We're not doing this." And I was like, "Okay, maybe this is a one-off thing." You know, maybe there was some maybe
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there was a dog she doesn't like. Maybe something else. So, we tried a whole other hike in another place that we've
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been to a lot. Same thing happened. All was good for like 10 minutes walking and then she was like, "Nope, not doing it."
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Wow. Oh, she was she was not interested in these wild boards that she's never met,
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right? She can smell. She has no Yeah, she has no experience. I was like, this is amazing. She has no
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experience with this and she doesn't want to be there. Well, good for Blaze. Good for Blaze. Taking care of us. And I
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feel like this is um from all the places that I've lived, definitely a very Spanish thing because that has not
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happened. We have not been like running into wild war anywhere else that we live. So, that was a very Spanish thing.
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taking over the world just so so you do move. They are they're everywhere nowadays.
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And they have hunting season here. So where we are, we can hear people are going up and hunting. I don't know what
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they're hunting. I don't know if they're hunting wild boar, rabbit. I'm not I'm actually not sure, but there is a hunting season up here as
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well. So Gotcha. Gotcha. That's exciting, isn't it? Things That is exciting.
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Things you don't want to run into on a dark night. No. No. I mean, I think wild boores can
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be mean. I mean, I would imagine. Yeah, they do come out at night, I think. So, that's what
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someone was telling me. You're like quite unlikely to run into them during the day, but I think it's one thing if
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you're just a human. I think they might probably not be interested in you that much. But, you have a a large dog with
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you, that might create a a a contentious uh scenario that you don't want to be in
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the middle of, possibly. So, no, I don't want to be in the middle of No, me either. Yeah.
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Um, we don't have wild boores in this city. I know. Not yet. Not yet.
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So, we're going to talk about pets in Spain and we both have pets and we did
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not bring ours from here, but you did. So, maybe we could start if you want to share your experience of getting your
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pets to your apartment in Valencia because you pretty much went on everything as far as I can tell.
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We did. We did planes, trains, automobiles, and and boats and everything to get here. So, yes, we
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could we could not part with our pets when we left the states. So, we um we brought them with us.
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And I think we've touched on this before, but we did I mean I think on one of our first episodes about how we moved
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here, right? So, but I'll bring it up again in more detail. More detail in a pen pet oriented way,
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let's say. In a pet oriented orientated way. So, we moved from Los Angeles to here. So, we
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had looked at different options. And there is one boat that will take pets
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from New York to Southampton, United Kingdom. And that's the only boat. It's the Queen Mary 2. You can't get your pet
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on any other boat. Can't transport them. It's the only way to do it. And when we were thinking about the move, I
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was like, it's going to be like a 14-hour flight or 14 hour, 15, 16 hour ordeal really if you think about it from
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LA to Valencia. And I was like, I don't know if I can put my cats through that just because cats will poop in lit will
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poop in the case like it's happened before. Like they don't they don't they're not a dog. You can't take them out and have them do their business,
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right? That's not really a training procedure for cats, right? No. And I will say one of our cats when
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we brought it home from the pound, it pooped in the carrier. So we knew we had one that and we so we knew it was prone
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for that already. We've definitely had that scenario going to the vet with a cat and out of
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nervousness. And if you're traveling, they're probably nervous. So it does create the whole scenario creates an
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environment where that's highly likely, right? Highly likely. So I was like, that's not right. Okay. And so when I found out
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about the the Queen Mary, I was like, "Well, let me look at the cost of that." And we could fly from LA to New York and
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then take the boat and and all of that. And the price wasn't that much different than if we were going to fly the whole
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way because we were still looking at like 5,000 in airfares to move everything over. And
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the the cost of the the cruise for the three of us and the pets and everything
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was like 8,000. But we and that was with the insurance and everything that we needed.
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And we had a week's worth of vacation, free entertainment, and food. Right? So, like you can't like that was an
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extra 3,000 for a week. Like you can't go anywhere for a week for 3,000 and have your hotel in a luxury hotel.
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So, you kind of combined your your travel here with a vacation at the same time. Perfect.
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With a vacation and an unwindingness and all of that. And so, I'll give you a little kind of tidbits about the the
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Queen Mary experience, like what that's like. So you have to get your animals to New York and then get them to and then
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they get to England and then from England you got to get them here. So the process with that is
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you get to New York you have to go through all the pet control stuff that you would have to do if you fly which is
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you know they have to have their rabies shots your vet will know what to do and all this has to be done 10 days before
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whether you fly boat or however you're getting your cats to Europe you have to do that. I see I have a question about
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that because I see a lot of people asking about this stuff and I'm always wondering like wouldn't it be best just to go straight
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to your vet and ask because wouldn't all vets kind of know what needs to get done to have a to have a
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pet traveling? They should, but you also have to make sure the vet is registered with the
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USDA. Okay, that's what it is. That's what it is. Okay. So, it's it's that's they because they
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it's the USDA that produces documents that you need to travel. That's that's a good piece of advice.
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Yeah. Yeah. And your vet will submit them directly and then get them back to you.
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And there's fees and it's it's not cheap. It's not ridiculously expensive, but it's like four or 500 bucks to get
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that process to get the paperwork done. But it has to be done. No, I think it was about 400 total for both my animals
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if I can remember correctly. I wasn't spending 800 cuz we might have had a different talk.
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Well, you're fine. I'm not that cruel, people, but you know, come on.
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But you have 10 days to get this paperwork. You It can't be older than 10 days.
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And so you but you really want to talk to your vet like three months before because they have to make sure they're the shots and they have to be in their
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system for so long for a for certificates to to work. and you have a 10day countdown and it is a little
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stressful whether you're boat or planning it or whatever because you get it done. You have weekends in the way
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and fed, you know, you have to pay for FedEx and all this stuff. And I will say our documents were supposed to be in our
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hands and my friend called me as we were at LAX and she said, "Guess what? Your papers just arrived." So she then had to
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FedEx them that afternoon to make it to New York by the next day. So we had them. Yeah. It was like, "You've got to
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be kidding me." and she did FedEx them and they arrived the next day in New York. Oh my gosh. And then the day after cuz we spent two
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nights in New York. So, okay. Otherwise, you would have been the fancy people with a helicopter flying onto the Queen Mary in the middle of the
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Atlantic. What's going on? The reverse medical emergency.
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And now the price of traveling with your pets just went up by 100 grand.
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Right. But what is So, your vet will know what to do. They'll have that all taken care of. But what was interesting
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about on the Queen Mary is when you board the ship, that's their arrival date into the UK.
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Oh, I see. So the 10 days before doesn't mean the day you land in the UK, it's the day you board the ship. So heads up because
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they're at the sea for so long, right? Okay. So no helicopters are possible because you've already
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technically enter. I've heard horror stories of people not having the right paperwork and I guess there's vets near the
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the pet the near the pet near the port I mean where people like have emergency runins and
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Okay, that would make sense because that seems awfully tight. That's you you I'm getting stressed out just you telling this story. So
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yeah, and it was stressful because when we got to the port they didn't care who got on the ship, but they were strict
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about those pets. They they fine-tuned, you know, fine combed whatever fine
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tooth combed those paperworks to make sure everything was aligned for the pets, but they're like, "Sure, you can go on." Like, you don't even check my
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passport practically. Well, and I don't know what other countries are like, but the UK is very very strict.
