A lifetime ago, better known as last September, I had a small pack of 4 stupid lurchers. Then we had to have one put to sleep. He was old, and its something you know is going to happen with dogs, but it doesn't make it any less painful. He was a small broken coated lurcher probably a cross between an Irish terrier and a whippet sent over from Ireland 12 years ago to a local rescue because they couldn't rehome him in Galway which was full of similar dogs. When we went to get him I fell in love completely for another of the dogs in the batch a 5 yr old bitch who looked like a miniature Borzoi. She was scared of everything and had to be picked up and carried to the car. It took us 6 years to persuade her to siit on the settee and she only started to come up and sit with us when she started to go senile! She's very fragile now, her kidneys are going and I ring my vet more often than my doctor, (and I'm not in good nick myself." We are living day to day with her. She's well over 16 so we are getting ready for the inevitable. So last night when they had their tea, they were all fine. By 8:30 Little Nipper, (only 9, and the youngest and fittest, could be a whippet x alsatian with a touch of corgi, and definitely a local Welsh lurcher) was a bit subdued, and by 3am he was dead. So now we have 2, one who is staggering slowly out of our lives in a senile daze and our problem child who is what the Daily Mail and the Sun call "DevilDogs" - Greyhounds crossed with salukis for extra speed and agility, and some sort of bull terrier specially bred to hunt deer. They thrown them out of the back of moving 4x4's with floodlights as they career across the countyside at night to chase down and kill deer. The guy we rescued him, from as a 6month old pup, had been training him so he is a bit odd and very nervous. He adores the old bitch but he will insist of trying to snuggle up to her, and since he has absolutely no concept of his size and no respect for anyones personal space he keeps sitting on her. She nips him in self defence so thats fair. And soon he will be our only dog, and not one who we could really introduce a new dog to.
<sigh> Dogs; you've got to love them
