A new Cushion for Pointies!

[SpaghettiTwirlerAndProud]

Pointy hounds include-
Greyhounds (Grunds)
Whippets (Whippys)
Lurchers
Italian Greyhounds (Iggys)
Salukis
Afghans
And any others I have forgotten. If you are a new pointy hound owner, an old and experienced owner or looking into getting one of these fabulous creatures, come and have a seat (that's not taken up with a hound).

Share advice, stories and shopping tips!

I didn?t really want you,
I wasn?t really sure,
And I?ll admit I had my doubts,
When you first came through that door.

Not small, or cute, or fluffy,
With big, soft puppy eyes,
But tall, and thin, and bony,
With bald, pink, bulging thighs.

You weren?t the kind I had in mind,
Not in any way,
?Perhaps it would be better if I took you back today,
Before we know each other,
It really won?t be kind,
To keep you here for one more day,
And then to change my mind.?

But against my better judgement, I decided you could stay,
And quickly I discovered you were kind in every way,
Your gentleness and patience, they really stole the show,
?Why these dogs are wonderful, I must let others know!?

For you?re my gentle giant,
Who just needed the chance,
To show us all what you could be,
To wipe away that history,
And dispel our preconceptions, which put us all to shame,
And so we come to know and love,
What lies beneath that frame.

And now I?ve come to understand,
What I missed right at the start,
That greyhounds need that great deep chest,
To house their great big hearts!
:)

I wish you all lived closer, I would've invited you to the wedding, hounds and all! I could've had a pointy entourage :o

I saw a hedgehog today! It was so cuuuuuute! It was waddling around our street and went into DPs aunties driveway a few houses down from us, then it came out of the drive and waddled off round the corner :o

I have never seen a hedgehog and I am 35. I grew up in the country and all! I have seen a vole (it was dead, my friend and I found it on a school trip and smuggled it back to hers for a 'burial'.)

Was Sprocket interested?

Aww, Scuttle one of the reasons we're not taking Billy camping (apart from the main one which is I think he'd hate it) is that the site near our friends is very dog friendly and there are loads of them. I just think it would freak him out - a new place and lots of very friendly dogs...

I've only seen a hedgehog once before today! Sprocket was very interested. He was standing there with his ears up, eyes glued onto it and making tiny little whimpers.

Hello all, just checking in

Went on our ususal group walk early this evening (three ladies and 8 dogs, 6 of which were pointies).
At one point the dogs were playing rough and tumble and something (am thinking claw or tooth) caught Sam's shoulder blade. He has got an inch long gash which when opened out is larger than a 20p piece diameter (if that makes sense...) It is not overly deep although you can see the top layer of skin is clean off). It did not bleed profusely.
Dh has bathed it in cooled boiled water and we have squeezed some fresh aloe vera onto it (straight from the plant). He does not seem uncomfortable. If it looks like it is becoming infected or starts to bleed we will take him up to the vet tomorrow. But I am hoping we can deal with this one ourselves...

Not much else to report. :-)

We had a hedgehog living in the garden of our old house. One summer's evening we left the patio doors open until just before we went to bed. The following morning dh went to put his lunch in his workbag and got a handful of hedgehog. It had crawled into his bag and curled up into a ball and fallen asleep... Dh donned gloves, lifted it out, showed the dc and we put it back in the garden. We spent the rest of the summer leaving cat food and hula hoops out for it. We could sit in the kitchen very quietly watching it eat...
Then one autumn morning there was a dead hedgehog on the road outside our house. And 'our' hedgehog never returned

Will see if I can find a pic of him

Lock, Andy says to remind Sam "Chicks love scars". Every pointy wears them as a badge of honour They make for lots of conversation when he's meeting new, impressionable whippy girls at the park - can tell stories about how and where he got them......

That's so lovely about the hedgehog eating Hula Hoops - but a sad ending to the story. At least he had a really happy time in your garden

Just got back from the vet. His first words were: "ooh it is a few days old". Erm, nope, Sam definately got the cut last night... But it is already crusting up around the edges so perhaps he is just a fast healer?
Vet gave us two options:

1. to put Sam under heavy sedation and stitch it. Sedation because as a whippety he has no pain threshold (read: he is a wimp!)
2. to clean it and leave it and provide us with 3 weeks worth of antibiotics and allow Sam to heal by himself.

