My Greyhound!

It’s been a lovely weekend – yesterday my daughter and I (oh and Hippie of course) went to the Golden Wedding Anniversary of my uncle and auntie. It was a lovely day and their garden was full of their friends and relatives. We had a lovely time but had to leave early because my daughter’s boyfriend was leaving work that day as he is going to uni and he had a leaving party organised.

I had a party of sorts too as my son and his wife were coming up from Swindon, they couldn’t make the party due to work commitments so were coming to spend the evening with me. They had decided to visit the family on the Sunday and take them a card and gift.

We had a fun time the wine and cider were flowing and we ordered a chinkie – enough for six people but it came in handy for lunch today. We went to bed just after twelve. I had given up my bedroom for them so they could be animal free and was sleeping on the couch. Hippie was in her kennel in the lounge and Maxie was on a chair – we were very peaceful until four in the morning when Hips decided she needed to go out and woke me up to open the door.

I had noticed that my daughter wasn’t back as I went to let her out but as I was making my way back to my bed – she arrived back with her boyfriend.

They came in the door laughing and ’shushing’ as only people who have had a wonderful night and far too much to drink can.

My last view of my daughter’s boyfriend was him lying on the kitchen floor with Hippie standing over him licking his face.

Everything calmed down eventually and Hippie came back to the kennel in the lounge preferring the company of less drunk people.

This morning I was shown the boyfriend’s leaving gift. Not your usual pressie but very apt in the circumstances. It was a pair of retro adidas speedo’s with swimming badges lovingly sewn on by a now ex colleague!

I think they were still drunk as I did see my daughter wearing them over her pyjamas but it could only get worse. All drunks find it hilarious to involve pets in their antics and all I could hear was wild laughter as Hippie was dressed in the Speedos.

Not the best view of our girl but she was not complaining – her little stumpy tail wagged ferociously inside the offending article.

She even posed

Note the fancy swimwear – what bit you can see of it!

Does my bum look big in this?????

Can’t wait to see the boyfriend in them – although my daughter has had a private showing and couldn’t stop giggling!!!

The hangovers are much better now 7.50 pm Sunday!!!!!

It is very quiet here in Hippieland.

There is usually the noise of a small stampede in the house as Hippie takes her stuffed toys out to play. But today all is still…..

The play pen is deserted – well except for the stuffies who are looking very neglected…

The teddies who have been regularly menaced and who are awaiting repair have been left alone on the worktop instead of the usual retrieve and molest mission….

I find that sheep’s smile rather worrying at times.

And where is our heroine?

She’s gone to the park with her latest ‘best toy’

Can you tell what it is yet?

No?

Yes, you’ve got it – no longer does she worry about the teddies she just rifles through the recycling bag for a suitable size plastic bottle (coke is a favourite) and races around for hours crackling it between her teeth.

Do you think it is a passing phase or is Hippie taking to the bottle at an early age?

Last night I took Hippie over to my partner’s house for the night. As usual she had the craziest time chasing Poppy around the beans, barking and play-bowing when Poppy wouldn’t run. They were both worn out after a couple of hours.

We were cooking dinner and deciding when would be a good time to put the food out for the urban foxes that have been visiting us for years, bringing their babies every spring. They have been a delight to watch, but we didn’t want them scared off by manic greyhounds.

We decided to put their food out when we sat down to eat – knowing full well the girls would not be far away from us and the tempting smell of roast chicken. The foxes food topped with fresh eggs would be put into a greyhound proof place where only the foxes can reach.

It all went well and we had our dinner with two greyhounds lounging in the room pretending to be asleep.

Afterwards the girls had some leftovers and seemed quite happy to settle.

We settled too, watching ‘New Tricks’ – I do like that series.

All went well until Hippie came in and I noticed something in her mouth, I called her over and gently felt inside her mouth to see what she was carrying. It was an egg!!!

I gave the command which she knows very well – it means stop whatever you are doing – she ignored it….

It was a tough decision – should we clamp the jaws shut, break the egg and risk the mess on the carpet not to mention the possibility of a traumatised dog. OR try to get it out from between her jaws without breaking it?

Yes – we chose the latter, the egg was moveable in her mouth – she was holding it very gently although the jaws were clamped around it and she had a very determined look in her eye.

My partner held the egg and I gently peeled back Hippie’s lips to expose the huge teeth, grabbed both top and bottom jaws and prised them open enough to retrieve the egg….. in one piece ….. without a crack in the shell!!!

That’s our girl maybe we should give her gun dog training!!!

Our local branch of the RSPCA had a fun day yesterday and as the weather was good we thought we would go along.