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So, I don't know how a fine tooth comb I mean, I'm sure it is going into everywhere, but I I do know that from
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from other things like if you need to travel to England from here with your pet and go across the the the channel
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and stuff like that. I mean, it is. You have a lot of stuff, too. You know, it's not like once you're in Europe with your
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pet, you can just travel all over the place and go into England. You still need a lot of this stuff to get into England. They're very, very, very tight
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there overall. Right. And that and this is why the the Queen Mary has this service is because,
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and people may not know this, you can't fly your pets into the UK. It's very And if you I mean, you can you
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can hire a pet uh a pet transport service and it's like 10,000 a dog. Like, it's
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ridiculously expensive. So, the only way you can get your pet into the UK is by boat or by the tunnel drive. That's the
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the easy way. And you have to go through this paperwork, but that's the way you can do it for an and you'll need to do the same paperwork
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coming from Europe to get your pets. You need to get some paperwork. I haven't done it yet, but somebody was telling me
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that because they travel with their pets sometime, their dogs to England, and you have to have these these vet paperwork a
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certain days before you leave and d like it's the same. Getting your pets into England is hard, but getting them out of
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England very easy. So, like, please take your pets and go. But you had a nice experience actually on
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the boat, too, with the pet with the with the two cats, right? It was extremely amazing. It they there
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the kennels on the top floor, so they had the view of forever, which of course they appreciated cuz cats appreciate everything.
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So, you're allowed like four hours a day to visit your pets. Oh, that's nice. They have the times, but you have a lot
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of time. And there, it's funny because there were people that were there the entire time. Like, you know, there's a whole boat to see. We went up once a day
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and we're like, "Hey, cats." I would do that with cats, but I will say if Blae was on there, she four hours
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a day would not be enough. She would be Oh my. I would hear her howling from the other side of the boat. I think if she
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was up there by herself. Well, they do take them for walks. They're not just locked in the the kennel. you have time with your pets,
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but the they have 24-hour caretakers, okay, that are in their little cute little canard uniforms. It's very cute.
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And and they're they're adorable and sweet, like the the the people who do it, they're so loving and caring.
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And they have a a New York fire hydrant and a lamp post from London on the deck,
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so when you walk your dog, they know they can pee in comfort and what they're used to. Yeah.
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Now, it is a little bit as the world is is is more pro dog than pro cat, meaning
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the dogs get to go out and walk and all of that stuff, but they do have a couple times during the week where the dog
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owners are are verboten and it's just the cat the cat people time and they
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have a they have like a big living room up there too. So then the cats can come out in the living room and hang out with their owners and
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Oh, that's nice. And you get pictures and they have those the ships photographer. They have Ace the ships from Diamond Park come
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upstairs and take photos that you can purchase and and the captain comes up and you get
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pictures with the captain with your pet and with you. And so it's Did you do that? They get a little certificate. Oh yeah,
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we did that. Yeah. And we had the pictures printed and we got an ornament made for the tree. Oh my god.
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It says Kunard and our picture. This is definitely not how most people
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are bringing their pets over to Europe. I have to say this sounds nothing like anything any of the other stories that
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I've heard. And and it was it seemed decadent, but
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when you look at the price of what you get out of it, it really wasn't if you're doing the move. And the other thing about it is I mean you still have
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to worry about getting your luggage there, but you are allowed unlimited luggage on the boat. So you don't pay more for that. So we
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had all of our seven suitcases. You know, we still had to carry it and stuff, but we it was great for moving a
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lot of stuff over. And if you're coming from the east coast, you don't have to worry about more flights. I mean, it's really cut a lot of the price out of it. Yeah.
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Too. No, I think that sounds amazing. I mean, definitely. And I think Did you tell me or was I talking to somebody
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else that they said that there are No, this was the boat between
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northern Spain and England if you want to take there's a 24-hour boat, a ferry that you can take.
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There's fairies. You can take your dog on those. And it's a similar situation where there's a place, but they do have some cabins that
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allow dogs if you can book them. So, that's a separate totally separate
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thing. Obviously, not coming from the States, but if you're going around Europe. And, you know, you said if you can book them, that is important to know about
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the the Queen Mary experience is there's only 24 kennels, and it doesn't even mean 24 pets. So, it there's 24 cages.
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The bigger ones are on the bottom, smaller ones up top. But a cat will need two because one side will be the litter
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box and the other side will be for them to lay. I see. But the key to that is if you have two cats, they can both go in those two. So
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you're you're not paying double. You'd be paying for two cages anyway. Do you know? Yeah, that makes sense. As long as your
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cats get along. And then people who have large dogs, they have to book two kennels. And so when we did the crossing, and I think
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it's the prices still run the same. It was about 800 for the smaller kennel and a,000 for the big kennel. So we had to
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make two. It was 1,600 for the for the How big are the kennels? How big are the big kennels? Like if you look at Bla1
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and you put her in one of the big kennels, like is she got room to kind of stand up and walk around or is it more
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like, you know, I can't remember. I'd have to go through our photo album. I don't know if she would need two. I mean, they're
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tall. That's why they're on the bottom. So, they're very tall for her to stand up. But I they are the I think they're the
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same width as the the upper ones, but I can't remember. I don't Maybe it is two to one. I don't know. I'd have to look
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through. I'm sorry. Sorry I didn't come more prepared. I wasn't expecting that throw ball. No, I'm thinking they're probably designed for the dog to be able to get
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up, turn around, walk, but not like really spread out, but maybe Yeah, like a regular a regular It sounds like a
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regular sized crate for a for a dog. So, if you got an extra big dog. Yeah.