We have chosen option two. With everything Sam went through last winter I don't want him under sedation again. He is already developing a fear of vets (had to be carried over threshold screaming )
I think we can keep it clean. He is not an overly boisterous dog so I don't think he will do himself further injury.

Have we made the right decision [fret] ?

Oh, Sam says to Andy: "That's great but I am a bit scared of girls..."

Hedgehog was lovely. Cannot find photo (it is stored on old computer in loft).

I use salt water and then boiled cool water to wash out dog wounds. Did the vets give you antibacterial wash- that's good. Also a super, super product you can get from the vets is manuka honey. You just put it straight onto the wound. You have to get it from the vets though as not all manuka honey is 'active'.

No, no antibacterial wash. Vet said it is drying up and he wants us to leave it alone. But he has given us antibiotic tablets to give Sam twice a day for the next 3 weeks...

Bought DDs first shoes today :) size 2.5 G.

Lock hope Sam heals quickly! Bless him. Lovely hedgehog story (apart from the :( end) I :o at the hula hoops and him hiding in the workbag.

Sprocket was so excited to see me today because I'd been out for a long time, I got his collar and lead out as soon as I got in and he got that excited he jumped up at me and now I have a little graze on my shoulder he has never jumped up at anything before so I thibk he was a little shocked that he'd done it. As soon as he got back on the ground his face was like "wtf did I just do that for?"
:o

Lock, please don't fret. You've done the right thing.

Pointies are always managing to get themselves shredded with that thin skin and fur - you get used to it so quickly. The ABs will make sure there's no infection. Our vets are also very much of the school of Don't Mess About With It - just warm salt water then leave it be. No chemicals, no sprays, just leave it to heal.

Andy did a "spectacular" last autumn. He rushed out the garden one night thinking he could hear a mysterious and exciting noise and ended up in a tangle with a garden terracotta pot. Cue damaged pot, alchemilla and compost all over the shop, and greyhound with what appeared to be half his arse hanging off. Anyway he got cleaned up, bathed, a painkiller, and it looked bloody horrid for a week or so. I was so tempted to take him to the vet or fiddle with it, but we kept a close eye and it was obviously healing nicely. Now he's got (yet another) impressive scar and likes to tell the other greyhounds about how he got it on a secret anti squirrel ninja mission.

Cunny, that's so lovely about Sprocket! Awwwww.

I'm glad Sprocket doesn't appear to be as accident prone as his brother :o. @ half his arse hanging off! He is a sneaky bugger though. He knows he is not allowed on our bed, twice today I've come upstairs, got to the bedroom door and caught him springing off our bed and onto his with a guilty look on his face. I wouldn't mind so much if I wasn't allergic to dogs. I'm fine with Sprocket but I think sleeping in a bed covered with his hair isn't doing me any good! Come to think of it, I've been a bit wheezy at night when I first get into bed, this has been happening roughly since he was able to come up on his own

We have a stairgate at the top of the stairs - it's at a funny angle so the dog can't leap over it. DS sleepwalks so it isn't entirely for dog deterrent factor. Works for us but our stairs are spiral so not sure ho effectiv it'd be on straight ones. Would it be worth a go?

A stairgate at the bottom of the stairs was a waste of time.

Or a bolt high on the outside of the bedroom door so he can't turn the handle to get in when you are out?

We also kept the stairgates on, even though the boys are past that stage now, as they help if we want to contain the dogs in a certain area of the house (when we are out for example, they have the run of the hallway and utility room, but cannot go upstairs or into any of the downstairs rooms. The gates don't look pretty (esp. given we have a lot of stairs in our house), but they are useful. We also have a petgate over the doorway to the utility room so we can contain them quickly if needed, but they can still see out (they don't like it if the door is closed.

Whippetty got a run though yesterday. He is so lovely to watch when running, all zoomy and happy .

We have a stairgate at the bottom and one to stop him going into DDs room, but his bed is in our room so he has to be able to go in there. It's ok, I just put stuff on the bed so he can't get on :o

We have a stair gate at the bottom of our stairs as whippety boy has a nasty habit of pooing under DS1's bed . He never messes inside apart from this so I can only assume it's a bit of a hormone thing as they are both adolescents . I scrub the carpet with pet smell remover stuff but it makes no difference.

Having a puzzle with my boy this weekend though, every morning he has had an explosion in his bed, top and bottom by the looks of things. He's fine during the day so I have no idea what's going on. He's giving me the evils at the moment because I've not given him any food this morning after a spectacular puddle of brown sick greeted me first thing. Going to give him chicken and rice in a while and see how he is.

