The Greeting

One of the joys of owning a dog is coming home. Being greeted by a furry tornado who is beyond estatic that you're home is a very pleasing thing indeed.

This weighed heavily on my mind as we headed off for a 3 week break in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bali to escape a particularly grotty winter and celebrate the fact that I'd completed my first exams in over 20 years.

We had the in-laws dog sitting sitting and they'd owned a German Shepard so were familiar with the foibles of a larger dog. Lottie, or brindle Greyhound was clearly going to be in good hands.

The first few days in Hong Kong were spent readjusting to their brutally hot and humid summer, but after that my thoughts kept turning back to my Greyhound, wondering if she was missing us as much as we were clearly missing her.

Conversations over dinner or on the way to tourist attractions inevitably turned to Lottie. I began to wonder what her reaction would be when we returned home.

The first week we were away our home town was hit by a once in a hundred year storm where winds reached over 200Mph and stormy seas tore up roads and destroyed sea-walls. Thankfully our house, dog and dog-sitters escaped unscathed. Now I wasn't simply missing my Greyhound, I was getting worried about her as well.

Would she go bonkers and be hyper excited we made it home, or would she be more cat-like and give us the stink-eye until she deigned to forgive us for daring to depart home, leaving her with strangers?

Finally the day came to leave the tropical tranquility (third world pollution and poverty) of Bali for the wonders of a Wellington winter. After an 11 hour flight we finally met Lottie.

In her typical Greyhound way, she greeted us. as we dumped our luggage in the hall. Furiously fast tail wags with a wet nose checking out our luggage, she clung to us for hours. It was great to be home.

Not a day goes by when I don't look at Lottie and think "What a cool dog!"