Both Max and Hendrix (the guinea pig) were rescued from the Woodside Animal Centre at Leicester. Max had been abandoned when he fell off a wall and broke his hind leg so badly it needed pinning from top to bottom. He was in recovery at the centre when I went to choose a new cat. He was so big and beautiful it was love at first sight! He was 18 months old then and is 7 now, very loyal and loving – a beautiful boy!

Full of love…..

And cuddles..

Hendrix was adopted after the death of Woodstock who was a huge guinea pig – he is content to sit in his cage and warble at me every time I open the fridge door – because he knows his carrots are kept in there.

Obviously we could not take either of them to the fun day so we took Hippie. She was delighted to get in the car and walked through the centre gates with her head held high.

But it was not to last – she got quite worried by the enormous amount of dogs walking round the event with their owners and when we tried to take her into the kennels to take a look at the dogs for adoption, she froze and would not go in. just stood at the door panicking.

I thought at first it was the noise of all the dogs barking that scared her but then I realised – it was the memory of her life before – living in a disinfected kennel with other greyhounds and the only fun bit was feeding time or seeing if she could run fast enough. She spent her first two years living in those conditions until she failed to run fast enough and fortunately for her came to live with us.

We didn’t stay long after that – just calmed her down and she lay basking on the grass while we had a drink. Then we went home.

I don’t think it occurs to me these days how difficult Hippie’s settling in period was. It was only seven months ago that this beautiful, big bundle of confusion came to live with us and her greyhound blog started.

I remain grateful to the RSPCA in Leicester but the Retired Greyhound Trust really get my vote also thanks to sites like this one for telling it how it really is.

I don’t regret one minute of it – oh and she won’t be visiting kennels again!!

Oh dear – Hippies very down today.

Yesterday, although her elbow was sore it didn’t seem to bother her much if she didn’t lay on hard flooring.

We took her to the local park where she took great delight in throwing a plastic bottle around in typical greyhound manner.

But of course she wasn’t going to give it up and go home..

Eventually we talked her round and even Hippie could laugh about it!

But the thin skin on her elbow just couldn’t cope anymore and started to bleed – it looked so very sore that everyone felt so sorry for her and she loved it!!

She became so miserable – lets face it greyhounds don’t have a lot of expression at the best of times but Hippie was revelling in being poorly.

And – some people pandered to it…..

My partner tucked her in on the settee at his house and there she stayed waiting for her mum to collect her.

Unbelievable!

This morning her elbow is covered with a light non adherent dressing and an elastic bandage – she has not once tried to pull it off – just shows it to anyone who might be a little bit interested.

Aaaah! Poor Hips!!!

Didn’t stop her eating her breakfast though – weetabix went down in seconds – and its very strange but every time I turn my back – one of her teddies has been placed in the hall – but she is still lying on the bed!!!

I’m not fooled!

Hippie met up with her favourite buddy the other evening…. Poppy is a gorgeous 3 year old rescued from the Newark branch of the Retired Greyhound Trust and Hippie loves her…..

As soon as they meet Hippie is down into ‘play bow’ mode and then leaps around cajoling Poppy to ‘come and have a play!!

They race around the garden together Poppy likes to fetch her plastic squeaky bone, squeaking it as she goes. Hippie, on the other paw likes to remove the squeak as fast as she can – so Poppy doesn’t let her get it very often.

This makes a great deal of sense as Hippie is content to just race around with Poppy or even just stare adoringly from a distance.

Either way they love being together and as they spend holidays together its a good thing – they even share their bowls..

Without any fuss….

Then its another turn around the garden – but wait where is Poppy?

Aha there you are – lets go outside..

This goes on for hours with them chasing through the house like lunatics but the outcome is always the same – our girl just has to have a lie down!!!

Bless you two girls – its so good that you have been rescued and have a happy life while you are young enough to enjoy it!!!

It has been a tough week for our girl……

Max has been menacing her – well he did have the weekend alone while she was living it up in Derbyshire.

But did he have to stare like that!

She has been very down and her elbows are sore – its just not the same lying down on a hard floor, grass is so much more cool and comfortable. Don’t get me wrong she has so many soft things to lie on – but not this week – no way – just followed me round looking morose.

I have been trying to treat her elbows but greyhounds have such thin skin that its bound to happen – anyone out there got any ideas????

Even her very favourite pastime of lying on her back while we blow raspberries on the bald bit on her belly didn’t have any effect. She has been a grumpy greyhound.

I decided that I would take her over to my partner’s house yesterday – he’s away this weekend and, as he’s been so busy building my new car port as well as working full time, I had decided to go and sort his housework out so it would be nice to come back to.

Hippie was delighted to get into my car and even more so when we arrived at the house – she thought she would be seeing her friend Poppy.

But – though she searched high and low she couldn’t find her – no wonder as she was also away for the weekend.

She did find Poppy’s toys though and took them outside into the garden for a play

At last some action – but as you can see it was short lived. Her elbows needed the cool grass treatment.

