During her February 2006 "Operation Scooby" veterinary mission at Scooby Protectora De Animales in Medina Del Campo, Spain, GRIN Board member Abby Christman discovered a flaw in the plan to bring dogs from Scooby to the United States... There were too few crates available at Scooby to easily facilitate future rescue missions. The issue is quite simple - it is cost prohibitive to ship the crates back to Scooby after they have been sent to the US carrying dogs.
A plan began to form in Abby's mind.... What if we could find a crate dealer in Spain to purchase the necessary crates from and have them delivered to Scooby? Simple, right? Of course, complications began to arise before we could even begin, but after many weeks of research and help from GRIN member Sally Padawer - and very generous donations from a number of kind folks - we located a crate dealer in Belgium willing to sell us the crates at cost!
It just so happens that Scooby works closely with a group in Belgium called "Scooby Belgium". After many emails to various contacts, Inge Braekman and Alain Soubry of the Belgian group picked up the pieces for GRIN. They offered to facilitate the wire transfer of nearly $1300 for 12 crates, they picked the crates up at the warehouse AND they delivered the crates to Scooby in May when they went there to pick up 12 dogs. News of the delivery of the crates was delivered to GRIN via an email humorously titled: "THE CRATES FABRICATED IN ALBERTON, TEXAS AND SOLD IN BELGIUM TO BE TRANSPORTED TO SPAIN TO COME BACK TO AMERICA! BUT THE GOOD NEWS...WITH DOGS"
Special thanks to all the players in this adventure - especially Inge & Alain. Our generous donors include: Sally Padawer, Abby Christman, Vince Ventrone, Scott Crossen, Anne and Rob Park, and Judy Greenfield.
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