The story of Hooley so far…
Hooley entered our lives in August of this year after we lost our lurcher to an illness. But I think that I better start at the beginning of this saga.
We, my wife and I have always had rescue dogs and up until August 2023 we had two lurchers, but we then lost one to illness. The hunt was then on to find a replacement for the remaining male lurcher by the name of “Lance”. After a number of false starts we found our way to Forever Hounds Trust. I approached them to see if we could do an introduction to another female dog to go with “Lance”. This being after approaching other dog rescue establishments, one of which told us in that in no uncertain terms that they did not do this sort of thing (their loss). Not so with Forever Hounds Trust, we were invited to attend their kennels in Somerset for a meet with a possible suitable bitch to go with “Lance”.
After a hundred mile journey up from Devon we attended the kennels to be greeted by Jackie, who was so nice and helpful . We had seen one dog on the website but due to circumstances it did not fit the bill with us.
I asked about another one on the website to be told that it had been reserved, but all was not lost because the next thing we knew was that “Hooley” was trotted out to see us and more importantly “Lance”. A quick walk on leads down the lane proved that there did not appear to be any problems. The next stage was to “cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war!”. Both dogs were in their element (although Hooley had a muzzle on); Lance was shoulder barged and went flying but picked himself up and went charging after Hooley. Very quickly they both settled down and after a while the muzzle was removed from Hooley and they then proceeded to walk round together without any problems, a though they had been together all their lives. One greyhound, had found a forever home!
We then left and I then filled out the required application form together with pictures of the interior of our house and sent them to the website. Three days later the green light was given and we again made the two hundred mile round trip up to the kennels to collect one greyhound.
Now whilst we have had lurchers for the last eight to nine years we quickly found that homing an ex-racing greyhound was very different, not that I hasten to add any bad way. Needless to say on getting home the sofa was taken up as if she had always lived with us. Lance was a little over whelmed for the first couple of days but soon settled down.
Now what of the character of “Hooley”? Well the first thing about racers is that they are not house trained, only to expected, but she soon learned about going outside and we only had a couple of minor accidents before she fully learned in about three days. Food wise she is excellent absolutely no arguments with Lance, in fact given half a chance she will take his food and he will let her. Put a handful of kibble on the floor and they will both eat it together. But it must be said that the waste bin has to be placed out of reach!! My wife can no longer sit on the sofa on her own, need I say more. The first night we made a bed up for “Hooley” but she was having none of it. She sounded off at the bottom of the stairs, and then very quickly found how she could climb them. Unlike Daleks, greyhounds can climb stairs eventually. She then slept on the end of the bed and has continued to do so.
I took her down to Westward Hoe! beach and had her on a long trailing lead, but all she would do was to walk beside me, no zoomies. A few days later I used one of the dog secure fields with her and Lance and let her off the lead fully expecting a certain greyhound to disappear at a rate of knots. Not so again, she was more interested in walking with me and every so often joins Lance for a nose round the field, so much for paying for a secure field to run in. Needless to say we will be going again.
Round the house she will follow you everywhere and is extremely affectionate, and if you go out even for a short time you are greeted as though you have been out for hours (which we don’t do, being both retired). I think that four paws are well and truly under the table and this dog is not going anywhere. She is here to stay wither we like it or not.
We decided to retain the name of Hooley as after all in Ireland, a hooley is considered to be a welcome get together for all concerned.
Pat and Shirley
Emergency Services Day