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I mean, yeah, they're tall. I mean, you're definitely, you know, a big tall, you know, an Afghan hound can stand up
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in it for sure, you know. Right. Right. Yeah. But since there's only 24 kennels, there is a wait list
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and they book up very quickly, like two years in advance. Now, we booked ours a year in advance
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and we were seven and eighth on the wait list. So, I had backup plans already in in my mind, not necessarily booked, but
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I was like, if we don't get on this boat, then we either take the boat and we don't have the cats and we have a
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friend fly the cats over a couple months after we've moved because then I was like, it might be just as cheap just to
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pay for one friend to fly over. Absolutely. Yeah. No, there are other options. Then obviously you can just fly your pets over as well. And I think
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those I mean I think most people are pretty familiar with the scenario that there's like these pet transport
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companies which are very expensive. I mean if you're looking into that I and and you're looking at cost it is cheaper
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to fly with your animals than to pay a service to do it. Much for sure. And then there's like private
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charter. I mean which is I mean I don't know between 15 and 30 or 50 a
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trip. Oh yeah. I mean from LA I think I looked and it was like 20,000 per person and I was like oh that's cute but
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lovely but and the thing is it's 20,000 and you're in a tiny Gulfream jet so it's not like
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you're like in the lap of luxury you're like a you're like in a little busy hours
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yeah I don't want to be that close to someone else's dog that the outside air
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just No exactly you stretch out you poked out a window but the regular airlines that the dogs
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go in the hold or whatever. And I mean, there's quite a few airlines that will do that. And there are certain times of
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year where they do not travel if it's too hot or too cold on the tarmac, then they don't travel with they don't allow
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pets to travel both, right? And certain airlines that do travel in the States won't take them
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internationally. So, that's a heads up, too. So I um will say that but let me
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just finish if I might. The the the canard thing because I just have like one other point that I was bringing up was the weight list thing is my cats
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were seven and eight on the wait list but six months before they got off of it and when I booked the when I booked the
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voyage I said they're that late cuz I was like what are the numbers on all the weight lists for that summer
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right and she was like don't worry about it. She's like, "What happens is a lot of rich people will book seven crossings
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and then they don't care if they lose their deposit as long as their pets get on the most ideal one that they want to
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do." I see. So when they get they get on the board that they want to get on, then they cancel all the other ones. So all
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these weight lists become open. So they got moved up very quickly. It's another thing about, you know, wealth being very
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annoying for us poppers, you know. Yeah. I mean that's I suppose that's that would be sort of useful if you if
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you have a lot of variety in times that you can travel and yeah so so the weight list it's
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and you don't mind losing a $500 deposit. It sounds like the it sounds like the weight list is not something to be
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afraid of and to talk to the talk to them about the reality of of where you are on the weight list and the and the
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possibility of getting off of it probably. It sounds like they were quite accurate on on their estimates for that.
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So that's good. And we it was six months ahead of time. So I had plenty of time to still book our plane tickets and you
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know with and get get the rest of the trip sorted. And I will say since you brought up airlines and we'll we'll
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shift to the airlines then we had to get the the cats from the UK to to Spain.
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Right. And that experience would have been more like flying from America to Spain or or anything. Just you just had to get your
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cats on a flight. Yeah. Because we had the paperwork done and that paperwork is good for 40 days
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after you're in the UK. So you have like I think it's 40 it's either 30 or 40 days to leave the UK and come to Europe.
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So when you do do it, you have to you have to get the vet to fill out a form
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that says the pet's going to move on from the UK. That the UK isn't the final destination. Doesn't But you you stayed you stayed a few days
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in the UK and that was fine paperwork wise for what you had. You had 40 days in the UK. I mean you
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could have stayed a week in the UK and carried on as long as your paperwork's accurate for that. As long as your paper was fine. And so
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we were good on that. Now the difficulty is is because no airline can fly pets
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in. Very few are flying them out because they're just not doing with the I don't know if it's the hassle. It's just not
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on their thing. So like Iberia where you can fly your pets around Europe from London. They only fly into Madrid, maybe
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Barcelona, but not to Valencia even though there's direct flights. So we'd have to fly into Madrid and then switch
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planes. And then we did trains. And we'll bring up trains later, but that's how we got from planes to boats and
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trains. There you go. So, it looks like you have financially a choice to make of how much you want to
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spend. And if you're spending just a regular amount of money to travel with pets, it's it's on a regular plane or on
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a boat. Or on a boat. Yeah. And like I said, the price wasn't that much difference, especially coming from LA in the
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summertime, right? If you're coming winter, you can get dirt cheaper, right? But it
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Yeah. And then there are you can hire you can hire people to move your pets
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with cars. Correct. I think from the UK. So that was
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Yeah. So, we were looking into that as well as like how do we get from there to
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here and what were the different options because I was like, do we take the
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tunnel over? And there's like there's even like pet taxi services that taxis wait at the tunnel for people with pets
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and you pay for the taxi service there and back. So, you can bring your pet over because you can't bring your pet on the Euro
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Star. You can only bring them on the tunnel train, which means you have to they have to be in a car. Like you can't just ride the tunnel train with a pet.
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They have to be attached to an automobile. So you could be riding the train and pay somebody to go through with the car,
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right? It's so complicated. And then they go back. They just go back and forth be like, I don't know where
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I'm going with this pet. The other thing too is there are these pet transport services which I've seen on the message
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boards. people talk highly of them and it's like these big like tricked out like Mercedes vans with a bunch of
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kennels in them and they pick up all the dogs and they arrange for all of the paperwork and the everything that they
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need and then they drive through Europe and drop off dogs along the way so that
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you could also do that. Well, and I will say I mean we we drive with Blae on vacation and she goes in
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the back of the car and you are required by law. I haven't owned a pet myself
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before. I grew up with with dogs, but you know that was in the in the 80s and I I'm sure things have changed. You
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there was no rules. There's no rules. You are you are required to have your dog secured in
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your pets secured in your car in some way. So they can't Yeah. Like a seat belt like we have we have like um so
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either a a an enclosed area in the back which is what Blae has because our trunk is a is a hatchback and that whole trunk
25:00
area is hers. Oh, I've seen those cages that people like there's like a like a a a tension cage.
25:07
Exactly. You can do that or if she wants to go in the back seat when she was smaller, we had a um you can have like a
25:14
seat belt for them that like attaches to their collar. So, what I would do with her, you I don't think you really want it attached to a collar. So, she would
25:20
then have a um a what's a harness on and we would attach the thing. We would
25:27
attach her to the car with with a like it's like a small a small leash that attaches her to the seat belt and
25:33
is it does it hook to the thing that you hook the babies? Not the babies. It's the baby.
25:40
Oh, is that how it works? Zena might need therapy when she's older.
25:47
Yeah. So, one way or the other, like I would recommend a harness if you're going to attach your dog, not attach them with the collar because a big dog
25:54
or any dog is would become a projectile in an accident obviously and that's what they're trying to avoid. So, yeah, everyone's driving happily until they're
26:00
not. So, anyway, so we've driven with Blaze a lot and and that's been fine just driving around
26:06
Europe. We did check we drove into France. I mean, there's there's no borders and they have the same rules for
26:11
vaccinations and rabies and and Blae has a passport so she can travel. Oh, I was just going to ask that. Why
26:17
are you reading my my mind? So the So what? Because we never got the pet passport because my cats don't leave the
26:23
house. So we we actually haven't even been to a vet here. So I'm going to have some questions about vets cuz I've got
26:28
cats. They don't leave the house. They don't need anything. I'm They don't need anything. All of our pets are chipped and have a
26:34
passport. It's very cute. And so I always forget to take the passport. So
26:39
actually, thank you for reminding me because we took Blaze to get vaccinated yesterday and I and the vets's like,
26:44
"Where's the passport?" I'm like, "I forgot it at home again." and and they're like, "It's okay." So, they when they get vaccinated, there's a sticker
26:50
on the outside of the of the vial of of vaccination and they stick that into the
26:55
passport with the date and the signature so that there's a full record. On top of that, the chip
27:01
is it's registered with the chip. So, the chip information if it's scam will
27:07
show all they they have to they they have to send all that information as well. I don't have
27:12
anything to do with it. All I do is show up with the passport. The vet sends all the vaccination records to the chip
27:17
company and it's all on there as well, right? Well, let me also add to that chip thing. You need that before you
27:23
arrive as well. So, back in the states, they have to be chipped and if your your
27:29
pet has already been chipped in the states, you have to make sure it's the right chip, but it has to be, I think, 16 digits, not 12 digits. So, there's
27:36
And they didn't need a passport to get in. No, no, because the passport's only a European thing. That's
27:42
the paperwork was what you had. Yeah. Okay. So, here they have a little passport. It looks like our little passport. I mean, just a pet one. And it
27:49
has It looks almost It looks the same. Do you have to get like Do you have to take them to the photo to El Court for
27:55
their passport photos? That would be so cute. It describes It describes their coloring and what kind
28:02
of dog they are and their weight and all that kind of stuff. So, it's not it's I I think that another dog can probably
28:09
get away with it. I was that seems easily forgeable. The chip the chip numbers in there, I think. So, I mean, yes. Yes, and no all at the
28:16
same time. Okay. Yeah. And Yeah. So, they and we use the
28:23
chips in our house for the cats to let them in and out of the house because we have a cat door that reads the chips. So, the chips are multi-purpose.
