Happy Birthday Lottie!!!!

Amazingly a whole year has passed since we adopted Lottie, AKA the brindle rocket. She's now also 5 years old (we adopted her on her birthday).

Looking back at my first blog entries, I can see how nervous we were about getting a greyhound and the changes that it'd entail for our relatively care-free lifestyle.

In the end it turned out that our fears were unfounded.

A Nervous Start

Lottie was initially very nervy (she trembled all the way home when we picked her up), but she quickly adjusted and slotted right in. I remember writing in one of my first blog entries "In just 6 weeks she's settled in and started to come out of her shell"

It now seems really funny to think that she struggled with alien concepts such as stairs and believe it or not sofas. Nowadays of course she owns our sofas. Stairs are not a problem in the least - they provide access to the upstairs bed for canine sprawling purposes.

Instead of waiting downstairs as we go up the stairs, whining pitifully, Lottie is usually first up or down, bolting past us and waiting at the top or bottom of the stairs, just in case there's a walk or treat up for grabs.

Another unexpected bonus of adopting a retired greyhound has been the amazing community of greyhound owners we've met.

There's a real Greyhound mafia - Most greyhound owners tend to stay in touch. Best of all, Lottie has a lot of regular playmates that she likes to zoom around the dog park with at improbable speeds. Many greyhound owners have since become firm friends.

Ninja Food Thievery

In the early stages of Lotties adoption, counter surfing was a common occurrence. (I had even considered calling her insinkerator given her penchant for ninja-like food thievery). Having only ever owned small dogs before, we were completely unprepared for the giraffe like necks of greyhounds, not to mention their uncanny ability to reach food on benchtops.

One particularly epic counter-surf saw Lottie stealing some fillet steak,packaging and all. We caught her chomping into it and realised to our horror that she'd eaten the clingfilm wrapped around the steak.

We rushed her off to the after-hours emergency vet, who promptly gave her meds to induce vomiting.

Lottie duly complied.

Even though partially digested and chewed steak materialised, there was no sign of the clingfilm.

Stressed out, tired and several hundred dollars poorer, we headed home - only to find the clingfilm had been bundled into the trash with the mangled and chewed steak packaging.

Perhaps the biggest milestone with Lottie was obedience. No matter what any greyhound expert tells you, remember this: The way to a greyhounds brain is through their stomachs.

Like most greyhounds, our girl is food obsessed and will do anything for a treat. Once we learnt this there was no looking back and Lottie passed obedience with flying colors. The fact both Shelly and Sonya, the instructors are also amazing with dogs and people also made a huge difference.

Bomber: Best Friends Fur-Ever

In what must be the ultimate endorsement of Greyhounds, we decided we liked life with Lottie so much that we'd adopt another greyhound. Not so long afterwards Bomber, a big black ex racer boy originally from Australia arrived. Lottie and him bonded really quickly and are now inseparable best friends fur-ever. It isn't unusual to see then curled up on a sofa together or snuggled up in the back of our car.


What really amazes is just how fast all this seems to have happened. the year with Lottie has literally flown past.

This scares me more than a little because each and every minute I spend with Lottie and Bomber is so unbelievably precious. If only there was a way to slow time!!

If there's things I've learnt from Lottie over the past year, its these:

Live life in the moment. Love what you do and who you are with. Food on the counter is fair game.


Happy Birthday Lottie! We both love you heaps you mad dog!

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!"

 

The Lean

Its funny the little things that make such big a difference. Getting back into the swing of living with a dog, I'd long forgotten about all the things that make canines so utterly rewarding.

Helicopter Bum

Random tail wags are probably the best endorsement I can relate to from any dog. Its the canine equivalent of "yes! I'm so happy to see you!!!" or "oh boy am I excited!". I call Lottie "helicopter bum" because her tail wags so fast that I swear she's going to get airborne.

The Smooch Pooch

Another is the unsolicited smooch. Lottie will sometimes randomly walk over to me and gently touch her nose to mine (I don't know much about other Greyhounds, but Lottie isn't a licky dog, which suits us just fine), its unsolicited, honest and affectionate. I love it

The Lean

My all time favourite is commonly known amongst Greyhound owners as "the lean". Lottie will amble over and lean into me, putting enough weight against me so that I know she's there whilst trusting me enough not to move away (she'd fall over if I did). You know your Greyhound trusts you when you are the recipient of the lean.

Dog training books talk about owners bonding with their dogs, but I reckon there's also a hell of a lot to be said for dogs bonding with their owners (in fact Lottie pretty much owns our hearts lock stock and barrel).

Why Greyhounds

If you've been reading my ramblings you'll probably have worked out I am besotted with Lottie and Greyhounds.

They're a great breed, even if you're not used to owning a bigger dog. Don't take my word for it though, check out what these other greyhound owners have to say

So does your pet have any endearing habits that make it special? Do share we'd love to hear!