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Just in case there's anybody who doesn't know what's been happening in my life since that awful night of July 13th when my pc decided that it just didn't recognise K9 I'll do a brief summary.....or try to keep it brief!
I took my gorgeous girl Tina to a Companion Dog Show on Sunday 27th and she won the Best Condition class which had me absolutely over the moon because I'd alwayas been paranoid about this silly little baldy patch on her tail :b
We then had to stay until the end of the show and Tina then won Best In Show!!!!!!!!!!! :cheers: She had her photograph in the Morpeth Herald and Northumberland Gazette four days later and for weeks afterward I had folks coming into our shop and saying they'd seen our photo :b
Here's a link to the day - we are halfway down. It was a fabulous day and I really enjoyed the gundog and falconry displays - can't wait for next year's show
http://www.nessr.net/news/NESSRNEWS-Issue-2.pdf
Unfortunately tragedy struck on Monday 18th August when I was exercising Tina on The Pastures. She was playing with another larger dog and I think she must have been knocked by him (it happened so fast) and she fell into the river which was flowing very fast because of recent rain. Despite my managing to get her out a minute or two later after she was carried down river she had drowned and I was unable to save her :'( Suffice to say the next two/three weeks were torture for me and easily the worst pain I have ever felt!!! I could barely talk about what had happened to folks and spent most evenings (and even my breaks at work) crying my eyes out. But eventually I somehow managed to tell a few folks and they passed it on to others and the kindness I was shown was incredible - not one person gave the impression that they thought I was stupid to cry over 'just' a dog.
I was still adamant though that I would never have another dog......or at least no dog for a loooong time!
But Neil started casually mentioning that he was missing the routine we had got into with our beach walks with Tina and I think it was this, and the fact that I was lost on my days off work, that started the seed of another dog germinating inside me.
We had two weeks' holiday booked, starting on Saturday 20th September, and we were planning to stay with our friend in the Lake District so Neil could do a couple of days of building work whilst I got out with Tina. Except now that we no longer had our beautiful girl I was distraught. I tried birdwatching, which I used to do a lot, but it wasn't the same. We'd been looking forward SO much to taking Tina walking in the Lakes and it was sheer hell not having her there - I felt as though her presence was constantly with me but I wasn't able to reach out and hold her or stroke her or laugh at her silly crazy whippety humour *oh bugger I'm crying now!!!*
We got to the Lakes on the Sunday *21st* and went to see our friend Eddie on the Monday. He's in his 80's and an absolute sweetheart and has had terriers and foxhounds since he was a boy. By then I'd kind-of decided that perhaps we DID need to get a dog once more BUT NOT A WHIPPET!!!!!! I couldn't bear the pain of having another one of the same breed as he/she might have the same personality & traits that Tina had and I didn't feel up to that sort of painful reminder. So I convinced Neil that we'd go for a terrier of some sort.
After talking to Eddie and his wife we both decided to get another dog in the summer of 2009 - after all, winter was coming up and who wants to deal with mud and dark nights and cold!!! :wacko:
The next day we went to the birdwatching reserve at St Bees and had a fabulous day. Not many birds as it was past the breeding season but I saw three dolphins throughh my telescope and Neil and I just enjoyed having a day together and actually talking properly. We talked especially about 'our dog' when we got it. What we wanted from a dog, what we wanted to do etc and we came to the conclusion that only another whippet would do!!! They're a lovely breed - graceful, beautiful to look at and live with and we just love them
For the first time in over five weeks I finally felt EXCITED and looking forward to something once more.
Then the very next day, Wednesday 24th, I was drying my hair in the bedroom and Neil came in with the laptop. He'd found a whippet bitch needing a good home (w00t) And she was only 20+ miles away in Kendal!!! We rang up the number shown and spoke to the woman (for absolutely ages!!!) who needed to rehome her and arranged to go to meet this whippet at 5.30pm that day.