28:30
What? Okay. That is like Star Trek 2001 Space Odyssey. Like, what is that? Well,
28:35
when we first moved into our house, there were they weren't the only cats here. And all the other cats that are
28:41
like out in the wild are like free food and water. Oo, and a soft place to sleep. This is great.
28:48
So, they were having parties. You're out at the store to come home. There's not sure that our cats were interested in that party. It was There was Yeah,
28:55
those other cats were kind of sneaking in and getting things. And they were occupied.
29:01
were. Yeah, I think some of them might have been invited by our cats and some of them might have been just taking advantage of a good scenario. So, so we
29:09
got a as as they are nocturnal, we figured a regular cat door would only invite absolute chaos at 3:00 in the
29:15
morning. So, we got the chip door and it's amazing. So, it took a little while for our cats to get used to that, but
29:20
they did because they knew that the the food and water was on the other side. So, it's amazing what they can get used to.
29:31
[Music] So, I've talked about I had pets, but
29:37
you got your pets here or you came petless and then oh boy, did that change.
29:46
So, so how does one acquire pets in Spain? How does one's heart get torn out
29:51
of their chest? very I just want everyone know I just want everyone to know that Tanya has a menagerie of 500
29:58
cats and a dog. So she needs to she needs to do explain it. It's not even me.
30:05
We had we did talk about this I think at the very beginning because we got we
30:10
since we moved here during co we were the plan we had we had uh bribed our lovely daughter with a pool and a pet a
30:17
dog I will say a dog and a pool. I did that same bribe and we didn't get the
30:23
dog or the pool. So jealous. So much jealous stoic than someone else.
30:28
And so we when when we've been here like a year and we realized we were quite far away from actually getting a house
30:34
because we needed to sort of spend some time looking around a little bit and and we we had a friend I should say a in
30:43
quotes now because had a friend she's a very good friend but she was like she
30:48
was getting a kitten and then that kitten that she was getting had a friend who was a very cute little black kitten
30:54
and she was like maybe you should have a cat while you wait to get a dog. These are not the kinds of friends that
31:00
you need. Obviously, those are not good friends. It was very well me. She was like, "Zena
31:05
needs a pet." And when she was right, Zena did need a pet. And so, of course, this black cat, she was like, "Just take
31:11
this cat for a couple of weeks, and if you don't like it, then this lady will take her back and find another."
31:16
Oh, that's how they get you. Oh, just take this for a couple weeks. You'll get it back. Like, that's never going to happen. So
31:22
we ended up with Luna, who's a very cute black cat, but not very interested in other people and other cats or dogs or
31:29
anything. So we had we have her and so we had her when we were in the apartment and then we were walking through the
31:36
orange fields having a nice walk near where we lived and found a kitten that had been dumped and was in quite poorly
31:43
shape. So we picked her up and took her home. And I was very very adamant to
31:49
everybody in the house that we were just going to bring her back to wellness. You were just going to bring her back to
31:55
health and then try and find a home for her. But unfortunately, she had such a bad
32:01
scenario with one of her eyes that she only has one eye. And we were like, well, no one's going to take this cute
32:07
little thing. So we kept her. And so now you're up to two cats. And then
32:14
now how do we get to 500? Oh my gosh. I just want to say like just the reason
32:20
I'm telling this story is so that people understand how easy it is to end up with cats here in Spain. They are
32:26
they are everywhere. They are well taken care of in colonies and different places and people from a from the local village
32:33
or community will feed and water them and try to get them um fixed and all these things and take care of them. But
32:40
then what can happen is um a cat that hasn't been fixed will come and and give birth to all its kittens in your garden.
32:48
And so so we have some friends that live down the street and when we bought our house
32:54
there were two kittens living in the garden cuz no one had been living in our garden. So when we leave the house, so
33:00
then of course Jawad is Jawad without me knowing starts feeding them because they're so cute and they're
33:06
literally like four months old. And so he's like, "Oh, you want some food? Here's some food." Once you start
33:11
feeding cats, they're yours. That is Everybody knows this rule apparently except for my husband.
33:17
So now we have four cats. And then we have some friends down the
33:22
street who were like, "Oh, we will never have cats. We're dog people. That's never going to happen." They got a a cat
33:30
that had kittens in their garden and their goal was also to adopt out all the
33:35
cats and they only managed to adopt out two of them. So, they ended up with the other two
33:42
and and their cats are cute, right? This is the problem. Cats are really smart. They know how to get you and it's
33:49
very very hard. It's one thing. It's hard to it's hard to resist them and it's also quite hard to adopt them as
33:56
well. So, we had gone to a um for my friend, we had taken the the we had taken the mother cat to
34:04
once she had once she was ready and had weaned off the kittens, we they wanted to take her to get her fixed so it
34:09
didn't happen again. We took her to there as a local rescue. There's lots of lots of local rescues where you can get
34:15
dogs and cats and animals if you want them. Um they often won't take more kittens
34:22
because they're like, "Well, you got this one because you're coming to us and you're currently taking care of it." So, you're at it. That's your That's your
34:28
problem now. Right. Right. Now, with these rescue places, do you know what they charge to
34:34
to adopt from them? I don't think they charge they might charge you just the cost of the of the
34:41
um sterilization maybe just because that's something they had to do. They're not going to charge you for the animal, I don't think, but they might charge you
34:46
for some services. And I think they will require that the animal be sterilized.
34:52
That's something that will have to happen. So we took the mother cat to be sterilized and I went down there with them. So this is a it was quite a large
35:00
rescue area and it had dogs in one area and cats in another and like in an indoor place
35:06
outdoor but it was all in they they all there was a lot of kennels and then there was an indoor space for
35:13
some of the cats and a lot of outdoor space and something happened to the to the
35:19
carrier that the cat was in and the door came off and the cat ran out
35:24
in or was running all over the rescue place.
35:30
Right. Right. Oh my god. It was so crazy because now we've got us, there were three of us, I
35:35
think, and about four people that worked at the rescue trying to catch this cat. And the dogs were going crazy because
35:42
the cat was running down the the aisle of the dogs. And the cat the dogs were like, "Oh my god, a cat." And then it
35:48
was running around and you've got this cat was already wild. It was a miracle it had been caught in the first place.
35:53
And we're running around this rescue trying to catch this like cat and oh my god I don't sounds like a three student.
