One of my favourite breeds

Quincy came in for his routine vaccinations today. He is an 8 year old Greyhound. When I went through to the waiting room to call him as it was his turn next; he was asleep on the waiting room floor and his owner was quietly reading a book with her glasses perched on her nose. They made such a happy picture - they could have been in their own relaxed home.

He slowly roused himself when he heard his name and his owner put her book away. Normally, dogs will sit and shiver in the waiting room with fear of what is to come, but not Quincy.

He stood quietly as I examined him and did not even flinch when I vaccinated him (unusual for a greyhound as they have a low pain threshold with their thin skin).

As I spoke to his owner, Quincy again made himself comfortable and stretched out on the consulting room floor to sleep. Apparently this wonderful laid back attitude to life is what made his doting owner choose him.

She went to a Greyhound Rescue 4 years ago. The kennel housed about 10 ex-racer Greyhounds that were all barking and jumping up. Quincy stood out as he had squeezed himself into a tiny basket and he just looked at her through all the chaos and noise with a gentle, pleading look. That was that, they have been devoted to each other ever since.

On hearing his history, I told the owner that my 10 year old son had left me his reading book on my bed as he thought I would enjoy it. It is Born to Run by Michael Morpurgo and is all about a Greyhound. I admitted to her that even though it was a children’s book, I had so enjoyed it but it had made me cry so much as it is written so poignantly. She laughed as her 10 year old son had left it for her too to read and she had also cried!

Greyhounds certainly are one of my favourite breeds.

This entry was posted on 14/04/2008 at 10:46 am and is filed under Being a Mum and vet, A veterinary day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.