Well, we just fell in love the minute we met her :wub: She was TINY!!!! My first impression was that she was an Italian Greyhound!!! She was called Diva and had been rescued ten months previous by the woman's husband from a gamekeeper who'd kept her outdoors in the freezing cold He paid £100 for her. Unfortunately their resident Jack Russell kept getting jealous every time Diva tried to get some affection from the family and so, reluctantly, they'd set out to find a good home for her. Ten days later we rang up and we passed their test and were allowed to take her. We swopped email addresses so I could keep them informed on how Diva was doing and send them photos too.
We came home early from our holiday the very next day as I wanted to get Diva settled into her new Forever Home, though Neil went back across to Graeme's for a few more days to finish off the work. I stayed at home with Diva and helped her settle in.
Diva is of unknown age but probably beween 3 and 5 years old. She's black and only 16'' tall at the shoulder (withers?) and covered in scars and both tips of her ears have pieces bitten/ripped out of them but in our eyes she is beautiful :huggles: She IS a teensy bit shy of new folk until she gets to know them and at first I thought she was going to become Neil's dog as she seemed to prefer him more!
A week & a half after getting her she came into season (she wasn't supposed to be due until November!) so we had to cancel her spaying op. We have had her inoculations done however as the couple were told she'd had her original puppy ones done but not had any boosters since.
The first couple of weeks we had her she seemed VERY miserable but now she seems to be coming out of her shell more and more each day - perhaps as she realises that she's NOT going to be moved on to another home again - and her true merry character is starting to come through We've changed her from tinned food, which was going straight through her, on to dry food and she's a lot happier on it. And she sleeps IN the bed, under the duvet!!! I swear she's determined to never be cold ever again!!!
She goes to work with Neil three nights a week - Saturday, Monday & Tuesday - as I'm not allowed to take her to work with me and, we only found this out last Tuesday, she HOWLS the place down if she's left alone!!! So we need to work on building up her confidence there and teaching her that we may go out occasionally but we always come back again.
She really IS the most adorable sweet little whippet and she's brought so much happiness into this house once more - I never thought I would ever smile again after losing Tina the way we did but Diva has helped 100% :huggles: We now talk about the good times we had with Tina instead of crying all the time :b
An hour after bringing her home - looking all lost and confused
Much happier 12 days later - looking for rabbits in a nearby field!
I took my gorgeous girl Tina to a Companion Dog Show on Sunday 27th and she won the Best Condition class which had me absolutely over the moon because I'd alwayas been paranoid about this silly little baldy patch on her tail :b
We then had to stay until the end of the show and Tina then won Best In Show!!!!!!!!!!! :cheers: She had her photograph in the Morpeth Herald and Northumberland Gazette four days later and for weeks afterward I had folks coming into our shop and saying they'd seen our photo :b
Here's a link to the day - we are halfway down. It was a fabulous day and I really enjoyed the gundog and falconry displays - can't wait for next year's show
http://www.nessr.net/news/NESSRNEWS-Issue-2.pdf
Unfortunately tragedy struck on Monday 18th August when I was exercising Tina on The Pastures. She was playing with another larger dog and I think she must have been knocked by him (it happened so fast) and she fell into the river which was flowing very fast because of recent rain. Despite my managing to get her out a minute or two later after she was carried down river she had drowned and I was unable to save her :'( Suffice to say the next two/three weeks were torture for me and easily the worst pain I have ever felt!!! I could barely talk about what had happened to folks and spent most evenings (and even my breaks at work) crying my eyes out. But eventually I somehow managed to tell a few folks and they passed it on to others and the kindness I was shown was incredible - not one person gave the impression that they thought I was stupid to cry over 'just' a dog.
I was still adamant though that I would never have another dog......or at least no dog for a loooong time!
But Neil started casually mentioning that he was missing the routine we had got into with our beach walks with Tina and I think it was this, and the fact that I was lost on my days off work, that started the seed of another dog germinating inside me.