36:00
It was it was very and we felt so bad cuz we just came because we wanted to help this cat and now we had completely
36:05
caused chaos and they were so nice. They're like don't worry it's fine and we were just like mortified absolutely
36:10
mortified. Anyway, so you know there's there's rescues you can always go to a rescue and get a dog
36:17
or a cat from those places. And that rescue helped our friend to
36:22
um actually post posters and put information up on their website and through their Facebook page and everything to try and help her adopt the
36:29
other kittens. So you can get help like that from rescues even if they won't take the cats, you know, and then like
36:36
we did, you just everybody knows somebody that has a kitten that's ready to be adopted. I mean, you've seen them,
36:41
right? I mean that must have come by you a thousand times. I on many a WhatsApp group. All my WhatsApp groups at I think
36:48
all of them at one point have tried to offer up and they're adorable and then put the with the photos and everything.
36:54
And how cute they are we got too. And how adorable and they are. And I'm not even a cat person. I'm a dog person.
37:01
Really? Now I'm a cat person. Yes, you are. I mean, I think you can
37:07
add that to your resume. What an advice. It's very very very easy to to get cats here. So be careful.
37:15
Right. Right. And they do have like everywhere else they have breeders for
37:21
you if you want a purebred dog and purebred cats. I mean that that exists. I I will say cuz I've always wanted and
37:28
there's a certain time like I'm I do still fantasize that a dog will happen, but now I keep telling the kids it's when they leave because I'm not taking
37:34
care of 40 beings. I got to get a couple out of the house before I bring a new being that I have to walk.
37:40
So what kind of dog would you get? Oh, you know, I'm torn. But I really do like cocker spaniely type things and King
37:47
Charles spaniels. So cute. I like I like furry floppy Tibetan
37:52
terriers, those kinds that furry floppy loving. And there's a lot of there's a not a lot. There's a few cocker
37:59
spananiels in this neighborhood that you know I have said pl
38:04
you. No one's going to arrest a child. Just go grab it. Go. Because getting it the problem, not taking care of it.
38:14
Well, I'm like, it's already behaved. Food is on the lease. It is already trained. Oh my gosh.
38:20
I would never do that. People don't turn me into the authorities. But no, like you said, there's lots of ways to to acquire pets in Spain like
38:27
everywhere else. But there are a lot of opportunities to adopt stray and or you
38:33
know kittens that have been well taken care of since birth just you know maybe in someone's garden or some random
38:39
situation you know and we got blaze from like a I guess a pet store in reality I
38:46
know these are sort of I didn't know they existed here. We were in the process of looking for a German Shepherd
38:52
and came across her accidentally in a pet in a pet store and I was like, "Oh my god, this is horrible. What's she
38:58
doing here?" And I was like kind of mortified. And and so we ended up getting her because that was how
39:05
I'm noticing a pattern here of a week leading up. Trust me, it is a miracle I didn't leave with all
39:12
the with all the dogs in that. Oh my god. All the animals, three hamsters and 500 dogs. I mean, they had the cute
39:18
little whatever those are, the little white fluffy ones as as puppies. I mean, they look like cotton wool balls, and
39:25
they're just adorable. And I think we had gone into a into a shop to look for food for pets, and
39:32
turned out they had a whole pet store situation with with with puppies. And
39:37
now I think that's now illegal. I think so, too. I mean, I've never seen a pet store in the city, but I think
39:44
they have been illegal for like a year or something. I mean, breeders are still around, but I think you can't market
39:50
little dogs. I mean, the last pet store I the last pet store that I saw, well, I'll say
39:56
that 500 times was, I believe, at the Beverly Center in LA when I first moved
40:02
there in the early 90s when they still had them. Remember that pet store? That's I think the only pet store.
40:08
It didn't close that long ago. I mean, it was there for a really long I mean, I I mean
40:13
Yeah, cuz me and my daughters used to go with it. So, I mean, it was still around 10 years ago cuz we I think it was there
40:19
even maybe up to like six or seven years. Wow, that's that's long. Yeah. So, what they did at this pet store here is they
40:25
now you're not allowed to have a pet store, but it didn't seem to stop them from having pets in the store that were
40:32
in an area that you weren't allowed to access without somebody showing you around. So, it stopped people from going around and like banging on the glass and
40:38
stuff, right? But they still had a scenario where you could get puppies from that place.
40:43
And those were dogs there for grooming. Those do you think were for? Oh yeah, cuz we acquired one
40:49
and it wasn't someone else that was there for grooming. No, I mean so Oh, so that when you got
40:55
that when you got blazed that No, when we got Blaze, you could just walk in and and see all of them.
41:02
They were in they had bigger like glass sort of they looked like stables like
41:07
small stables kind of with with glass that you could look in for the bigger dogs. But Blae was sort of by herself
41:13
and of course you've met her. She is so exuberant that as soon as she saw us it was like I'm yours and you know and
41:19
you're like okay. So, and then I felt and then I went home
41:27
and then the next time I'm like, but we can't leave her there. Like, this is I just, you know, obviously if if dogs are
41:33
at a breeder, they're going to stay with the they're going to stay with the mom for as long as is needed until someone
41:39
takes them, right? But if they're taken into a pet shop, it is a whole other scenario where they've probably been
41:45
taken from their mom, I think, too early. That is just my like observation of what I think happens, but I can't
41:51
prove that. But so I think you know they have to take them from their mom early in order to have them in the pet store
41:57
early enough for people to get little puppies, right? I mean so just logistically
42:03
just logistically they have to be taken whereas if we had got Blaze or you know a dog from a breeder that would have
42:10
been different obviously. Yeah. And a lot of breeders too. I mean, and people do talk about breeders and
42:15
puppy meals, but I mean, there are breeders that really love what they're doing and take care of and right, you don't get the dog until it's three
42:21
months or four, whatever it is, they have different rules and they want to make sure everything is is is okay.
42:27
And there's a big difference. And you will know here in Spain, just like in America or any other like place, there
42:33
is a system for breeders that have certifications. So, it's not like the
42:39
wild west here. Like, that's the same as it is anywhere else. Like you said, there's going to be people that are just breeding and there's going to be people that are doing it properly. So,
42:47
that's how that's how we found Blaze and that's how we found all our cats and we would have another 50 cats if we I was
42:53
like, "Stop. This is it." Right.
42:59
We're good with two. I mean, I didn't get the cats that I wanted. I love them. I wanted a main I still want a
43:05
main But when we back in LA when we got these cats, we went to the pound
43:10
to look and I was like, "We'll look and maybe we can get one." And then they have a they have an impulse buying rack
43:16
right at the checkout after you've gone into the room with all the grown-up cats and then they have like a little kitten
43:22
pin pen right there by the register and you're like, "You can't do well. I can't send that one back." And no, we'd be
43:28
left with two. And I also want to say when it comes to cats or dogs in general, now that I've owned four, five
43:36
an like animals from from kittens and puppies, getting an animal that's fully
43:42
grown and has its personality and you know what kind of animal it is is a huge benefit. So I also want to promote
43:48
people getting animals that are in pounds that already are grown up because I'll say we had four really cute
43:55
kittens. We do not have four really cute cats, okay?
