Dog People...

Hello there,

Its been a while since I have updated the Blog so here it goes. First of all my trip to Ensenada Mexico has been cancelled. Another engineer is going to sort out that particular customer. The good news is that I am going to another south american country. I'm off to Venezuela in a couple of weeks. The place I'm going to is Tiara in Miranda Province, about a 100 km south of Caracas. The job is a straightforward one so with a bit of luck I might be able to actually see something of the country.

The other more important thing is this... The missus and myself have been talking about getting another dog. It is now 4 months ago that my greyhound Mickey died of cancer. Over the last couple of months we really have noticed the difference between being a dog family and not being one.

We miss the walks in the countryside. We always used to take Mick on long walks all over the Suffolk countryside. Besides the fact that he really enjoyed it, it also was very nice for us. We used to see all sorts of wildlife. We have seen, amongst others, Foxes, Hares, Rabbits, Mink, Red Deer, Munckjack Deer, Owls, Pheasants, Grouse, Adders and many more... Now that we don't go out to those places we don't see any of that anymore. It also provided us with a frame of reference with regards to the seasons. We would know from being outdoors what season it was just from the state crops or trees were in.

So our health has suffered as a result from not walking him. Normally we would do an hour twice a day shared between us. Usually the missus the morning ones and I would take him out in the evening for a good run in the forest. Now that we don't, we have gained weight. I must have put on a good 10 pounds since we stopped walking. We miss the fresh air, and yes, we even miss walking in the pouring rain, as frequently happens in England... And strangely enough it seems to have affected our general mood. We just seem to be a bit down and nothing seems to be able to lift us out of it. Its a bit like going through the motions but not really enjoying it all... We never expected our dog's death to have such an impact.

Don't get me wrong, not having a dog has had its rewards as well. We can now go on holidays without having to sort dog sitters. We can go out without having to make sure to be back on time to walk the mutt. It has saved in dog food cause he ate like a horse, the bugger...

So the long and short of it all is that after long discussions about the pro's and con's we have decided to go for another dog. We can't at the moment as we are (still...) working on the second half of the kitchen project but as soon as that is done we will start the process. We will have another greyhound. We like the aspect of providing a retired (or injured or un-qualified) racer with a good home. Mick was a retired racer and we like the idea that these dogs, who normally don't have such a great life while they are being raced, finally will get what they deserve, a good home with plenty of exersize and plenty of lazing about. (That is what they do best, after all...)

A few things will be different, we will try to get one that is smaller than what Mick was. Mick was an Irish greyhound and the tend to stand taller than english greyhounds. He weighed over 90 pounds... The problem with having a greyhound that is huge is the fact that they are not very good at laying in small spaces. They spread out as far as they can and Mick had colonised a whole settee for his comfort. So a smaller one shouldn't take as much space as he did.

We will go through the Retired Greyhound Trust. http://www.retiredgreyhounds.co.uk/ This group of people is responsible for rehoming 35.000 greyhounds over the course of their existence. There are quite a few dog race tracks in the UK and as dogs only race till their 5 years old there are a lot of dogs that need rehoming. In the bad old days a lot of dogs were put down as soon as they retired or got injured. The Trust was formed to help the trainers out by sorting out the rehoming of these dogs. Through their site you can find you own local branch and that is where we are going. We will use the Ipswich branch to find a dog. Or a pair. Sometimes they have dogs that need rehoming in pairs and one dog or two dogs? Its all the same. (Just double the costs hahahaha....) http://www.greyhoundhomer.org.uk/

So I guess it took us some time to get over Mick's death and to realise that we really are doggie people. I don't want to be without a dog anymore, they make my house a complete house. Don't get me wrong, Mick's death did tear me apart but I guess the human spirit can learn to cope with anything. So, watch this space for updates, the missus is already trawling the web pages to find suitable dogs, I will keep you updated.

Cheerio,

Alex and Jackie.