Its the humans stupid!

Nightly walks are a regular ritual. At the end of each day as light begins to fade Lottie (AKA the inskerator) and Bomber (AKA Tinklebertwoofledink) demand a walk. Who are we to refuse. Come rain or sun, a walk is had.

Several nights ago we were out on our neighbourhood stroll when we noticed a particularly vocal dog going nuts. It looked like it was fenced it so the hounds and us ignored and went to continue on our way.

Then the dog barrelled across to the street heckles and tail up, barking like a mad thing. It got to within 3 feet of Lottie and Bomber who both told it off in no uncertain terms.

The dog kept its distance, which by then meant it was out on the street. 

It was dark and a taxi was coming. The dog wouldn't let me near it and the taxi smartly swerved to avoid it.

Heart in mouth I coaxed the dog back to its property. A neighbour to the dogs property heard the commotion and came out to see what was happening

"Oh its him, he lives there, yes this happens all the time she explained"

With my wife waiting on the street holding Lottie and Bombers lead, I gradually got the dog to follow me by calling it in an as friendly as possible voice. Several snaps were made at my hands but it eventually worked out that I was going to take it home so it started to relax.

Sadly no one was home. It appeared that all that was keeping this dog in the property was a small 1.5 metre tall gate that the dog was obviously jumping over.

Making matters worse, the dogs collar had no tags with contact details for its owners.

The whole situation was worrying on more levels than I can count. 

For a start, this dog's behaviour towards us and our hounds indicated that it had obviously not been very well socialised. It is only probably a matter of time before it injures or kills another animal on the street. If not an animal, then there is a good chance that it'll maul a child or elderly person who doesn't know how to respond when confronted with an aggressive dog. 

That the dog can get out so easily has escaped the attentions of its owners, who may be totally unaware of the ease with which this pooch can escape.

While the street isn't particularly busy, there is some traffic and it was only good luck that the dog didn't become road kill when confronting us.

We've since gone back and walked past the house in the evening, hoping there'd be someone home who we could talk to. Sadly no one was - this was at least 7pm - the poor animal has been left alone for at least 10-12 hours. No wonder it is so pissed off.

Fixing the property so it is escape proof or other options like enrolling the dog in doggy day care are easy to explore and could see a terrible situation averted. The owners house is in one of the most expensive suburbs in my town, so I'd be surprised if they cant afford either of these two options.

   

A giant has fallen

Losing someone you love is incredibly painful. 

When that someone is an incredibly expressive giant greyhound Scooby do clone who has given you their unconditional love with no holds barred it must be near unbearable. 

Today Tiny (who I’d written about in the past) crossed the rainbow bridge.

Greyhounds are pretty healthy animals but like other large dogs they are susceptible to osteosarcoma or bone cancer. 

Sadly this is what Tiny was diagnosed with. Tiny wasn’t a small hound, in fact he was the biggest (50Kg) who ever raced in New Zealand. He also had a big heart too. Everyone who met him instantly fell under his spell the moment they locked eyes with his gentle gaze.

It is incredibly hard to know what to say to someone when they lose a much loved pet. We’ve had two pets pass and each time a part of me died with them. Even though the pain gradually becomes less unbearable, it never goes away. That is a price I’m willing to pay and is a very small cost given the love, laughter and smiles we’d had with our pets over the years.

Reading about Tiny’s  passing on Facebook I was momentarily  stuck for something to say that didn’t sound trite. I think after meeting Chris at Tiny’s recent get together it was very clear how much she loved Tiny and how he adored her in equal measures. That is such a very special thing indeed.

Tiny may have crossed the rainbow bridge, but the memories of this affectionate and gentle giant who touched so many peoples lives will live on and my thoughts are with both Chris and family. 

The good and the bad

As a greyhound owner in New Zealand, I belong to a facebook group called the Greyhound collective. In the group, Greyhound owners can seek advice, help each other and share photos of their hounds.

It's an amazing place that's put me in touch with some truly amazing people. The real depth of the community on the collective can be incredible sometimes. Last week the ironically named Tiny, (a greyhound who at 50Kg, is anything but tiny) got spooked by some kids letting off fireworks in a park and bolted.

Tiny's distraught owners posted on the collective, letting other hound owners know to keep an eye out for their wayward hound. Reading their post my heart was in my mouth. We'd had our first dog, a miniature dachshund called Monty, escape and go missing for 6 long horrifying days.

Reading their post that night, I remembered how utterly horrific a lost dog can be and promised myself that in the morning I'd get out and have a good look for Tiny too. That morning I posted that I was going to get out and have a search and to my delight several others agreed to help.

The area where Tiny had been spooked was large and bordered by hills covered in dense bush. If Tiny wanted to stay hidden, eh;d be pretty hard to find. Wandering around we called out for Tiny (who we never saw). What we did see were others from the collective also looking for Tiny.

After heading home depressed and tired at my lack of success, I checked the collective for any more updates on Tiny and was amazed to see that he'd been found by another amazing collective member who'd been with me looking and had gone back 4 times just in case.