44:00
Some of them are monsters. I mean, they're adorable and they're great, but I mean, they all grew up with very
44:07
different personalities that was not visible as kittens. And they're all lovely, but they're extremely different.
44:14
And I Cats do have personalities. I think they do. And they're not as adjustable. You know, you can train
44:20
dogs, I think, a little easier than cats. But I just want to promote also getting dogs and cats from pounds that
44:26
are older because there's a benefit to that. You know what the personality is and I think that's, you know, everybody
44:32
wants the cute little little puppy and kitten, but you know, it's not necessarily a benefit
44:40
except I was think. So, we've we've talked about like
44:46
registering in the in the pet passport stuff, right? So, what are some other
44:53
rules that people should be aware of in Spain? Like I know what I've seen here in the city is when
44:59
not all the time, mind you, you are supposed to pick up after your dogs, but please walk with your eyes towards the
45:06
pavement, not up to the sky. But I what I do see is a lot of people washing the pee off. They all carry
45:11
water bottles to like dilute the pee on the sidewalk. That's I think something which is quite nice that people do. I mean, like you
45:19
said, we the places that I've lived, it's been pretty good as far as people picking up. Uh, but yeah, the the pee
45:27
seems to be something that people are much more like open to doing, which is just carrying a water bottle, like that
45:32
seems easy, but carrying a bag of poopy bags some for some reason is not, but
45:37
and watching your neighbor step in it because you've let your dog poop in the middle of the sidewalk, not even to the side, but like right. We don't have that
45:44
happening a lot here, but I have before picked up someone else's dog's poop that they that they when they had pooped in
45:51
some in right in front of someone's gate and left it. And I'm like, that's just not nice. That's not my dog's poop.
45:57
That's not my gate, but that's my neighbor and I've got doggy bags, so let me pick that up for them. You know,
46:03
and yeah, there's a special place in Houble Hockey Sticks for people who don't pick up
46:09
after their dogs. Oh, I wanted to say too, besides the people who don't pick
46:14
up after their their their pets on the street, there is another there's another section of houble hockey sticks for
46:20
certain people and those are the people who leave their dogs and cats unattended and stuff. And
46:26
I will say there is a law in Spain that you can't leave your dog for more than 24 hours or a cat for more than 3 days.
46:33
That seems reasonable. Good to know. I mean, our cats will probably be happy without us for more than three days. But as far as giving
46:39
them food and water, we probably they've never been left unattented that long, but I'm sure they'll be like,
46:44
"Peace and quiet. Thank you." Right. I mean, I think a cat's one
46:49
thing, right? Like, if they've got enough food and clean litter boxes around the house, you can probably leave them for a while because a cat won't eat
46:55
a whole bowl of food in one sitting. Whereas a dog, you can't leave food out for a dog because they'll depends on the dog. We can leave it. Bla
47:02
is very, she doesn't eat. She only eats if she wants to eat. Yeah.
47:07
Really? She doesn't. I put a ball out for her this morning and she has looked at it and then walked
47:12
away and then two of the cats went in on it cuz they're like, "So Blake,
47:19
it's usually the opposite. The dog eating the cat." But she would eat all the cat food if she was left the cat food. It's it's
47:25
what you can't have basically. But speaking of sort of laws, you are supposed to have your dogs on leashes. I
47:32
mean un you know unleashed. Everyone's dog is amazing and they can be not leashed. I mean that's just not true. So
47:40
just keep your dog on a leash because we have also there's people that don't want to have a dog running up to them,
47:45
you know. So it's not necessarily your dog is dangerous. It may be that your dog is friendly and other people are not
47:51
dog friendly. I and people have relative fe I mean have
47:56
have fears of dogs. I mean there are people with the real fear of dogs. I will have to say we were at the we were
48:02
at a cafe the other day and I never even told you this in private so I'm going to tell it to you in public on the podcast for a first time story.
48:08
We were at a cafe in the other side of town and we just looked and there was a there was a child walking his cat on a leash
48:16
down the sidewalk. It was the cutest thing. And we were all like, "How did he get that cat?"
48:21
Oh, we used to do that with Luna idea. Oh, totally. She would do it. did. She
48:26
loved it because at the time we were in an apartment and she's quite an outdoor cat and she would and she loves being in the
48:32
car. She's she's like a dog. She loves being in the car. She likes going for walks on her little leash. Yeah. I just
48:38
feel like such an idiot doing it. But I was like, I've always wanted a cat that would go
48:45
on a leash, but you can't even put a collar on my No, she doesn't like collars. She'll pop them off. But yeah, but that is very
48:51
They're Yeah, she used to love it. Now, of course, she's she's outdoors and she doesn't have to care about that. But
48:56
yeah, and also I have I'm going to say I haven't owned pets myself before, but I
49:03
have known a lot of people with pets. I've been with other people's pets in the States and England, and I have never
49:08
come across more people absolutely terrified of pets than I have
49:13
in Spain. It's one or the other. Yeah. Tons like more like just just way more. Like I
49:19
understand with Bla1 she's a big dog so I can sort of get it. People will literally cross the street and walk on
49:25
the other side and then other people are just like all over her. So I will say I' I've come across that more here. So do
49:31
be careful like not everyone's going to love your animal and that's fair enough and that's their prerogative. And the
49:37
other thing is Spain does have I think like America has these two but there is
49:42
a thing called PPP dogs which is peros potential pellegros which is potentially
49:48
dangerous dog. They have a list of dogs that are you are required to have a
49:53
criminal background check and you are required to have insurance um above I think 150,000. You are required for them
50:00
to be microchipped and you have to register them with the local city and they are technically required to be
50:06
muzzled in public and on a an especially short leash of 2 meters or or shorter
50:12
and you can only have one person walking one PPP dog. So if you
50:21
have right so you can have control. So these are like your big mus I will list the dogs. I haven't heard of
50:26
them all. I'm going to list them in case people own one. And then you know this dog.
50:32
Okay. So, an Aikita Enu. We have a neighbor that has one of those. Um, they're super
50:37
cute, but Blaze does not like this dog at all, but they have a relation a special relationship. They are super
50:43
cute. American Stafisher Terrier. Stafisher Bull Terrier. Pitbull Rottweiler Doggo Argentino.
50:50
Fila Brazilo. Tosso enu bull mastiff Doberman Napoleon
50:58
mastiff pressa canario maloan mayoran pressa and a this is
51:04
French dog de bordo like basic I don't know a bordeaux dog anyway those are the dogs that are on the list and it varies
51:11
in different parts of Spain and it will vary in different parts of Europe so if you you probably know if you have a dog
51:18
that is likely to be one of these types of dogs is it's probably one of these types of dogs where you live as well so
51:23
I would say That's probably the case. Right. Right. So, I have a question because like I said before, we have
51:30
indoor cats and we don't have pet I haven't done all the stuff we're supposed to do because they've never left the house. Like we haven't gotten the pet passport. Don't turn me in. Um
51:38
because we haven't gone to a vet yet. Like there's no reason to have as has gone. So, what has been your veterary
51:43
experience here? I mean, I see vets on every corner in the city, but we have yet to Yeah, there's very nifty actually. So
51:49
thearmacies have the green crosses, the lit up green crosses on the side of the
51:54
building and all the veterinarians, not all of them, but they have they can have a blue cross. So if you're emergency looking for a vet,
52:00
they have a blue cross that's lit up, which is quite nifty. Yeah, I've seen that. I mean, we've had really, really nice
52:06
experiences. I will say it's they have same as what we experienced in the States, they have
52:12
your regular vet and you can there's a 24-hour emergency vet. we can get an
52:18
insurance. So an insurance for for Bla1 for one pet is 180 euros a year and that
52:25
covers her free vet free vet visits
52:31
like the whole year. Um so the the required vaccines are also free and then
52:38
it would be I think 20% off any kind of procedure or something. And how much do you pay a year?
