The big news is that after a lot of thought and discussion we have decided to formally adopt our beautiful foster greyhound, Boola, taking us up to three permanent canine members of the family. So, I thought that in this blog post I would tell you all a little bit about him.

Boola's full name is Boolavogue Gold and he was born on 11th February 2000, probably one of five littermates. He was born in Ireland to Irish parents (his mother was Boolavogue June and his sire was Roanokee). Like most greyhounds, he has distinctive and unique ear tattoos, which allow us to look him up on the worldwide greyhound database at http://www.greyhound-data.com/, a fascinating site with all sorts of racing stats and dog pedigree information. This site allows us to trace Boola's pedigree right back to the 19th Century. We can also see recorded here his racing information. His racing career was fairly short, mainly at Enniscorthy Stadium, County Wexford, just seven races in 2002, with not very impressive results. Boola was one of the lucky ones - at this point, a lot of greyhounds are shot or killed in other ways but in his case he made his way over to Wales, probably to race on one of Wales' unlicensed flapping tracks. A steady stream of cheap Irish dogs (and English ones too) come to Wales as a sort of "last chance saloon" to have a pop on the flapping tracks - these dogs are cheap, often as little as £10.

Their attraction is that they are unknown on the local Welsh tracks so the new owner will try and gain money by betting heavily on the new arrival - the idea being that because they are an unknown quantity it may be possible to get a big payout from the bookie if they do well. If they don't do well, not much money has been invested in the dog. At this point, again Boola was lucky as often dogs are shot at this point if they don't do well. Some reputable owners will hand them over also at this point (Andy got rehomed at this stage) but Boola ended up being dumped on the streets in the winter. This is how greyhound racing repays the dogs who don't do well. Eventually he was found straying and taken to the Council dog pound in Neath, South Wales on New Year's Eve 2002, and from here he came for the first time into the care of the charity.

He was successfully rehomed but unfortunately ate a pet rabbit and had an incident with some chickens, leading him to come back to the care of the charity and being rehomed again in 2007. This time he went to an alternative therapist and her family but allegedly displayed severe behavioural problems, including pooing in the house, whining, disturbed sleep and other issues. Eventually, the owner contacted the charity in autumn of last year and simply asked them to take the dog away. And that's when he came to us.

I have to speak as we find. We are not (most emphatically) experts, or have any expertise in dog behaviour. Since Boola has been with us, he's been spotlessly clean in the house, and generally sleeps through the night. Like all greyhounds, if he needs to go out, he lets you know, and he does whine but it's with excitement when we're preparing food or going out on walks. From being a little shy on first arrival he's blossomed into a gorgeous, confident, affectionate boy who is a pleasure to be around. Some other interesting trivia:-

• He loves cold curry
• He has a nail missing on his front right paw and on his front left paw he has a mis-shapen nail.
• He likes having his belly tickled.
• He is a very messy eater.
• He has a funny bark when he is out the garden and wants to come back in.
• He likes to pee on the raised bed in the garden.
• He loves cuddling Andrew on the sofa.
• He doesn't like the vacuum cleaner very much but at least he doesn't try to bite it (unlike Andy).
• He doesn't like going upstairs.

So, to conclude, welcome to our newest family member and I'm sure many of my readers will enjoy meeting him in person in the future.