The whole saga has shown me that people can be incredibly decent. No one hesitated to chip in and help a Greyhound owner who needed help. The level of support from other Greyhound owners was nothing short of astonishing.

While the greyhound collective showcases the very best in people, facebook sadly also highlights the other end of the spectrum.

BassGalgo a Spanish based charity that rescues Galgos (the Spanish equivalent of greyhounds) posted an alarming photo of a Galgo that'd been chained to a fence in a carpark and left to starve. The poor Galgo is horribly emaciated but survived but has thankfully been rescued.

Incredibly Spanish hunters who use Galgos during the hunting season seem to think that it's ok to abandon these dogs by tying up in a remote location where they'll endure dehydration and starvation. Its a cruel and sickening way to treat an animal who has shown its owner nothing but loyalty. It needs to be stopped.

Amazingly there seems to be little being done to stop this horrendous practice from happening at the end of each hunting season, and the Brits and Germans who flood into Spain each summer remain blissfully unaware of the horrors being inflicted on these gentle and trusting animals.

Perhaps if the media picked up on these stories and educated tourists, the Spanish Government might be forced to get off its ineffectual behind and craft laws to prevent these sickening acts from happening.

Meanwhile if you want to help, donations can be made to http://galgosdelsol.org/ or www.baasgalgo.com. With the hunting season drawing to a close in Spain, they could really do with your help.

Time for some sanity around fireworks?

It’s almost that time of year when New Zealand is gripped with the pyrotechnic insanity that is Guy Fawkes.

It’s something that puts dread into the hearts of many a pet owner, exhausts animal shelters as well as fire services and yet bizarrely it goes ahead each year like clockwork.

Calling for a ban attracts cries of “don’t spoil our fun” from people who you’d charitably say weren’t aware of the mayhem and harm caused. The more cynical amongst us could also say that these people lacked empathy, simply don’t care and were too self involved to give a  damn.

Amazingly many of the people who are pro fireworks were amongst the first to express their anger at the shooting massacres in the US, smugly proclaiming that this sort of thing hardly ever happens in NZ as we have decent gun control laws.

Yet the reality is that for one week a year in NZ it is perfectly legal to sell a box of low power explosives and pyrotechnic devices to almost any consenting adult who’ll buy them. Making matters worse, many less scrupulous retailers are also happy to sell them to kids weeks before Guy Fawkes.

The parallels between the US gun law controversy and fireworks in NZ are eerily similar. A few crazed lunatics go on a shooting spree and responsible gun owners fear getting penalised. Sadly it’s the few bad apples in New Zealand that seem to go stupid with fireworks who are ruining it for the rest who enjoy fireworks every November.

Then there’s the pro gun people who argue that in the US it is their constitutional right to bear arms, regardless of how many kids are killed in each monthly shooting massacre. In New Zealand it is mostly pets and animals that cop the brunt of our crazy fireworks laws, yet some still feel compelled to argue that do-gooders are “ruining their fun”.  

This needn’t be the case. Banning the sale of fireworks to the general public and instead investing in professional fireworks displays managed by trained professionals could see a lot of damage, injury and heartache ended while people still got to enjoy far better fireworks than the box of 30 second fizzers sold each year.

Meanwhile, back in 2015, its already too late. We’re now two weeks away from Guy Fawkes yet we already have the first animal casualty. 

Tiny, a gentle and friendly greyhound was spooked by fireworks being set off at a park by kids - even though Guy Fawkes is still a fortnight away. At the time of writing Tiny has yet to be found and groups of greyhound owners are out searching.

I don’t know about you, but I find it bizarre that New Zealanders feel compelled to celebrate events that took place hundreds of years ago in a country on the other side of the world. You’d think that for all the clamour surrounding getting rid of the Union Jack off our flag,we’d feel a tad inclined to drop what is essentially a UK centric event that has little if not no relevance to New Zealand.

 Last year a petition made it to the Government asking for an end to the sale of fireworks to the general public. Sadly the Government referred it to a select committee who rejected the petition, ignoring 25,000 signatures as well as the phenomenal amount of damage done to property and injuries to animals/kids by fireworks over the years.

The select committee chair, Ruth Dyson said that  she believes that most people act responsibly and enforcing a ban would be tough on police. Well I guess poor Tiny must have encountered two irresponsible people who purchased fireworks from an irresponsible retailer. As for her comment about the Police, they are already doing a tough job, Boo bloody hoo.

Here’s the rub. If the ban did go ahead and even if that meant the life of one animal was saved, or one house was prevented from burn down, then that’s a massively positive outcome. Taking Dyson's comments to their logical extreme, we might as well give up on doing anything because it might be too tough. Perhaps New Zealand needs to grow a pair, especially when a simple and sane solution is within easy reach.

P.S. Several hours after this post was written, Tiny was found and returned home. Ain't happy endings just the best thing ever?

Getting a greyhound can be a very humbling thing indeed. We started out with Lottie, who we've since called the Brindle Rocket on account of her love of zooming. We loved her so much that we got Bomber, who we also call tinklebert woofledink on account of his TARDIS-like bladder and epic piddles when out walking.