52:43
€180. Oh, that's not bad at all. you know, one vet visit in the States, 200.
52:49
Well, I mean, this was how it was sold to us. Like, one vet visit with a vaccine and then something else and you're you're up there already, you
52:55
know? I mean, a vaccine is usually, I think, around €25. A vet visit might be
53:00
€25. So, you and then you've got then they looked in her ear and and gave her some other stuff and you're kind of up
53:07
going to be up there at 6070 and that's just once, you know. Right. And dogs and
53:12
dogs go to the Well, you have outdoor cats, so they can tend to go to the vets a lot, too. But dogs tend to
53:17
That's a whole other cat. That's a whole other conversation of our pets, our cats coming in covered in blood after a fight
53:24
and you know, right? Blood and and briars stuck in their fur.
53:29
Yeah. But they've been the vets have been really great. They the one that we go to, they have a WhatsApp, so I can communicate through WhatsApp. I can get
53:35
an appointment through WhatsApp and do everything and say, "This is what happened. Can they come in?" They always take them the next morning like super
53:41
early if if needed. And it's it's been a really it's been a very good experience. And you know if you have dogs especially
53:48
certain I mean they eat everything. When Bla1 was a puppy I mean good lord. I mean she ate Jawad's Jawad had all his
53:56
for his kitchen garden. He had all the little seeds. He had them all in little pots and they all had nice labels on
54:01
because we had a label maker. So he had gone to town with these little labels of what everything was. And it was all on
54:06
this table waiting to grow so that it could sprout and then get put in the garden. Bla1 upturned that table and
54:13
just ate everything she could find and was pooping. Of course she did. She was pooping out labels for a week.
54:18
So it's like, "Hey, we got cucumbers in the poop today." Like, oh,
54:25
it's nice when the poop comes out labeled anyway. I mean, you know, so sometimes you need a vet. If you have if
54:30
you have pets, you need a vet. And we've had a very good experience here. Right. Right. And I've noticed too here,
54:37
I mean, my cats, I'm I am very frugal when it comes to pet ownership and my
54:43
cats do not get fancy cat food. I don't I I kind of don't believe in that. I think the kibble's just fine. So, it did
54:49
take us a while. We did go to the fancy pet supply stores for food like the first couple weeks cuz I will say when
54:55
they got off the But what I didn't mention, I was going to say I got some pet food from you when you first got here. How
55:01
did that happen that I ended up with your cat food? H because the cats first for a week were
55:08
fed sushi and and and roasted chicken and and and and poached salmon for a
55:16
week on the boat. That's the other thing about the boat. The green spoils the cat. So they they it was spoiled over there.
55:22
Yeah. Now I have to say that cat food I gave you, they now eat. Okay. Well,
55:27
so it took them a while, but now they do the cheap stuff from Mercadana, much to my pleasure, but we did do we did do the
55:34
the round of the other going to trying to find the IMS type foods and all of
55:40
that. And we went to a place called I want to say it sounds Japanese. Kiwoko,
55:45
is that a Japanese word? I don't know if it's a Japanese store, but it's one of the main pet stores here that is that is like a PetSmart. I mean,
55:52
they have everything including pet adoption in there. Um, right. I've seen those at a Mscot. Are
55:57
there other stores too that I don't know about? There's Yeah, Mscot is is one. As we said, Mascot is the name for a pet in
56:04
Spanish. And then Tianda Animal we love. It just depends on you either in a in a in a strip mall place. You will either
56:11
have a Tianda Animal or Kiwoko, one of the others. Okay. And then Zoo Plus is a
56:16
really good place online if you're not going to Amazon or something. Zoo Plus does all animal stuff for ordering food
56:23
and things like that if you want it delivered. Um, we have the weirdest cats. They won't eat fish. So, they will
56:28
not eat fish. Um, like flavored dog cat
56:33
food. Yeah, it's bananas. So, you know, as long as you find one, any grocery store has a section for
56:39
animals. You can get treats and food and litter in all the grocery stores, but for big varieties. And then there's also
56:46
a lot of independent um places that do probably the higherend kind of food. And
56:53
your vet will also have food. Most likely, they'll have a little shop for food and and things as well, right?
56:59
Especially if your pet needs something special, just like any vet back in the States. They have the up market. You know, it's
57:06
only €50 a can. You'll love it. You can't not feed your dog this. Absolutely. I'm on to their game. I know. I'm on to
57:12
their game. It's so true. And then if you need um we we've had to run we've run into a few
57:18
times where we've needed um Bla1 to go stay somewhere because the cats can stay with people popping in but Blaze
57:23
obviously needs a lot more attention. Um yes, you have to usually have to board a dog where cats can get a visitor. Now we
57:30
know every three days by law, right? So we obviously invested because we have a German Shepherd. invested in um
57:36
training for Bla1 when we had her as a puppy cuz we didn't really know what we were doing and we needed to learn how to
57:42
train and train her. Um so they also do pet lodging and also if you have fine
57:49
private people that might do it they're probably going to charge around 2025 a
57:54
day for a pet. Wow that's really inexpensive. I mean compared to LA's like 200 a day.
57:59
Oh wow. I never had a a dog in LA cuz I'm like if we in the states if you want
58:04
to go away you're paying for another vacation for your dog. Well, you need to find somebody that will take your dog which is you know
58:10
that's easier if you have a smaller dog I would say. And if you have cats easy to find someone to pop into your house
58:16
and and you know make sure they're okay and give them a little tickle and some food and some water. But Right. Right.
58:23
And grooming we've never done so. So I have no idea what that costs. Our vet used to do it.
58:29
I see a lot of grooming shops in the city. So, people do pamper their pets here like everywhere else. I've also seen grooming vans. So, I
58:36
think they also go around and do it at people's homes. So, especially in your suburb type places.
58:41
Yeah. Yeah. That's We don't have ice cream trucks, but we have grooming trucks apparently.
58:48
So, now I haven't seen this. Have you seen this in the countryside where you had
58:53
talked about, you know, we have you've acquired stray cats? Have you seen stray packs of dogs out in the countryside?