While I worked she busied herself around the garden

And lay down in the shade

When I had done all I could that day I gave the now famous call……

Hip!……… Hip!!!!!!!!

Hooray!!!!!!!!

Then we got into the car and went home for a cuddle with her mum

but as you can see Max wasn’t content with a box for long

So he went back to menacing …..

Here we go again!!!!!

Sunday morning dawned with beautiful sunshine – what a change!

We took our cups of tea out into the garden and Hippie was as usual overjoyed to be out there:-

And were her teddies left out? No way -

But a big sulk was approaching and as we packed our backs and cleared the little cottage Hippies mood became more and more morose.

There is never a good time to leave and never more than when you have a small sulky child to coerce into going home (in this case a LARGE sulky child). But we had to think about Max waiting for us at home, my partner had left him in the house the day before and I just knew he would be itching to go out!

We packed the car and said goodbye to our hosts, signed the guestbook and went for a last fuss of the ….

pigs, they are so friendly!!

The horse in the next stable had gotten used to us going for a fuss so we just couldn’t resist..

Then we were off. But, we both agree we will definitely be back these cottages are wonderful and the area around them has the best places in the Peak District to visit!

Hippie slept all the way home, went straight to bed, didn’t want her dinner later and sulked all evening. I think she left her soul in beautiful Derbyshire!! Bless her!

Saturday morning and yet more rain but undeterred we let our girl out into the garden here at Burton Manor cottages – she really loves to run around out there and for some mad greyhound reason decided to fetch her teddies and take them for a run too…

My daughter and I decided on leisurely breakfast of sausage, bacon and farm fresh eggs – thank you Jack!!!

these are for sale at Burton Manor in the games room and we just couldn’t resist – we cooked the two big ones to have with our breakfast and how good do they look?

all this and freshly cooked baguettes too – we felt quite sluggish afterwards, but we had decided on a trip to Matlock so determination won and we set off.

Hippie loved the trip in the car and and,as we had gone ‘the pretty way’ there was lots to see like these fellas for instance:-

It was so good to see them quite happy in a field instead of in a zoo of some description.

Matlock was good although Hippie got very bored and moaned a lot – so we naturally thought when we got back home she would need a sleep – but no!! As soon as we were back she was out in the back garden at Burton manor farm cottages and raring to go with her teddies – including a new yellow one I had bought her in Matlock.

She took them all out into the garden one by one and careered around like only a greyhound can with them dangling from her mouth…

There was no stopping her – thank goodness no-one was having a picnic at the tables.

Some new people had moved in to a cottage two doors away and Hippie loved showing off to them – the man kept knocking on the window and our girl would immediately fetch a toy and sit down outside their window with it, with an imploring look on her face saying ‘Come and play!’

She even rolled over and showed him her adorable tum but all to no avail…

Eventually she could run no more and just chilled out on the cool grass …..

Until it was time for bed

And little did she realise that we would be going back home the very next morning!!!!

Just a weekend break but how nice!

We packed up the car and left home around lunchtime – sat nav plugged in, heading for the peak district – very close to Bakewell, a farm just outside Over Haddon.

The cottages are all part of a working farm – Burton Manor Farm Cottages and they are situated with all front doors facing into a courtyard area with stables at one end.

Our holiday home was ‘Ashford Cottage’ and was really pretty and cosy. It had one big lounge diner straight in off the front door and a back door off this leading to an enclosed lawned garden with picnic tables.

Kitchen

The kitchen was well stocked and workable – I could have cooked full meals there but as I didn’t know this before we arrived I had cooked meals and taken them with us to reheat.

Lounge diner

The lounge diner had a table with two chairs opposite the kitchen and a large leather settee opposite the TV – which also has a video player underneath. Hippies bed was placed at that end of the room

The door at the TV end lead to the shower room – beautifully clean and tiled

This picture does not do it justice at all.

The door opposite the kitchen lead to the bedroom – really nice with 2 single beds.

It also had dressing table and large wardrobe!

Hippie loved it all but she particularly liked it when we took her to a field for a run. The field had been full of cows during the day but Chris and Rebecca who own the farm said it would be ok to let our girl off for a run in there.

Of course, it was still raining when we took her and my daughter valiantly lifted her over the cattle grid not realising there was a small gate at one side of it, which Hippie could have managed to walk through.

Hippie loved the field – she ran and ran – it was quite steep hill but her brakes appeared to be working.

And she didn’t roll in one cowpat!!

Or even sit on one!!! (Just missed!)

We settled down for a chilled out evening and decided to let the girl out into the lawned garden later but when we got out there three bats were flying around our heads and rather than scare our girl – we just stood in awe of these little creatures.

Went to bed quite early really – all this fresh air!!!