Puppies!!!

Before we headed to our next Workaway job, we spent a few nice days camping wild by a lake near Castellar de la Frontera. From our spot, we had a great view - on one side, we could look down to the water, and on the other side, we could see a castle where a village with about 100 inhabitants is located. Next to us was an Englishman named Adam with his dog Jambey, with whom we occasionally sat together. Naomi was able to run freely most of the time, and dogs and cats would visit us. One day, we climbed down to the lake, which was partially quite difficult as there was no proper path and thorny shrubs everywhere. But once we reached the bottom, we were rewarded with pure lake water and pure nature - no human in sight and no trash (which you usually find everywhere in abundance)! Naomi went crazy and raced around like a maniac, she loved it so much :)

On Wednesday, we headed to our new place near Malaga. Unfortunately, there were some communication problems, and we were directed to the wrong entrance. Here in the mountains, there are no real street names, so we had received a verrrrry long description of how to get here. Well, after waiting for several hours at the gate for our hosts to come home, we eventually fell asleep since it was almost midnight. The next morning, we realized that it must have been the wrong gate since no one had come home. Unfortunately, there is also no reception here, so we simply set off again to search for the place on our own luck. A little further, we found Finca Rio Grana and learned that our host had accidentally sent the wrong directions to another house. We were warmly welcomed and greeted by 8 dogs, 6 cats, and 2 horses. Our hosts Brian and Barbara are English and around 70 years old. There are two more Workawayers here, an American and a German, but they are leaving tomorrow. The animals were all rescued, some were previously left in boxes, thrown into the trash in plastic bags, or thrown over fences. The dogs are a colorful mix and very sweet, and with the cats around, it's a wild hustle and bustle. Naomi was accepted quite quickly, and she likes it here, even though it can be a bit overwhelming for her at times. We were able to park our car in front of the guest bungalow, so we have our own fenced area. We will continue to sleep in the car because it's just so cozy :-) but we have direct access to the bathroom in the bungalow with hot showers! Yesterday, we all went together to pick up a mother dog with her 7 puppies, which were found in a box by friends of our hosts. The babies are not even 2 weeks old yet and still have their eyes closed (sooo cute). They have their own enclosure where the sweet mother can feed her young in peace. In addition, we painted the kitchen, and in the evening, the American Workawayer prepared a festive meal with a stuffed chicken because of Thanksgiving. Today, we continued painting the kitchen and cutting firewood. Our host also found another stray dog, which is incredibly cute. They often take in dogs, and if they don't keep them themselves, they are placed by an animal welfare organization. One of their dogs looks just like Naomi, only bigger and male :-D She has had many cats around her in the past few days and is super curious and excited. The cats here are totally used to dogs and not very impressed by hunting attempts.

We are excited to see what the next few days will bring!