Our team
It takes teamwork to make the dream work!
We are a small team made up of a few passionate and dedicated individuals located around the world, all working towards the same goals - to educate and raise awareness of the plight of the Spanish Podenco and to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome the Podencos who need us most. We are their voice.
Together we are stronger.
Our founders Irene and Steve.
Irene and Steve Allan previously ran a dog grooming business together in Scotland. They moved to Orihuela (south of Alicante) in Spain in 2009 and donated their services to local rescues grooming the dogs to help with re-homing. As they met new people and more and more dogs, they became aware of the need to help this particular breed - Podencos. By 2014 they had set up the first Hope for Podencos sanctuary at their converted Finca.
In 2017 Irene received a call to rescue a Podenco in Valencia that they knew was in desperate need of help. This Podenco was brought to them and taken straight to the vets. She was named Princess Leia, to inspire strength. Sadly she did not make it, Irene and Steve could not let this one go, they had seen too much and felt the need to be able to save more - setting up the Hope For Podencos Centre in 2017.
Sadly Irene tragically passed in 2020, but Steve continues to spearhead the foundation supported by the wider team and the vision and dream lives on, stronger than ever.
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Foster and training
Cara adopted Millie from Hope for Podencos in 2017 and has since adopted another five Podencos. She has continued to support HFP and other rescues by bringing them together to raise awareness, fundraising, fostering & offering support across multiple platforms and in person.
Cara is a very specialist foster who takes on some of the trickier cases, we know these pods are ready for their forever homes after a couple of weeks in Cara’s excellent care. This makes her an excellent addition to the adoptions team!
Cara is also part of the team that runs the Free Spanish Hounds march in Glasgow - the first one being this year!
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Adoptions and website
Clare adopted her first Podenco Lottie from Hope For Podencos in 2017 and offered Irene and Steve her services to build a new website. She continues to manage it to this day!
Clare was instrumental in helping to save the centre in early 2018 through persistent fundraising and connecting with our supporters on social media.
Clare leads on all adoptions and re-homes and takes calls with all team members based on the needs of the adopter - to make sure that perfect match is made!
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PR and socials
Gemma has four Podencos, 2 of them being HFP pods - Willow (previously Cookie) and Chance. She’s been supporting the foundation and helping to organise events and fundraisers from the UK for many years now.
Gemma runs the amazing Facebook page to help people in the UK match with podencos looking for their forever homes in the UK - UK based Podencos for adoption. This makes her an excellent addition to the adoptions team!
Gemma is also part of the team that organises the Free Spanish Hounds marches every year in February.
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Training & support
Jackie adopted her first podenco Eddie in 2021 from HFP and experienced first hand the challenges of having an only dog in the pandemic.
Jackie took Eddie to training classes and impressed the team so much with her dedication they offered to train her up and invited her to join the team to teach others.
Jackie has been on many training courses and continues to build on her knowledge in the field - so we of course asked her to join the team and help support our adopters with their own pods and challenges.
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Sponsorship and socials
Kerry has 2 podencos and a lurcher and has adopted and supported multiple Spanish rescues - including fostering for HFP.
Kerry has picked up running our FB - Happy Days Ahead group and has injected life back into our page!
Kerry is also picking up our Sponsorships, another area that we feel we can do better for our generous supporters. Sharing just how special what they give to us and the dogs is and how much it means!
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Foster and transport
Lois is another HFP adopter, foster and now team member who adopted Rubi from us in 2021. She has not looked since, now having 4 podencos of her own!
Lois manages our monthly transports of the pods ensuring all the bloods and passports are in place so they can travel each month.
With her wealth of experience in foster, not only of podencos, she also supports our foster team.
A HUGE thanks to everyone who has been part of the HFP family over the years!
A special thanks to our Spanish team that gave Irene so much support when Steve was still transporting, and lifted Steve back up in such hard times. We will miss you, but who knows what the future holds as we grow, you are family and we know you will always be by our side.
To every team member that volunteered, ran socials, shared, raised funds, adopted, fostered, ran events - you are missed and welcome back anytime!