We had two weeks' holiday booked, starting on Saturday 20th September, and we were planning to stay with our friend in the Lake District so Neil could do a couple of days of building work whilst I got out with Tina. Except now that we no longer had our beautiful girl I was distraught. I tried birdwatching, which I used to do a lot, but it wasn't the same. We'd been looking forward SO much to taking Tina walking in the Lakes and it was sheer hell not having her there - I felt as though her presence was constantly with me but I wasn't able to reach out and hold her or stroke her or laugh at her silly crazy whippety humour *oh bugger I'm crying now!!!*
We got to the Lakes on the Sunday *21st* and went to see our friend Eddie on the Monday. He's in his 80's and an absolute sweetheart and has had terriers and foxhounds since he was a boy. By then I'd kind-of decided that perhaps we DID need to get a dog once more BUT NOT A WHIPPET!!!!!! I couldn't bear the pain of having another one of the same breed as he/she might have the same personality & traits that Tina had and I didn't feel up to that sort of painful reminder. So I convinced Neil that we'd go for a terrier of some sort.
After talking to Eddie and his wife we both decided to get another dog in the summer of 2009 - after all, winter was coming up and who wants to deal with mud and dark nights and cold!!! :wacko:
The next day we went to the birdwatching reserve at St Bees and had a fabulous day. Not many birds as it was past the breeding season but I saw three dolphins throughh my telescope and Neil and I just enjoyed having a day together and actually talking properly. We talked especially about 'our dog' when we got it. What we wanted from a dog, what we wanted to do etc and we came to the conclusion that only another whippet would do!!! They're a lovely breed - graceful, beautiful to look at and live with and we just love them
For the first time in over five weeks I finally felt EXCITED and looking forward to something once more.
Then the very next day, Wednesday 24th, I was drying my hair in the bedroom and Neil came in with the laptop. He'd found a whippet bitch needing a good home (w00t) And she was only 20+ miles away in Kendal!!! We rang up the number shown and spoke to the woman (for absolutely ages!!!) who needed to rehome her and arranged to go to meet this whippet at 5.30pm that day.
Well, we just fell in love the minute we met her :wub: She was TINY!!!! My first impression was that she was an Italian Greyhound!!! She was called Diva and had been rescued ten months previous by the woman's husband from a gamekeeper who'd kept her outdoors in the freezing cold
He paid £100 for her. Unfortunately their resident Jack Russell kept getting jealous every time Diva tried to get some affection from the family and so, reluctantly, they'd set out to find a good home for her. Ten days later we rang up and we passed their test and were allowed to take her. We swopped email addresses so I could keep them informed on how Diva was doing and send them photos too.We came home early from our holiday the very next day as I wanted to get Diva settled into her new Forever Home, though Neil went back across to Graeme's for a few more days to finish off the work. I stayed at home with Diva and helped her settle in.
Diva is of unknown age but probably beween 3 and 5 years old. She's black and only 16'' tall at the shoulder (withers?) and covered in scars and both tips of her ears have pieces bitten/ripped out of them but in our eyes she is beautiful :huggles: She IS a teensy bit shy of new folk until she gets to know them and at first I thought she was going to become Neil's dog as she seemed to prefer him more!
A week & a half after getting her she came into season (she wasn't supposed to be due until November!) so we had to cancel her spaying op. We have had her inoculations done however as the couple were told she'd had her original puppy ones done but not had any boosters since.
The first couple of weeks we had her she seemed VERY miserable but now she seems to be coming out of her shell more and more each day - perhaps as she realises that she's NOT going to be moved on to another home again - and her true merry character is starting to come through
We've changed her from tinned food, which was going straight through her, on to dry food and she's a lot happier on it. And she sleeps IN the bed, under the duvet!!! I swear she's determined to never be cold ever again!!! She goes to work with Neil three nights a week - Saturday, Monday & Tuesday - as I'm not allowed to take her to work with me and, we only found this out last Tuesday, she HOWLS the place down if she's left alone!!! So we need to work on building up her confidence there and teaching her that we may go out occasionally but we always come back again.
She really IS the most adorable sweet little whippet and she's brought so much happiness into this house once more - I never thought I would ever smile again after losing Tina the way we did but Diva has helped 100% :huggles: We now talk about the good times we had with Tina instead of crying all the time :b
An hour after bringing her home - looking all lost and confused
Much happier 12 days later - looking for rabbits in a nearby field!
