Looks like you had a super time, Deccy and Mums.

We're so sorry to hear about your friend Pip. Run free, little lad... xx

Solo and Krissy

Wow! It sounds like you had a fabulous holiday, Deccy. We can't wait to see all the photos! And you met lots of friends. And you got loads of presents, too! Have you got a lucky four-leaf clover tucked away there somewhere?

Krissy and I are envious of the Bonios - we don't get them here, and Mum's told us all about how delicious they are... *sigh*

Love from cousins Solo and Krissy xx

Oh dear, Deccy - that was a very scary thing to do..... I bet you've knocked a few years off your Mum's life after that little exploit. And our Mum thinks your Mum is very brave standing in the middle of the tennis court like that while you have a zoom. Our Mum won't even stand in the middle of the drive since I half-killed her last year and Krissy nearly finished the job this year, when we ran into her...

Look after yourself,Cousin, and keep safe.

Lots of love,

Solo and Krissy xx

What an incredible family - and a great idea for raising money. Good luck to Marc and the other walkers... I'll have a word with Mum about what we have in the coffers... :-)

OOW another one for Mum to try out on us when summer comes. Mum says she's never seen tinned pumpkin here, but Mum and Dad eat a lot of fresh pumpkin... Mind you, every time they've given us some chopped up with veggies on our dinner, we've spat it out and left it! :-)

Love from Solo and Krissy xx

Mo here again: All hounds are different, and only you know what's going to be right. I think we'd trust Krissy off-lead somewhere safe, but we wouldn't trust Solo (sorry, Solo) as he's completely deaf to us when he wants to be, and even when we call Krissy in from the garden he ignores us and goes of on his own. Mind you, like you, we don't actually have anywhere reasonable safe that we could run them off-lead other than our thankfully large garden. And, if it's any consolation, I used to have an Afghan years ago who failed his dog-training classes abysmally and never would come back either! So it isn't just a greyhound thing, and, like I said before - all hounds are different (bless 'em!) xx

Mo here: I know, it's a terribly difficult dilemma... Are there any people nearby with dogs and a safe garden, where Deccy could go for an occasional 'play date'? Ironically enough, though we live in the depths of the country, without our garden we'd be having exactly the same problems as you. Also there are no real 'pet'dogs near us - all are working farm dogs, (or worse - poor pig hunting dogs). So Solo never socialised, which is one of the big reasons we decided to adopt Krissy. For you, if you haven't already tried it, maybe even an ad in your local paper, or with a dog group (rescue or otherwise) within driving distance, might bring results and turn up someone, somewhere, where Deccy could go to play and run safely off-lead occasionally.

Hi Deccy and Mums! Yes, we can sympathise with your dilemma. Mum has the same worries for me, as I'm not too hot on recall (sometimes I'll come to Mum or Dad in the garden, but only when it suits me), and there are no dog training classes within a four-hour drive of us!

When I fist came to Mum and Dad, Dad was all keen to let me off the lead at the beach, because his previous dog was very good off-lead when they were together in Australia. The ironically sad and terrible end to that story is that Dad and dog moved back to New Zealand and the dog ran onto a very busy road and was killed... :-( In any case, Mum was against the idea of letting me off-lead in an unfenced area, including our beach, as the beach is VERY close to the road, and cars speed along that nice bit of straight road. As Mum pointed out, what would happen if we were half-a-mile out on the sand and then I saw something on the foreshore I wanted to investigate (small dog, children, car parking, blade of grass moving...)?. The answer to that is, of course, that I would be back at the foreshore (and the road) in about twenty seconds, and Mum and Dad would still be half-a-mile out on the sand. They would have no hope of catching up with me and preventing any sort of accident (*shudders*) that might happen. Okay - I know we are very lucky because we have a fairly big garden, so Krissy and I can do zoomies at home, but that is the extent of our off-lead activity where we live.

Strangely (and annoyingly) enough, Krissy, who has only been with us for about two months, seems to be much better at recall that I am. She also doesn't want to zoom very much - we think because she was a racer, now that she is retired all she wants to do is lie around the house, roll in the grass , and watch me when I go bonkers outside! Mind you, Mum has said very firmly that the same 'on-lead when out' rules apply to Krissy as to me, because, really, we are greyhounds after all, and we are terrifically fast, and our poor humans wouldn't have a hope of catching us if we decided to gallop off and get into trouble...

Mum says she really does agree with madsnapper's comments - and she also wonders whether a nice wee female houndie companion of the greyhound persuasion might be nice company for you? We hounds tend to stick together and follow one another. Of course, they'd both have to be heading the right way. (So maybe forget I said all that!)

Lots of love from me and Krissy xxx

By the way, Mum played your video with the sound off this time, as it drove Krissy mad when she heard it before. :-)

Oh we love it!!!

Love from Solo and Krissy :-) xxx

Yes, but that's okay because you're still very handsome! :-)

Love from Solo and Krissy x