 Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:29 am |
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Hi my name is Eileen and I live with my dog Chewie in a small village in Leicestershire. Chewie is a lurcher. He is the size of a large male greyhound (which he thinks he is!) and is blue merle in colour. We first heard about Chewie when my friend sent me an email saying "you must have this dog on Dog pages". We had not long lost an oldie we had taken on. She was 15, spent 13 years of her life tied up outside and then 2 years in the RSPCA. She was also deaf (due to not having ear infections seen to) and had mammory tumours. We knew she did not have much time left but we both fell in love with her. We had her for 6 months and in that time she gave us much more than we were able to give to her. My husband was devasted when we lost her and said it would be a long time before he could take on another dog and when he did he wanted a small dog!!Well that was before I received the email. Chewie had been abandoned by travellers and picked up by the dog warden. He had only 3 days left when Tia Greyhound rescue took him on. He spent several months with them and was then transferred to Whitelodge near Melton Mowbray. Altogether he spent nearly 18 months in rescue and he was only about 3 years old. Well we went to see him and knew he was the one for us. He came to live with us in June 2003. He was perfect in every way except for defensive aggression with other dogs. He was attacked by 2 by other dogs in the first 3 months that we had him so we could understand how he felt. He attended obedience classes and was the star of the class. In 2004 we both took early retirement and moved lock stock and animals (Chewie and Sarah, our shire horse) to the Loire Valley in France where we all lived our dream. Sarah living on our friends' farm nearby with their horses and Chewie having 2 acres of his own to play in plus 2 female greyhounds to play with when we were at our friends. Unfortunately I lost my husband at the end of 2006 and just over 1.1/2 years ago Chewie and I moved back to the UK to be near my family. Chewie has settled down very well back in the UK and has recently become a PAT dog. He is a lot better with other dogs now and goes on a monthly walk with about 20 rescue greyhounds and his best friend is a little Westie called Oscar.
I first learnt about Shak when I did a homecheck for Lennox. I think it's a fantastic site and I love reading the daily blog. I have an open invitation to go and visit Lennox in his new home and once the mud has dried up a bit (it was over the top of my wellys when I did the homecheck!!!) I will be going to meet him. I don't think it's very likely that I'll ever get to meet you all in person but I do feel that in a small way I am part of Shak Rescue. In fact Stephen calls me your "Leicester Branch"
Looking forward to hearing other members stories.
Eileen & Chewie