One of the things no one tells you when you adopt a greyhound is how utterly smoochy they are. There are literally dozens of different gestures Greyhounds have to express their happiness.

First and foremost is the lean. This is when a hound will walk right up to you and lean their bodies against you. It is pretty humbling. What they they are saying is that they trust you so much that they'll lean into you to the point that if you move, they'll fall over.

Then there's the happy puffy cheeks and teeth chattering. When a greyhound is happy they'll puff their cheeks. If they're really happy they'll also chatter their teeth. This is of course exceptionally cute to see when it happens.

There also the more generic gestures such as the tail wag, also known in our house as the helicopter bum. Greyhounds tend to have exceptionally waggy tails. We have friends who own greyhounds who've even broken their tails from excessive wagging in confined spaces.

My all time favourite is what is known amongst greyhound owners as Nitting. This happens when a hound is really REALLY happy, and will see the hound mouthing your hand. Its is sometimes mistaken for aggression,  but is really a gentle "I love you" gesture and very cute. Bomber does this when he hears the leads being moved and figures out that a walk is in the offering.

If by now you've guessed that our hounds are a happy bunch, you'd be right on the money.

It is such a an utterly humbling and cute thing to know that you've made them so deliriously  and utterly happy, yet at the same time you can't help smiling or even laughing out loud. I guess that's the magic of life with a Greyhound.

Saying Goodbye is never easy. In my job I do a fair bit of overseas travel. Heading somewhere sunny and warm as winter deepens its grip is always welcome but there's one huge downside.

Saying goodbye to my hounds and my ever patient wife is always really hard, but Lottie and Bomber don't really get why I am scooting out the door suitcase in hand.

Their look of puzzlement and my own realisation that I won't see them again for a week or two makes saying goodbye incredibly difficult.

A tear or two has ben shed by me on more than one occasion.

One of the least spoken about facets of greyhounds is how expressive they are. Their big soft brown eyes and spring loaded ears, plus a tail that does double duty as a whip/helicopter rotor can tell you all you need to know about how they're feeling.

When a walk is in the offering, their ears go straight up and they'll wag their tail hysterically. Another happy gesture is cheek puffing and this often happens before a walk. Like many other greyhound owners, I find it incredibly hard not to laugh and smile at unbridled sheer joy they exhibit.

Now Me and any my wife are about to head off for a vacation, thankfully my in-laws (who are great with both hounds) are dog and house sitting. I wonder how my wife will cope?

I'll no doubt still be a teary eyed wreck.

Politics

We've been greyhound owners for just over 2 years. What a time its been! Lottie (AKA the insinkerator, and/or Brindle Rocket) plus Bomber (AKA Tinklebert woofledink and/or the black piddler) have both proven to be amazing dogs, each with their own distinct foibles and traits (even if they are both super cuddly). I am of course utterly besotted with both hounds.

Reflecting on the past 2 years, it is fair to say that I've met some amazing greyhound owners who've also become firm friends.

More recently however I've been saddened to observe just how much politics are getting in the way of achieving a positive outcome for greyhounds, many of whom really need our help.

I'd recently written about how disgusted I was with a post on the "greyhound protection league" facebook page and how by attempting to make political capital out of what can only be described as a terribly sad situation, they'd lost sight of helping a greyhound. In short, political point scoring got in the way of actual greyhound protection.

Since writing that entry I was asked to leave their facebook page. I gladly left and have no intention of ever looking back.

This time I've had a run-in with another greyhound welfare group bigwig who'll remain nameless.

I noticed a facebook post on their personal page, slagging off Greyhound as Pets (GAP) who are New Zealand's biggest and most well funded greyhound adoption agency. I expressed my distaste with the semi public bagging of a fellow greyhound welfare organisation given the posters prominent position within the greyhound community. I tried to be reasonable, even polite, saying that at the end of the day surely we all want the same thing, namely a good outcome for greyhounds.

What I got back as a reply was a rant telling me how I was completely wrong and how evil GAP was.
The reply might've been articulate, but at the end of the day that didn't matter. What really matters is that the real loosers here are greyhounds. I've since un-friended this person so I don't have to read their rants ever again. I hope more people follow my steps and do likewise.

When we were thinking of adopting a greyhound, we did a heap of research - much of it online. Surely it must follow that should other people thinking of adopting a greyhound, see such rabid outpourings, they'll wonder about the whole Greyhound scene given the irrational rants happening online.

What they unfortunately wont see are the really lovely people who own and love their greyhounds deeply. Unfortunately this isn't obvious to potential adopters, many of whom will instead read rabid social media posts emanating out of these organisations and run a mile. It'd be fair to assume that any thoughts about adopting a greyhound are also likely to be long forgotten too.

So what can we learn from this? It doesn't matter if people from these greyhound rescue groups can't see eye to eye. Instead of focusing on their differences and posting divisive rants online, wouldn't a far better outcome be achieved by rising above such petty politics and looking at what they all have in common?

Thankfully it appears that these politically motivated and vitriolic ranters are only a small but particularly vocal minority.