Sue's Greyhound Blog

This is Pickle’s story, previously known as Purdy, she is such a character and she really is a Pickle.

Follow up:

It was only 6 weeks after we had lost Tikka and we were happy to stay with two dogs, it was what we had planned, until that is, we met Purdy after an evening kennel shift and Emily and I fell in love. There was at that time, though, “no room at the inn” because we were fostering Venus (now Millie) so we felt safe. However the following weekend Venus found her “forever home” – oh dear, now there was a space!

As I sat at the kennels texting Geoff about Venus, Purdy came out for a walk. Geoff, who appears to be worse than me asked who was going to replace her. I thought long and hard about it because this time I knew that if she were to come home with me as a foster dog there was no way on earth I would be able to part with her. I was offered the chance to take her for a walk, which was truly fateful. It was then agreed that I would collect her from the Vets after she was spayed to “nurse her” on a fostering basis – ok, so we all know where this is heading! She got on fine with the other two, who just looked at each other as if to say “how long will this one be staying for?” She was absolutely no trouble the only problem was that if she was going to stay the name didn’t fit (not a herb or spice) although it did suit her because she is white & black with a few spots like a Dalmatian.

A few days later she was being really playful (despite having had major surgery) with a recently stolen toy of Woody’s and Geoff said “oh you’re such a pickle” that’s it Pickle – you can stay, back to having 3 dogs then!! She is related to both Woody and Pepper and is some kind of cousin sharing various grandparents, the same as Tikka had done. In fact both Pickle and Peppers’ heads look so alike, sometimes it is almost impossible to tell them apart.

She has continued to well and truly live up to the name and is a complete Pickle. She manages stairs with ease and will often gallop in from the garden and fly straight upstairs before I have a chance to stop her and at a weekend this will usually end up with Geoff being pounced on by 28kg of greyhound first thing in the morning whilst still in bed – wakey, wakey! She does like a cuddle in bed if given the chance as a couple of weeks after we got her I was ill, so had the morning in bed – joined by pickle who felt it her duty to keep me company and nurse me instead.

Woody now has to share his sofa but if he moves he’s lost his space. She is quite happy to cuddle up to him and use his bottom as a pillow - patiently waiting for him to go. She doesn’t need much room to start with and will squeeze into the tiniest corner before slowly spreading out so that he gets fed up and eventually leaves the sofa to her. Then she adopts the “Australian” pose of lying on her back with all four legs in the air – very elegant.

She has now taken over as top dog but does it in a very subtle way in so much as she allows Pepper to still think she’s in charge! This seems ok with Pepper who remains completely oblivious to what’s been going on and still bosses everyone around.

When on holiday in the summer we went to watch the whippet racing at The Lizard. This proved to be very interesting as Pickle got herself into a frenzy of excitement during each race and tried to attack anything within range, including Woody. Whilst he was also “pumped up” he remained like it throughout the evening but Pickle was on and off like a switch and perfectly calm between races. Pepper, bless her, didn’t have a clue what was going on but decided to occasionally join in as it looked fun – well she wasn’t an open racer like her cousins, brains weren’t required for a brood bitch.

It was as a result of having more than one dog that we had our garden redesigned and now have a 50 foot square, fully enclosed and gated patio. The gate is shut at night or in wet weather and it really does cut out on the dirty paws indoors. We are then left with 100 foot plus of garden beyond the gate which is mostly lawn.

I don’t know if Pickle will ever get used to this “open space” as whenever she is let down the garden she goes mad, running for the sheer joy of running, incorporating tight turns, spins and dive bombing the other two, who just stand and look at her in total disbelief. She resembles an ice skater at top speed, but I do worry though that one day she is really going to hurt herself. The noises that she makes too are quite comical and when she spins her back legs stay put and her whole body turns 360 degrees, causing her house collar to work its way up her neck and fly off into a nearby hedge!

She is a fine example of a sight hound and follows the motto that “if it moves – you chase it” with a particular (unhealthy) interest in squirrels and will look upwards to follow them in the tree branches. She has actually been caught 6 foot up a tree trying to climb up after one – I didn’t know greyhounds could climb trees. She had just spotted a squirrel and before we knew it she was off after it and had reached head height up the stem of a rather large redwood tree. Fortunately she was still on a lead otherwise I don’t know how far she would have got. The squirrel, I hasten to add, was a lot smarter than her and managed to make his escape. Perhaps with her spots she thought that she was a Leopard. She did however earn herself the nickname “spider pickle” (after spider pig from The Simpson’s movie) by the kids.

While on the subject of trees she really doesn’t know what to make of the Christmas tree. Having watched us decorate it quite happily from the comfort of the sofa she then strolled into the dining room and just stood and looked it up and down several times before walking off again as if to stay “what’s that doing in here it wasn’t there yesterday?!” She has done that a couple of times since – perhaps she’s hoping a squirrel might appear!

She is the most loving and loyal dog you could ever wish to meet. She is always there with a lovely greeting when you come in the front door and when she hears a car door slam she is at the bay window checking out who is there, tail wagging and ears pricked. In fact she wags her tail so much that within a months of ownership she actually broke the end of it – according to the vet it was “too much of a happy tail and she wore it out!” I am pleased to say that it has healed well but I’m sure she’ll do it again some time in the future.

She enjoys nothing more than cuddling up to you on the sofa and will purposefully wriggle round so she can rest her head on your lap and have a cuddle. Best of all is having a rump rub, where she almost does a little dance with her back legs with sheer delight. She will often suddenly start a game of “chase my tail” or “bite my back leg” for no apparent reason while lying on the sofa, which can sometimes be a little dangerous as she has a full set of teeth (rare for an ex racer). This though usually ends up with her falling off the sofa, however it hasn’t put her off doing it. She has the softest coat I have ever felt and is always first in the queue for a brush. She has been let off the lead but I think it was more by luck than judgement that she came back as she has a keen chase instinct and I wouldn’t trust her too much with small dogs having now seen how worked up she can get - she is always muzzled when off the lead for that very reason.

She is an accomplished caravanner having had two holidays and is no trouble at all, however liking her own space is a bit of a problem because she has to share the awning annex with Woody & Pepper so there are often a few grumbles if someone dares to put a paw into her space, but its ok for her to spread out into theirs – that’s what happens when you’re top dog. She has also taken over as home check companion of choice as she is uncomplicated and normal (hooray we’ve finally found a normal dog) – she doesn’t have flooring issues like Woody and she’s not embarrassing like Pepper! She has also done very well in the show ring too, despite being slightly bow legged at the back!

Having three dogs of our own hasn’t stopped us from fostering, but as Pickle can be quite dominant and is top dog they now have to be ones that she approves of. We successfully fostered Suzy before she went to her “forever home”, Twiggy was a bit more challenging as Pickle didn’t really like her too much and now we have Tracey – so far so good and Pickle approves.

So there we have it, a very cheeky lady who we wouldn’t be without and definitely a permanent member of our family whom we all love to bits. Her character means she is a happy hound with the “greyhound grin”, a ready playmate who loves a game of tug of war – and will usually win. She is not, though, and never will be Tikka. We weren’t trying to replace her, but we all think that Tikka would approve and be happy that another ex-racer has found their “forever home” with a loving family, to live out the rest of their life in relative luxury being waited on, having a nice soft bed next to an equally warm radiator and being able to dream of all those bunnies you are sooooo nearly able to catch (or squirrels in Pickles case)!!