Jounrey to the North from the North

The lovely ladies at Grehounds Galore telephoned to say I could go the next day to see the Saluki Cross. By this time I was getting quite excited at the prospect of getting a new dog and the pangs of not wanting another one were almost wearing off.

We had to travel from Southern Scotland to North Yorkshire, a not insignificant journey so we set off good and early the next day with plenty of goodies to eat on the way and Molly in the back looking rather perplexed as to why we had put the dog guard seperator in the boot as we'd nornally only do that for holidays and friends dogs to make two compartments.

We finally arrived at our destination to a very warm welcome and were taken straight to see the dog. He was kennelled with another dog, a small black greyhound who was absolutely lovely. I was slightly taken aback at how skinny the Saluki cross was and rather shocked to see that he had no fur on any of his legs. He really was in a bad way and his current condition was much improved from when he had been taken from the dog pound after the threat of being put to sleep if nobody could rescue him.

He was wearing a very cosy coat and it seemed cruel to take it off to inspect him and I just knew that the nice ladies had looked after him so well that I just said we would take him there and then. I think Other Half had expected to go off and discuss the matter but even he felt sorry for the dog. We then got Molly from the car and introduced the dogs to each other. To this day I feel rather guilty as it seemed she preferred the Greyhound to the Saluki cross but we had made up our minds and as they didn't dislike each other either it didn't seem too bad.

Then the most heartbreaking thing happened. We went to put Molly and the new dog in the back of the car and the Greyhound cried and cried and howled and barked. He so didn't want to be left behind, it was truly awful and if we had had space for three he would have come with us as it really was one of the worst things I've ever been through to walk away and leave him there.

It turned out that some weeks later the Grehound found a home with a lady who absolutely adores him so I feel much better now but I still feel the guilt when I think of him crying that afternoon.

We then sorted out all the formalities (I must point out that I'd ommitted to say that we had to get a reference from our vet and prove we had a well fenced garden etc and that the dogs would not be left alone for hours on end etc before we could take a dog home) and got into the car and started making our way home.

The first thing that hit us when we closed the car doors was the smell. It was dreadfull. And it was coming from the new dog who was looking very regal in the rear of the car but smelling very badly. Molly was looking suitably disgusted and promptly ignored him through the seperator. It was very cold but we had to open the windows to let the smell out, it was hard to discribe, probably the best way is that it was a very strong dog smell but even that discription dosen't do it justice as to the strength of it.

After a few miles the new dog settled down and went to sleep, it was almost as though he had given up on his own life and that he was just accepting whatever happened to him.

We got home in the evening and let the dogs into the house, Molly settled on her bed and the new dog ran around, and around and around. I know that dogs have to investigate a new place but this dog did it at super high speed.

We deicded to feed them and goodness me, the new dog ate his food at lightning speed! It was gone almost before he looked at it. He then went outside to do his business and came back in and started the high speed investigating once again.

The high speed investigating went on for four hours. It drove us mad. It was only interrupted for a short while when we switched the television on. This was really funny, the new dog had obvioulsy never been in a house before let alone seen a television and he just couldn't understand it. He stood in front of it with his ears cocked moving his head from left to right, then went round the back to try and find the people who were inside it. Once he realised that he couldn't work it out he went back to the high speed investigating of everything else.

Probably the worst thing about all this was that the high speed investigating was wafting the smell around the whole house. We couldn't wash him the moment he came in as that would be a bit much, and we also decided not to take his coat off as it was very cosy and on inspection it appeared that what fur he did have was rather sparse and he would be very cold without it even indoors and the coat smelt almost worse than he did. We decided to put up with it and invest in some strong air fresheners the next day until we could bathe him and wash his coat.

Later we went to bed. The dogs went out, did what they had to do, the new one on a lead so that we could make sure and we all went to bed, the dogs downstairs and us upstairs.

All was quiet.

Not for long.

After about 30 minutes he started to howl. Then bark. Then howl. Then a very odd barking howl. It was very loud.

I had read somewhere that it would do no good to give in and go down to him so I tried to ignore him. It went on, and on , and on.....I gave in and went down and was given the most raptourous welcome known to man. I settled him down and went back to bed.

All was quiet again and again not for long. We went through this routine several times until my ears stopped working through exhaustion and I fell asleep.