Miss E

Almost all of the photos of me as a child include a dog of some sort (either that, a pony), so not having had a dog for the last few years has been a bit lonely...however we have had two little girlies to keep us busy! Our last terrier now lives with my mother. He is still very much part of our family, but he lives in a place that suits him better.

So the time had come for us to get back into owning a furry friend...or a sleek one...
My sister owns two whippets and I have always been very taken with them. They are very quiet and lovely, so I became interested in sighthounds.
At some stage we thought about grehound adoption, and somehow I managed to end up on a website of an Irish greyhound sanctuary..Orchard Greyhound Sanctuary and the whole feel of it was right. I looked and looked, but for some reason the time wasn't quite right. I admired the hounds up for adoption....but that was about all I did.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I looked again and I made contact with MJ, the lady who owns and runs the sanctuary. I didn't look a the dogs for adoption, I didn't want to get my hopes up.
We arranged a visit one Sunday. When we arrived, we were greeted by an enormous hound...J. He was so charming, and I was amazed to hear that he had lived ferral in a midland's town for 3 years...how could this huge dog have come from being wild, to being so kind and gentle.
The first greyhound we were introduced to was Miss E. She seemed very pleased to meet us, We listened in amazement to the story of the hard life she had had, and that she had only been in the sanctuary for about a month...how could she even look at humans, let alone like them! After all of that, we took her for a walk up the lane. Needless to say, there were several arguements about who got to walk her and for how long!
We then took a walk around the sanctuary grounds without E, but brought several other residents with us. It is a lovely place, with loads of happy hounds bounding about.
So we went away for a while, and thought back and forth about it, and we decided to adopt Miss E. She just seemed right for us. We had to have a home visit from a volunteer...that was nerve-racking, although the volunteer was so lovely! I just doubted myself!
So we got the go-ahead, and arranged to have her micro-chipped. I couldn't wait to collect her. I hardly slept the night before, and when I did, I was dreaming of martingale collars and sighthounds!
When we arrived to collect her, and we had to sign adoption papers....even the children had to agree to always/never do certain things.
We took her home to our own house late one afternoon....and I think I will stop talking now and let the photos do the talking...you can judge for yourself how this little lady, who once had a terrible life, has slotted in nicely to our very busy, bustling family....







So if you are thinking of getting a dog, consider a greyhound...Orchard Greyhound Sanctuary is a really wonderful place to look into if you are in Ireland. The lady who runs it is so good at "reading" her residents (and their prospective owners too, I think!) Thanks MJ for the time you took to match us with our new friend.

ETA...I wrote this about a week ago, but never got around to putting it on here, I also wanted to see if there would be any huge changes in how we have been getting on as time passed....well...apart form eating "The Prisoner of Azkaban", which was left lying around...and even at that she only ate the corner and the cover, not any of the text...mind you, I did catch her in the act and grabbed it before she did any more harm!!
We are still really enjoying our new girl!