Sue's Greyhound Blog

Hello again, it has been a while since my first blog about Tikka. Things have settled down and we are all adjusting to life without her, she is still in our thoughts but it is less painful.

Follow up:

Pepper is a much happier girlie too as she had a new friend in Venus, who we fostered before she moved onto her new home, and now there is Purdy - oops, we appear to have adopted her, new name Pickle!!. Let me tell you now about our lovely Pepper.

As I said before, we adopted her because we didn’t want to be left without a dog as Tikka had been suspected of having a cancerous lump. So on a wet and rainy Sunday morning we went to the kennels to view a small bitch that Marie had to show us.

When we arrived she was very friendly, the dogs met each other and we went out for a walk. They were perfectly happy and we had a nice uneventful time. But that was just it, there was just nothing between them, they ignored each other, no spark, no greeting, no waggy tail, nothing.

This bothered me and I was worried how to tell Geoff, I didn’t think they were right together. He seemed to be oblivious to their lack of interest in one another. I needn’t have worried though, as unknown to me he also had the same thoughts – we really ought to try to communicating with one another sometimes!

Back at the kennels I had noticed a small black & white bitch, who looked in a dreadful state, she was suffering from a bad dose of ‘fox mange’ and fleas, all her white legs were pink and hairless, covered in scabs and sores and her black back was a very dull matt. Here we go again, a sucker for a sad case, why couldn’t we choose a normal healthy dog in good condition?

I asked if she was available for re homing. She was, but not yet, as she was new and still being treated for mange. Her name was Paige, (racing name Suspect Package - well named indeed) she was 5 years old had had a litter of puppies and would be ready for re homing once her skin had cleared up. I fell in love with her immediately, she was brought over to meet Tikka and the first thing she did was to wag her tail and lick all round Tikka’s face. That was more like it, formalities done – greyhound No2.

Paige would soon become Pepper, the fact that she was black and white with a few little white speckles on her back helped, it also fitted in with the herbs and spices theme too. It didn’t matter that we couldn’t bring her home straight away as we had a summer holiday booked. We did however visit her most weekends but it was always so hard to leave her behind, eventually the day came for her to come home and it was great.

We had 4 weeks of school holidays left to get used to one another. Only a couple of weeks later we went away for her first holiday in the caravan during the Bank Holiday weekend, she was brilliant and settled into family life and our routine perfectly. Since then she has become a seasoned caravanner enjoying several holidays a year, but we have had to buy a bigger car. Tikka loved having a new friend and it brought the old girl, who was now 10 years old, with a heart condition right back to life.

It hasn’t all been plane sailing though; her love of the outdoors and wildlife has got her into trouble in the past. For instance the time we were enjoying Sunday lunch outside when there was huge a commotion down the bottom of the garden and then suddenly Pepper appears at top speed running past us with something in her mouth – needless to say, sadly the robin died of shock!

Then there was the time at 11 o’clock on a Sunday night when I let the girls out in the garden before bed. She had only got half way down the garden when there was an awful noise, I looked back only to find the re-enactment of a scene from”Alien” going on. There was Pepper wrestling with some kind of wriggling “thing” clamped firmly on top of her head! In the gloom I couldn’t make out what was going on so yelled at her, the “thing “ fell to the ground and ran off into the hedge, apparently unharmed, Pepper meanwhile ran indoors leaving a copious trail of blood behind her. She didn’t just stop in her bed though – oh no.

She proceeded to leak a large trail of blood through the utility room, kitchen, dining room, lounge, hall and back to the kitchen where she then stood and shook. I can tell you that the “Texas chainsaw massacre” was nothing compared to the state of my house that night!! I just stood there, splattered in dog blood wondering where on earth I began to start cleaning it up. The blood had shot up the walls and kitchen cupboards and even got onto the ceiling, we still occasionally find a few spots even now. We patched her up as best we could, hung dust sheets from the walls and in the morning booked an appointment at the vets. As a result it turned out she had torn her ear so she was trussed up with bandaging all along her neck to just above her eyes. She then resembled a cartoon character of a bookworm, with only her eyes and rather long nose visible, looking very silly and needless to say very subdued.

Apart from chasing things in the garden, which she hasn’t been put off from doing, she is a real character, very bossy and a bit of a tart. If she was a human she would be a “ladette”, she goes to the toilet on three legs is not afraid to burp after a meal and occasionally has the other kind of “southerly wind” problem, neither of which she expels quietly. If there is anything nasty in the garden she will be the one to find it and usually eat it. Then there is the endless circling so that both she and us are quite dizzy before she finally settles on her bed followed by an almighty moan, not to mention always having a cough after a drink. She is quiet dominant when she chooses and likes to boss poor Woody something chronic. Being brave is definitely not our thing, she always has to be first out of the back door then waits for backup from Woody and is usually then two steps behind him. She is such a baby if she hurts herself, and is often heard to yelp if she treads on YOUR foot! I can’t imagine her having puppies either, certainly not without a full epidural - I would like to have been a fly on the kennel wall that night. As for any maternal instincts – she must have kept them well hidden.

She is proving to be quite a clever girl in the show ring though, having met Annette Crosbie and being complemented by her at last years Reach the Beach, being placed 4th in her class at the Great Greyhound Gathering and more recently 2nd place in best 6 legs with daughter Emily, she did have rather short shorts on (Emily that is, not the dog)!

She is quite a proficient ambassador for home checking and accompanies us on most of our visits as Woody (blog to follow) has issues with shiny floors! Though this too can sometimes be embarrassing when she decides she is going to scent mark the resident dogs’ bed, attempt to chase their cat, rabbit or chickens or attempt to eat a stray piece of chicken poo through a wire muzzle.

Nevertheless she is our Pepper, our “peter pan” of greyhounds and all is forgiven. Always ready for a walk or a game, playing with her toys especially a game of tug of war which she will usually win (having a full set of teeth helps). She has just had her 7th birthday and now has the most beautiful sleek and glossy coat and when the sun shines it gleams and she is often complemented upon on it. Being black and white does make her the greyhound equivalent of a blonde though (I am allowed to say that being one myself) as she can be a little dim at times and often gets tangled up with trees, streetlamps or telegraph poles when out on a walk, she is just too busy being nosey and walks the wrong side of them and if anyone will get into any kind of accident she is first in the queue. She has learnt a party piece though and being small can sit and will now sit on command. However being let off the lead is another matter entirely as she appears to suddenly loose all sense of hearing, so we have decided it is far less stressful (for us) just not to bother, we do have a large garden where she can let off plenty of steam and it is lovely to watch her run for the sheer joy of running - so long as she looks where she is going.

All these things add to her charm - and we love her.