OK, here is Squealer's story.

He is black ( going very grey around the muzzle now)& very tall. He shares a kennel with Dolly & she can actually walk underneath him. If anything scares her she goes to hide her head under his chest!

He was another of David's rescues, although from much closer to home.

Several years ago, David was at the local track (Westhoughton) one Sunday morning, watching the "trials" & he overheard a group of men talking about having a young dog put down because it wouldn't chase the dummy hare & they were getting fed up of it .................

.............. David offered to have a go at "getting the dog going" & said if he did, he would give the dog back, as long as they told him when they thought the dog had a chance of winning a race. [/size]

David does have a bet, but isn't stupid enough to gamble with money he can't afford to loose.


At that time we only had the two purpose built kennels, with room for four dogs, two in each. Oliver & Lucy were together in one of them & the other was empty.

The men agreed to let David take the dog & told him he was called "Squealer" because he had been a noisy puppy - always squealing ....... & as we weren't meant to be keeping him, we didn't change his name.

David brought him home & put him in the spare kennel, on his own, but it was clear he needed company & that's partly why David got Dolly. He was very timid & nervous to begin with, rarely barked & we got the distinct feeling
he'd been treated badly by a previous owner.

He wouldn't eat anything if you were watching him & if you moved towards him quickly, or startled him he would
cower away. When his bowl was empty he would always urinate on it - I suppose it was his way of saying "that's mine", we'd never seen a dog dothat before.

David was told that the dog was supposed to have a lot of potential - being very "well bred" & so David decided to try & gain his onfidence, so that hopefully he would eventually be able to train him to race. After a few months of TLC & plenty of good food Squealer began to look much better. He had a sparkle in his eye & responded well to attention from people he was familiar with.

We got him fit & ready to race - David was really pleased when he won his first race at Ellesmere Port about six months after we'd got him. I think he was just over two years old then.

At this stage David offered Squealer back to his original owner, as he'd promised, although he was reluctant to do so. Luckily the man said he didn't want him back, he had some new dogs & he had never liked his temperament,
he was too nervous.

So that's how Squealer arrived with us. He ran a
few more times, but being such a large greyhound his style of running wasn't really suited to the smaller independent tracks & David discovered he'd had a few injuries before we got him, which kept recurring. The worst of these
was a problem with his spine, probably caused partly by being over-trained before he had finished growing. So he was retired.

Over the years he has really turned into a lovely dog, I reckon he would make someone a really good companion, but we wouldn't give him away to anyone who didn't understand him.

At the moment there's an ongoing *battle* between him & Socks - I suspect it's a competition to see which of them is the pack leader !! If they so much as see each other, their hackles rise & the teeth are bared !!! So Squealer is a very different dog from the one we rescued.

More to follow
Anne

We have two beagles (see them under "and 3 more dogs") that were rescued from the Beagle Rescue, Education and Welfare of Northern Virginia, Inc. (BREW). My wife visits their website occasionally and without some oversight, we would have a houseful of beagles.

Hello Don,
If David had his way we'd have lots more dogs than we have now !!
Its good to know someone cares about these abandoned animals.
Anne

I think that about my cats too, Don!!

Anne, this Topic is now included in

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