Spring is Here!

At last, the big orange ball-in-the-sky has appeared. The girls can't cope with today's heat and loped along the shore panting; not even a game of stick with their collie-pal, Scraps, could get them excited. They'll get used to it after a few weeks, then it's business as usual.
Inca was at her favourite place on Monday night - the vet. Last weekend when it was cooler, both Shelley and her went for a mad gallop on another beach not far from here. The next day Inca was a bit stiff and I notice a small lump on her front left-leg at the elbow. Panic time. But as she had been running, I suspected an injury and applied the obligatory frozen pea compress. The vet agreed. So she's now on a course of antibiotics - and frozen vegetables!

Shelley also performed one of her famous 'stupid stunts'. Let me explain. Shelley is a creature of habit. Once she has been shown or done something once - it must always be performed the same way or she gets confused! Example, normally our car (Megane Scenic) is parked on the drive, nose facing the house. When the girls go for a drive, it means walking them to the rear of the vehicle, opening the hatch and they jump in - simple. Not last Sunday. The car had been reversed in to unload some stuff the night before, therefore the hatch was facing the house. When we all came out Sunday morning for our mandatory beach-day, the girls ran excited to the gate whining and capering. Gate open; Inca immediately ran to the rear of the car and waited expectantly - Shelley disappeared up the driveway. I let Inca in and went to see what Shelley was up to. She hadn't gone far. In fact there she was at the front of the car staring at the bonnet (hood for our American friends) waiting to be let in. I guided her to the rear of the car to a puzzled Inca whereupon she done the same thing again! I had to put on her lead and almost manhandle her into the car - this dog was adamant she was travelling with the engine. I'm sure I could see alook of dispair on Inca's face...Over the years Shelley has amazed us with outbursts of stupidity and we have come to the conclusion that it might be her colouring (OK, this might sound far-out). But we know of other black-and-white greyhounds and we have a black-and-white cat too, that seems to have an aptitude for being stupid.
It's a bit like the film Men in Black, when they open the guy's head and there's a little alien operating the controls. In Shelley's case it's a rabbit smoking an illegal substance that's working the controls.

At Last!

Finally, I’ve gotten around to it, my first blog. It’s not, God forbid, that I have nothing to say; I was simply preoccupied preparing assignments for an environmental management course that I started last September.

So what’s Greyhound Dreams all about? Well, the title of this blog comes from a website I had a few years ago aimed at promoting the greyhound as a companion dog and family pet. Unfortunately, this is an infuriating task made even more difficult by the fact that I live in Northern Ireland where the perception of the Greyhound is not a positive one (in no small way, thanks to a pathetic muzzle law dating back to 1950); in fact animal welfare in general over here is abysmal, especially concerning dogs (more on this later).

But today was an especially bad one and emotionally I'm not in a good place; a mix of extreme sadness and anger. Why? Because I found out that this week a grey was pulled from our local river - dumped in a bag. I really can't help feeling sick at the level this society has sank to. I only hope that Universal justice is fairer than its Earthly counterpart regarding the individuals who committed this crime.

Apologies to anyone who visited this site in the past two weeks only to find blank spaces and apologies twice-over for the not so upbeat start.