A Friend for Floss

Please send us your stories about how you found the process of homing your new hound to: gallery@rgtwolverhampton.co.uk

A Friend for Floss

We had no intention of having another dog………one was quite enough……..so my husband stated, it all came about whilst we were on a caravan rally the last weekend of November ( yes, we are really that mad ! ) we were on the Weston Rally near Stafford and as the normal Saturday ritual a trip down to the nearest town for a look round, we love Stafford and had been there before, so during our expedition we come across the RGT trailer in the market square, we had seen the trailer earlier on in the year, we love dogs, and as before we were immediately drawn to them, they just love fuss, we emptied our pockets of the loose change and some treats that we bought after spying the trailer, picked up a leaflet about greyhounds making great pets and departed Stafford, all the way back my husband kept on about how lovely they were, well behaved, had beautiful eyes etc etc…..he was smitten!, if we had not gone to Stafford with some friends in their car he would have turned round and gone back.

Sunday morning 10.30 and he was still at it, I produced the leaflet and said give them a ring and see if the little black bitch you were fussing is still available, I was really surprised when he did just that, the lady on the other end of the phone said that all the ones they had taken to Stafford had been reserved but if we would like to come to the kennels as there were more dogs there who need a home and they would be open until 1pm. Ok, it so happened that Saturday night it snowed and by morning things had got a bit frozen. No matter we defrosted, decamped towed back to Sedgley put caravan away picked up Floss our Lurcher and son Oliver and returned to the kennels we arrived at 12.45, I thought we may have got there a bit too late, Oliver and I made a dash for the kennels whilst my husband parked the car, the staff and volunteers were fantastic they couldn’t do enough for us, they asked if we had another dog, and what sort of dog we were looking for as we walked down the row of kennels, Oliver shouted don’t go any further I’ve found one, correction she chose him, a volunteer said that someone else wanted to try her with their dog, poor Oliver he looked so disappointed, but luck was on our side and the other people settled on another dog, so Floss was bought out and they walked round the field to see if they got on, I think Floss was more concerned about the muzzle she had to put on for the first meeting than anything else, everything went fine, so now to arrange a home check, that was to be on the Tuesday, no problems there, so Wednesday off I scuttled with Oliver and Floss to pick up our new addition. They both had a nosey around each other and hopped into the back of the car within a few minutes they had settled down and gone to sleep. We followed the instructions of how to introduce your greyhound to their new home, no problems at all, they both raced round the garden bowing and nudging each other as they bounced round the garden. No growling or snarling no fighting over toys, anyone would think that we had always had her.

Margo was her name whilst she was at the kennels, Minala Suzy is her “posh” name, but a new life requires a new name and she is now called Maddey, she is permanently attached to Oliver and has eyes for no one else whilst he’s around. She has settled in very quickly and enjoying retirement, both girls love getting away in the caravan with us most weekends and are not a scrap of trouble, they are really good companions for each other and stand shoulder to shoulder when sending the pigeons off ! Floss has been a real influence and Maddey has adopted some of her ways, sneaking off to bed is one and pinching my chair is another but we don’t mind.

Both the girls get a lot of attention when we’re out and about, and are great ambassadors for a large gentle breed and lots of people are enquiring about greyhounds, so the reputation and the work of the RGT is spreading all across the country, from Wales to Weston Super Mare, Derby to Dorset to name but a few (we do tend to get around a bit ! ) even when we were on holiday another couple had a greyhound a long way down on the beach they spotted us and waved ( it must be the greyhound club we’ve joined !)

We are so glad that we made that dash to the kennels and found our “Maddey” and a great companion for Floss too.