(no subject)
Just a quick update to explain my doggy icon...
Daughter no. 1 has recently signed up to be a foster owner with the Last Chance Refuge. They get far too many unwanted pets dumped on them and don't have enough room, so the idea is for people to take them on temporarily. I would have liked a little pussy cat (though sometimes you get mother with litter!) or something contained in a cage, but, oh no, instead we get this thumping great lurcher! Brandy, is part (probably most) greyhound, part whippet and part saluki. He was only 8 months old when we got him (he's about 9 1/2 months now), and he's like a great mooching teenager - very graceful though and extremely playful. Luckily he's proved to have a sweet temperament, and loves to be lavished with attention. He had been bought by a chap for hare coursing (I thought hares were pretty rare already), but then he upped and left his marriage and the dog. His wife, who already had her own dog, didn't want him, and so he ended up at the refuge. Poor Brandy, he was a bit confused and upset during his first few days with us, but soon got used to it.
The next job was to find him a new home. The refuge are supposed to do that, and had apparently had a couple of enquiries (they also neuter them and do all the jabs plus microchip them). D1 had found quite a lot of interest just walking him. Then a couple of weeks ago she took him to our church fete and put a note around his collar, 'I need a home' and Bingo! By the end of the day we had three people who wanted him desperately! Two were from the village, and it would have been nice to have seen his progress, but a couple from Surrey asked first, so that's where he's going. They have a seven bedroomed house and a massive garden, so his greyhound instinct to run round and round (our grass is ruined!) will be satisfied.
He leaves on Monday, and I'm sure D1 will be very sad, and I know Brandy will miss her as he follows her around and howls when she goes out. But she'll be away a lot in the next few months (shearing sheep in the Orkneys and learning about horses in Argentina for instance), and I am not really a doggy person. Neither is Andrew. Besides, if we adopted the first pet we fostered, we wouldn't foster any more!
(Just a funny aside - My childhood dog was Andy, Andrew's was Candy... I see a pattern emerging!)
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