Mateo was found in Spain in August, 2017 and placed in the local Shelter.  He came to the attention of Lesley Bassett via her contacts over there and things were put into motion to get him into a foster home, sort out his health issues and then bring him over to the UK for re-homing.  Foreign Dog Rescue is operated by Samantha Hale and Annette Rebmann, along with a very experienced Lesley.  Collie Rescue only get involved once in this country. An appeal was put onto Rescue Facebook page for funds to help him.  We achieved this within a matter of days and Mateo was on his way to recovery.   See below for his experiences from personal messages Lesley sent to Sam and Annette. This will also give an insight into how things work for foreign dogs who we bring over to the UK for re-homing and the stresses involved in some of these rescues. The end results of happy, healthy dogs in loving homes are sometimes forgotten when we are in the middle of a crisis, like Mateo experienced along the way. But all was well that ended well, and he is now in his loving, forever home.        
“Hi ladies, the Spanish Collie has been named Mateo and the lady trying to help is called Mayte. She visited him this morning in the shelter and found him to be thin, dirty and scared. He needs his shots 2 days before he can enter the pension (kennels) so she is arranging this and hopefully has a friend lined up who can take him for a few days. She explained she has a 4 year old and toddler twins and is a single mum so apologises for not being able to foster him herself. Initial costs will be €50 release fee, €30 for the shots and €80 for a month’s pension so this will be covered by the funds Annette sent me. Mayte has given him flea and worm treatment attracted to him and has asked if she can keep in touch with his new owners.  One last thing, he’s been diagnosed with Ehrlichia so needs a course of antibiotics for a month then he’ll be fine, it’s not contagious and is transmitted by ticks so shouldn’t affect his travel arrangements. He’s booked to travel on 22 September, but as yet I don’t have the full schedule nor where he comes in to the UK . Travel costs have been covered by donations from very generous “doggy” people.                    I’m in the middle of the mother of all screw ups with Mateo. The transport he was travelling with has been impounded in Folkestone! Background is the van the company were using broke down last week so they’ve hired a replacement which wasn’t licensed to travel animals. Someone has shopped them and when they arrived in the U.K. last night the van was seized and all animals removed to a DEFRA approved kennel facility (I suspect they’re in kennels at the port). We know they’re not with the approved kennels in either Deal or North Weald and it doesn’t make sense for them to be moved off site. The transport company had a robbery last week where their laptops and other goods were stolen. I know this to be true because they posted this info last week as an excuse for loss of my details. Because today is Sunday I suspect they won’t be able to sort this mess out until the morning, Mateo was scheduled to be arriving with me at 21.30. I have offered to drive to Folkestone with my ID to claim him if this will help. At the moment they’re off line a lot because they’re concentrating efforts on sorting this mess out. Something has been mentioned about them leaving the paperwork on the old van but this hasn’t been confirmed and I’m trying hard not to buy into all the FB rumours and speculation at this stage. I am beyond furious at the complete incompetence this company have shown from start to finish. There have been many other smaller glitches along the way I haven’t bothered troubling you both with. I’m sure if Mateo is with DEFRA he is being well cared for and my only concern is getting him to me as soon as possible. I have never used this company before and needless to say will never do so again. I’ll keep all posted but at this stage I will not mention to the adopters as I do not want to cause them worry before their holiday. If this is not resolved by tomorrow I will be onto DEFRA and the Folkestone port myself even if it means going down there.
Things have now moved on and I’ve tracked him down to DEFRA kennels in Dover and spoken to the manager. He assured me all animals were in good condition when he off loaded them last night and Mateo is currently in a large heated kennel with an outdoor covered run. They have a vet on site but have no concerns about any of the animals welfare. The transport company are trying to arrange a van to collect the animals and resume the journey but this won’t be until Tuesday. I’ve given the manager my details and asked him to contact me immediately if Mateo shows any sign of being upset. It appears the problems were caused because the company’s vehicle broke down and they hired a replacement which wasn’t licensed to them and their drivers left their certificate of competence in the old van, it was not an animal welfare issue. I’ve talked to Jan and told her there was a transport issue so Mateo is in holding kennels until Tuesday but that he is doing fine.                                                                                He’s here! Caught me by complete surprise having been told earlier today he wouldn’t be coming until tomorrow. I’d just stepped out of the shower and Peter answered the door to find a strange woman with a collie. Within the first 5 minutes he’s cocked his leg up everything he can find and launched himself into the fishpond. He’s met my lot and had a game with Ollie. He appears perfectly happy, very sociable and playful.”