My whippety had his first run after his op yesterday Magrat, I just can't stop smiling when he zooms about, he looks like he is grinning

at poor whippy boy, with dual explosiions!! Hope he is feeling better? Is he drinking?

Your poor whippy, Lost. I hope he is better soon.

We went for a nice long country walk today (as did half the county it would seem) and met lots of lovely pointy owners. It seems such a pointy thing that other pointy owners identify themselves to other pointy owners even when they don't have the dogs with them . Whippetty was quite taken though with a beautiful blue italian greyhound. He looked enormous and lumbering next to her.

I'd love to meet an IG in real life. The idea of one really appeals but the whole 'toy dog' thing makes me worry they'd break .

I've sat in all day with whippety boy, he's a bit under the weather, but how can you really tell when any normal whippet would sleep all day given half a chance anyway. He's had water and a little bit of food but no tea as he has been sick/bad bottom over night for the last three nights. He looks very sad so is getting even more cuddles than usual (and I didn't think that was possible)

Hello again!

We went to see more greyhounds today. A local kennel has over 40 dogs so we popped along for a chat and walked a few of the recommended grunds. The lady seemed very lovely and knowledgeable and had already thought about which dogs would be most suitable.

So exciting! But how on earth do you pick one? They were all completely luvverly. Lovely kennel lady suggested we go back with the DC and see how they react to the dogs. Then she will bring the dog on the Homecheck, I think, to see how it reacts to our house. Can't wait!!

But so sad to see so mant dogs in kennels

grr, many

We've actually seen 3 Iggys in about 2 weeks. They are very lovely, but yes, I'm not sure how compatible with young children given their delicateness.

Rainy - how exciting! I don't have any suggestions though as to how to choose one. Ours kind of chose us. My first reaction to whippetty was "yikes" (he is now very much my dog) and with lurcher girl we had very specific requirements: child friendly, dog friendly, not much more than an inch taller than whippetty, able to be left up to 4 hours etc etc etc. We did meet a petite grund who was only a little larger than whippetty, but he didn't like the fact that she was faster than him , so he discounted her for us. We also almost got a small, very pretty whippetty/terrier lurcher but we backed out of that for several reasons. When we met lurcher girl, she immediately licked everyone, she and whippetty ignored each other and she was only an inch taller than him. A bonus once we got her home was finding that she was already clean in the house.

I think if you spend some time with the different possible adoptees, you will find one you feel more afinity with than the others (or otherwise you'll come home with several).

I hope whippy boy is better soon Lost, poor thing.

Rainy just be thankful that there are so many dogs in the kennels, it means that their owners were responsible and sent them to rescue when they retired instead of abandoning them. As for picking one, spend some time with the ones suitable for you, and pick whoever feels right iyswim? If that fails, ask the lady to pick for you :o

It's funny you should mention that about other pointy owners Magrat, the other day I was out walking Sprocket and we passed this woman with a beauuuuutiful black greyhound, I smiled at her and she just gave me a face back. There's another guy I've seen before a few times, gorgeous grey whippet called Brian :o and has a face like a smacked arse. The guy not Brian. I guess some people are just odd.

Oooh Rainy, how exciting!! Whick kennel did you visit? With regards to choosing one, be prepared to come home with something that was not on your wishlist...
We went to look for a greyhound. Lovely lady at kennels had picked a few that woudl be suitable, we loved both. We agreed to come back with both the dc the following weekend and walk one for her on the great greyhound walk (all the kennel dogs were going on the walk with an army of volunteers).

The following week the two we had seen and played with were both reserved. The lady at the kennels had a third dog which we took on the walk. He was lovely, but huuuuuge and very stubborn. We said we were not sure and that for dd we wanted something a bit smaller and not so stubborn. She said feel free to take a look round the kennels. We did. Ds and dd fell in love with whippety boy. He came home with us a few weeks later. Not a greyhound. But utterly lovely all the same

Lost, I hope whippetyboy feels better soon!

Sam's cut is healing up very slowly. I caught him itching it again and he had managed to take the scab off and the whole thing was bleeding again. It is now slathered in sudocreme to keep it soft and he is wearing a very fetching old t-shirt of dd's. The t-shirt is red and features a zebra in sunglasses posing the question:"How cool am I?". When I look at Sam the answer is:"Not very!".

Omgosh Lock pleeeeease put a picture of him wearing it up! I have to see that!