58:59
So Blae got out one time when she was a puppy and just sat on the other side of our gate, but nobody knew we had her. So
59:07
the police were called. So what you can do is you can call the police, not the emergency number if you have a stray
59:12
dog. What usually happens around here is you grab the dog if you can and then you put
59:19
it on a local WhatsApp group and see whose dog it is. If you can't figure that out or the dog looks dangerous or
59:24
something, you call the police in and they have every sort of municip municipality will have some kind of
59:30
system for getting the dog to one of these lodging places. They probably have an agreement with them. So there's not a
59:35
lot of stray dogs, but there are sometimes quite a lot of dogs that have escaped from from homes. So this is kind
59:42
of where I this is what I've experienced. Not a lot of stray dogs, but that doesn't mean you won't come across a stray dog that has got out. And
59:50
then it's just a question. like we've we've found quite a few dogs outside in our community and just we just it goes
59:56
on the WhatsApp group and everyone's like that one again, you know, and it finds its way back home. Um, and I've I
1:00:03
have myself driven out through the fields and seen a stray dog that really did look stray and and I had gone back
1:00:09
to the police station and given them the GPS for it and and they would have sent someone out to get it, never saw it
1:00:14
again. So, no, I don't see a lot of stray dogs, but a ton of stray cats,
1:00:19
obviously. Right. Right. And there's not really a there doesn't really seem to be a government system
1:00:26
for this. It's all very private. If there's a colony being taken care of, if there's people sterilizing cats, it's
1:00:32
all done privately through groups of people. So, there isn't like a government pound. I don't think so. Private.
1:00:38
It's all private. So, we've seen we've gone to rescues. So, I've seen people post in the groups that like these
1:00:44
rescues or the like the pound type places, they're out in farmland, right? They're out in the middle of stuff space
1:00:50
and they're done, I would imagine, all privately. So, even you can go in and you can get help and you can find dogs
1:00:55
and cats there, but you they're they're working on donations almost surely. Yeah. I mean, some people it's their
1:01:00
dream. They get a farm. They get a little finker. They're out there with all their rescue animals. And boy, can you probably collect a full farm of
1:01:06
animals within about 5 days, I would think. That would be my guess. Oh, one thing we
1:01:12
didn't touch on. I think we kind of not surprisingly went off on a tangent on I
1:01:19
know on part of the trip for you kind of stopped at the plane, but you also took a train with your cat. So, could you
1:01:26
just quickly tell us and then we'll be back. Well, you know, this is actually important for people living in Europe
1:01:32
because you will be facing the train a lot more than anything else and if you don't want to board your pet and you have a small pet. the train that is.
1:01:39
Thank you for reminding me to bring that up. So, it is it is relatively easy if
1:01:45
you have a small pet. So, cats and dogs that can fit like an underseat carrier type of thing. Even though they're not going under seat, they have to be in
1:01:51
your lap. So, Blaze So, Blaze is a small Yeah. So, not Blaze.
1:01:58
Yeah. You would be sitting on her lap. So anyway, um, but it's like, you know, the
1:02:05
the pets that you would put on a plane with you that that size, your small dogs and your cats.
1:02:10
Most of the trains, Renfe, we go, "Oo, they all allow them." And it's like about€10
1:02:17
um to per per pet in a in a um in a pet carrier.
1:02:22
In a pet carrier, not on a leash walking around, not on a leash. So, it's only a pet carrier. And
1:02:30
but if you use Renfeay, if you pay for like the fancy ticket, like the first class ticket, then that's in the pet
1:02:36
fees included in that. Okay. So when you're booking, look and see because if you book far enough in advance, the first class ticket might
1:02:44
only be €10 more, 15 more. So you might as well get that and put your pet because you're
1:02:50
not paying extra for the pet and then you're not paying extra for seat selection if that matters to you. That would be one pet.
1:02:56
One pet. Yeah. Yeah. So, if you wanted to like travel with two pets, even if you went first class, you'd probably still need to buy
1:03:02
another ticket. And well, it's it's only one pet per person, too. So, you'd have to solve that
1:03:07
problem. Two cats. Yeah. One pet per person.
1:03:13
One pet per person. And now, Renfeay, the stateowned system, does allow large
1:03:18
dogs up to 40 kilograms. So, that's a pretty large dog. That's what, like an 88 pound dog, something like that,
1:03:24
right? And they do allow that, but only on certain routes. Only like from Madrid
1:03:29
to Barcelona to Alakante, like the major routes, you have to book it way in
1:03:34
advance because they have a special car that they will allow a dog in and only one or two dogs per train. For the large
1:03:43
dogs, the little dogs, there's no limit. As far as I can tell, there's no limit. But for the large dog and you have to
1:03:48
get there like an almost an hour like 40 minutes to an hour before because there's paperwork and there's an
1:03:53
assistant to do because they have to one make sure the dog isn't going to attack other people and and all that stuff. But
1:03:59
they can you can travel with a large dog um if on that line only. I don't think
1:04:05
on we go or any of the other lines you can That's good to know. They would presumably be in a crate or they would be you'd be walking on
1:04:12
Well, no. You just can't have a You just can't have the only You can't carry a crate onto a train, right? So, it's only
1:04:18
I mean, you could with two people, I guess. So, you can actually walk on with a dog on a leash for those ones if it's a big dog. Okay, that's
1:04:24
if it's a big dog and there's only one or two for train. So, it's definitely it's going to require some navigating like you're not necessarily going to try
1:04:30
to do that last minute, you know, like you could with a with a a a dog or cat in a carrier.
1:04:36
So, speaking of getting dogs on, now Bla1 is not a service dog and not quite
1:04:41
trained to that level. Do you know anything about service dogs on public transportation?
1:04:47
So, yes, service dogs are allowed, but they have to be service dogs. They
1:04:52
cannot be emotional support dogs like people like to do in America. Like, they
1:04:57
have to be service dogs. And you can actually be fined if your dog is on a train and it's getting pets and you
1:05:04
you've said it's a service dog and it's getting pets or it's barking. They can find you and kick you off the train
1:05:09
because that's not a service dog. So you you have to be they're not they're not and I and I really respect that because
1:05:15
service dogs require a lot of training and and they and they serve a purpose. So when people scam the system for their
1:05:22
pet, they're hurting the people it's supposed to benefit. seen some delightfully calm and wonderful service
1:05:29
dog fails. You know what I mean? So, it's like not all dogs that even go into the service
1:05:34
dog training make it through. And some of those dogs come and those dogs are delightful. So, yeah, you're absolutely
1:05:40
right. I mean, they're when a service dog makes it through all that training and is actually a service dog, that's very special.
1:05:46
Yeah. And so, with the the service dogs, they don't count as the dog limit on the train. Of course, you know, so they so
1:05:52
and then they I think they can I don't know about go anywhere, but you know there's there there's a lenient they
1:05:59
don't follow. I'm sure they can go anywhere. Yeah. Perfect. I think that pretty much covers Well, that covers my knowledge of well
1:06:06
dogs. I may have a thousand more stories, but things that other people need to hear about. We might have even
1:06:11
got I think we've covered the basics of of owning, bringing, acquiring pets and
1:06:17
taking care of them in Spain. I think so. I think so. Well, until the next time.
1:06:24
Till next time. Adios. Hey, can't get enough of us? Follow us
1:06:30
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1:06:36
updating with exciting new things as we grow. We would love for you to message us with any topics you would like to hear about.
1:06:42
See you next time. Bye. [Music]