Regular readers will know not to expect much activity from me at this time of the year.  The Tour grips me in its embrace, and I am willingly enfolded for three glorious weeks of emotion and spectacle. 

This year, we've experienced some diversionary activity that I wanted to share.  

After we lost Booty,  Andrew and I had lengthy discussions about the way forward.  Should we have another greyhound?  If so what age or sex?  Should we foster or adopt?  Eventually, after exploring the many options, we decided that we'd like another female, age irrelevant, and we were interested in exploring long term fostering.  In particular, as a loving, experienced greyhound home, we felt we could offer a long term placement for a dog that would otherwise struggle to be adopted.  

So after we returned from holiday, I gave a call to Paula, the local rep and friend, from Greyhound Welfare.  Paula already knew of our loss and had sent us a lovely email when we lost Booty, so our call wasn't a surprise.  We discussed our situation, and Paula confirmed that there were lots of dogs needing exactly what we were offering, a long term foster placement.  After a discussion of some of the candidates, Paula felt that we would probably be ideally suited to meeting Sara, a bitch currently placed with Sian, one of Paula's main short term/emergency foster carers.  We discussed her background and history, and Paula sent us some photos, with the advisory that as they were taken when she came into the care of the charity, she was severely underweight and therefore not looking her best. 

We agreed to take Boola and Andy along to meet her last Saturday, where she was taking part in a store collection at Caerphilly Garden Centre.  We went along feeling very nervous, but needn't have worried.  Practically as soon as we got out of the car, Andy was sniffing her with great interest and excitement and wagging his tail.  Boola was also very keen.  So we took the three hounds for an experimental walk around the car park of the garden centre, attracting some bemused glances as we went.  Clearly all three got on, which was our main concern.  We agreed to take her home, and shortly afterwards, were driving home with a third greyhound in the  boot.   

Here she is, a beautiful eight year old brindle girl.  She is a joy to have around, she is gentle, very affectionate, a devilish food thief and counter surfer, and a tail that is a lethal weapon - it wags at 100 mph.  

Having her round has been joyous.  We still miss Booty terribly, and Sara will never be a replacement for her.  Taking on another dog, and particularly giving a home to a dog that would otherwise struggle to find one, seemed to us, to be honouring Booty's memory.  

One of the reasons why she couldn't be adopted, was there was uncertainty over whether she had been spayed or not.   Funnily enough, as often happens when bitches move home, she came into season on Friday.  We noticed a few drops of blood around the place. Otherwise, she's been fine, but it means that we will have to restrict her public movements for around three weeks.  She'll be spayed now, in around three months.  

Yesterday, we took her and the two boys to the greyhound field where they could run about securely off lead, safely away from other dogs.  We had a wonderful time and it was lovely to experience some sunshine.