I'd grown up with a dog and always wanted another one, my husband wasn't quite as keen as he'd been bitten a couple of times as a child. We'd looked at different breeds and liked what we'd heard about greyhounds so I headed off to Crown Point to meet them one morning and have a chat with the Trust volunteers to find out what living with a greyhound is really like.
From there, we arranged a home visit which I admit I was a bit nervous about. We knew we had to get the garden fences sorted out before we could take adoption any further but the Trust volunteer who came to see us was very supportive, she answered all our questions (even the silly ones J ) and also told us about the Northern Greyhound Gathering.
The NGG was great fun and it sealed the deal about whether we were looking at the right breed of dog for us. Everyone talks about how sweet natured these dogs are and that day proved it. To see so many of them in one place, some newly homed, some who'd been homed for many years and pretty much all of them completely chilled out was the confirmation we needed.

After a frustrating few months of sorting fences and fixing walls we were finally ready, so off we went to the kennels where we met Kath and a couple of the dogs, one of whom was Curtis. In the end, he was the one who did the choosing, he won us over very quickly, just by being himself.
He's a naturally cautious boy, a little shy, so coming home with us was a big change for him. It hasn't all been plain sailing as we learned to live together (there were a few 'discussions' over who was allowed on the bed and who wasn't!), but nothing we couldn't sort out with time and patience. House training was harder for us than for him! It took him a little time to teach us his signals for when he wanted to go out, the very few accidents have been our fault because we've not understood him.
Watching him come out of his shell and learn about living with a family has been brilliant. It took him less than 12 hours to manage going upstairs (The first night, his reaction was 'What?! You want to leave me down here in the dark on my own?!!' when we told him good night and switched off the light. He scrambled straight up those scary stairs on the first try (there were legs everywhere!). Coming down next morning, was a different matter - he needed some help, but once he mastered it, he spent the rest of the day using the stairs as his racetrack, and it only took about a fortnight for him to take over the sofa.

Watching him gain confidence has been very rewarding, from the first time he climbed on the sofa to the first time he came and asked for a cuddle and the first time he walked confidently through a busy car park.
He's been with us for 6 months now and he makes us smile every day, I honestly can't imagine life without him. None of this could have happened without the help and support of the Trust volunteers tho'. Everyone we've met has been friendly, helpful and enthusiastic about the dogs, whether that's on a meet and greet at a store, at the Emley socials or at the kennels. Knowing that there was expert help at hand should we need it was another factor to us adopting a greyhound.
And the slightly less keen husband - had a grin a mile wide when walking Curtis the day after adopting him and after a couple of months said 'I know I'm not going to live this down, but why didn't we do this years ago?'   A very good question!

A FEW MONTHS LATER ....

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We’d been talking about homing a second greyhound for a while when there was an appeal on the WYGT website to find a home for an older dog, Sid (now Voxy). He’d been living with a WYGT fosterer during the first lockdown so a lot was known about him and he sounded like he’d fit in well with us. The now totally-won-over-by-greyhounds husband rang me to suggest adopting him, so I spoke to Kath. This is when I found out that the Trust don’t usually home two greyhounds of the same sex together, as there can be friction between them. We were disappointed but it’s the well-being of the dogs which matters the most, which we appreciate.

A while later tho’, Kath rang me back to say that Voxy had been living happily with Chris’ mixed pack with no issues and if Voxy and Curtis got on ok, then we could adopt him. Yay!

We met up with Chris and his pack at the kennels and after carefully introducing them to each other, Curtis and Voxy had some off-lead time together in the run. I’m delighted to say that there were no problems and as we talked about the two dogs, Voxy just sounded more and more like a good fit for us.
He’d sadly lost his original home but it meant that he already knew about houses, vacuum cleaners, sofas and all the other things an ex-racing greyhound needs to learn about. He was very shutdown when we met him and the first day he was with us, he was very quiet. He watched everything going on around him, especially when we were with Curtis. The following day, he walked up to my husband, chattering his head off and asked for a cuddle! That was a moment to treasure. In the six months he’s been with us, he’s become a complete cuddle monster and a champion chatterer. Did you know a greyhound can chatter at the same time as carrying a dentastix? We didn’t, but he somehow manages it!

Two dogs is obviously more work than one (more paws to wipe for one thing) and we’ve had to make some adjustments, things like sorting the car so we could transport both of them safely, a bit of furniture moving to fit in extra beds and another feeding station. Luckily, we can feed them both in the same room at the same time. One of the house rules is that if one dog gets a treat / food, then the other does too so they’re pretty relaxed about it now. Walks now take longer, both boys enjoy sniffing everything and between them would happily sniff every inch of the way. Some days it can take a while to get anywhere, especially as they’re not always heading the same direction!
By far the biggest issue we had to deal with was that Curtis could get a bit jealous of Voxy, he wasn’t so keen on sharing his mum and dad to start with, not surprising really. That lasted a few months but we made sure that they both got the same amount of love and attention and Curtis has settled down. This was definitely the biggest adjustment we had to make, making sure that they both got the time and attention they need. We’ve all benefitted from it tho’ and Curtis has learnt a lot from Voxy, especially about cuddles!

There also seems to be an unwritten rule that you need at least as many sofas as greyhounds. We only have one sofa, so there’ve been occasions where one dog is stood on the floor telling the other to “get off, that’s my sofa!” They both ignore the other when this happens so whoever’s complaining (usually Curtis) often comes looking for me to sort it out (“Muuuum! He won’t get off the sofa! Tell him!!!”). I find it really funny but it soon blows over, so I don’t get involved.
Voxy is almost 11 now, so would we take on an older dog again? Yes, we would. His attitude is ‘been there, done that’ but he’s still very interested in everything that’s going on and very little upsets him (apart from not getting a cuddle or walk when he wants one!). He and Curtis get on well together, they’ll keep an eye out for each other and will play together. Voxy much prefers to snooze, but he’s quite the ringleader when he wants to be!