Sue's Greyhound Blog

Here we are then, it’s the end of the summer holidays and we’re back from ours - separate holidays that is……

Follow up:

What can I say? We had a fantastic time – Disneyland Paris was fabulous but very tiring, mind you if I heard “it’s a small world” one more time I thought I’d go mad!! The weather was hot and sunny but we were thankful to be relaxing in a pretty Gite in Normandy for our second week with the use of a pool and some home-cooked meals provided by the owners, I could go on, but you’re not interested in our holiday, oops sorry - what about the dogs I here you ask??

They spent theirs in kennels near Salisbury in Wiltshire, with Steve & Sue - as publicised on the top door of the kitchen at the kennels.

We hadn’t used kennels before as Tikka holidayed with my parents and when we had multiple Greyhounds we just didn’t go abroad. Steve & Sue were recommended by Marie and others who had used them so we decided to give it a go. Emily had sat her GCSE’s this summer and I’m delighted to say she did very well and we are all VERY proud of her, so after all the hard work she had put in and as a kind of treat (for everyone) we thought “Disneyland Paris here we come”.

As if we weren’t anxious enough about leaving the dogs, just 3 ½ weeks before we went away the two girls had a freak accident in the garden which resulted in them both having a bit of a “punch up” - to put it mildly!! Pepper sustained multiple leg injuries which needed stitching, including a fractured leg resulting in 4 days at the vets. While Pickle lost two teeth, also needed stitches to a nasty wound just below her eye and 3 days in the vets – sum total £1800 + - ouch!! - thank god for pet insurance.

Sunday morning arrived and we packed the dogs into the car and headed down to Salisbury. I must admit to having nerves about leaving them, especially Woody who will be 10 this month. To the best of our knowledge he hadn’t been in kennels since he retired at the age of 3. Pepper, being a bit dim and a bit of a tart, we thought would settle ok and Pickle had only been with us a year so we thought she’d be fine too. At the last minute we thought it best to keep Peppers leg safe so instead of them all sharing one large kennel she would be on her own next door allowing her injuries to heal fully.

It was a lot easier to leave them than I thought it would be. When we arrived we handed them over with their luggage (food, fleeces etc), said our goodbyes and left – I do remember looking back over my shoulder and seeing Woody & Pickle watching us go, pulling on their leads after us. Pepper seemed quite oblivious to what was going on - as usual. I didn’t feel sad or get upset though like I thought I would because deep down I knew that they would be well looked after. They would be fed, watered, kept clean and have a bed to sleep on, what more did they need – they’re Greyhounds, they’d just sleep anyway!?

Dogs also don’t view time and analyse things the way we do, so as far as they were concerned one minute we were with them, the next we weren’t, then we came back again and wow, when we collected them what a welcome we had!!

We had often thought about them while we were away but had always wondered how they would react when they saw us again – well here goes. When we arrived Steve came round the corner of the kennel block being dragged by 3 very happy hounds, tails wagging furiously. Woody was “prancing” (looking more like his brother Prancer by the day) and could hardly walk, Pickle kept leaping up in the air and almost landed on Pepper and was doing continuous somersaults and Pepper was doing the “greyhound grin” and furiously wagging her tail so much so that she managed to split it – blood everywhere, welcome home!!

After that exuberant welcome we realised we needn’t have worried. Steve & Sue said that of course they had been fine – just like we knew they would have been. Pepper though, hadn’t been as brave as we thought and had got lonely so they all ended up in the large kennel together. Apparently they all enjoyed watching the free entertainment that was laid on too - the wild baby rabbit show!! The rabbits would squeeze under the fence opposite and play just in front of their kennel run most days. This sent all the racing dogs wild but apparently ours were so laid back they just lay out in their run soaking up the sunshine watching them – why can’t they behave like that on a campsite?!

After a thankfully uneventful journey home, within minutes of getting back Woody & Pickle both took up residence on the sofa while Pepper was in “Australian pose” on the bed by the bay window – almost in unison they all let out an enormous sigh and fell fast asleep.

Since our return home they have slipped back into the normal routine quite happily, with one exception – Woody, he’s doing my head in! Wherever I go whatever I’m doing he’s there, like a bad smell, lying by my feet, tripping me up, following me to hang up the washing and back again, he’s even come upstairs and laid on the bed, waiting for me to come out of the shower and get dressed. Now that was just too much! It is certainly not out of the question that they will return there for their summer holidays another year, so they’d better get used to the idea!

This Bank holiday though we have just returned from another long weekend away at Graffham caravan and camping site in Sussex. I must admit they could tell that something was up when we started with all the packing again but this time much to their relief and tripping us up and getting in the way, they all came too and thoroughly enjoyed the walks we did and just being with us.……. as part of the family….. aahhh.