reyhounds as Companions

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Our Irish Group and Their Stories

(Left to right: Lucy, Silence, Twiggy, and Mitch)

        Mitch came to the Greyhound Sanctuary on 10 June 1998. Mary Organ found him in Dungarvan when he was about four months old. He had been thrown into a yard over a high wall and was lying in a rubbish tip. One of his legs was broken and he was just a bundle of   bones. Mary kept him until he was about seven months old and then she gave him to Rosemary Warren in Kilfnane where Pro Animals set up the first Quarantine Station for rescued greyhounds and lurchers. He spent a year with Rosemary before he came to Avalon. Mitch was castrated in 1997 but he is still quite dominant with other male dogs. He is very friendly with people and loves attention. Mitch has had a problem with his right eye, which is always wet, but the Vet has said that it is nothing to worry about.  He is the only one of our Irish dogs still looking for a home.

        Twiggy came to Greyhound Sanctuary on 10 June 1998. She had already been spayed and had stayed with Rosemary Warren also for one year. She had her last worm dose in April 1998. Twiggy has always been nervous with oilier dogs but she is very good with people. She needs quiet home and somebody to give her a lot of tender loving care. Twiggy spent the first months other life with the gypsies or travelers as we call them. We found her living in a rusty barrel which always had some water in it. She had never known any kindness or what it was like to have a dry warm bed. She was small compared to the other dogs on the site and she was never able to fight for food and she spent most of the day hiding in the barrel and only came out at night. She has what we call stunted growth as a result of malnutrition during her first couple of months. She was so thin we called her Twiggy after the famous filmstar who was very skinny.

        Silence came from the same travelers where we found Twiggy. She also came to Avalon on 10 June 1998. Silence had no hair on her body when we first saw her on a cold November day. It was impossible to tell what colour she would be as her little body was covered with sores from scabies mange. She was locked in a pen by herself, as she could not run with other dogs, as she would give them the mange mites. She was very cold and lonely and she was bleeding all over from scratching of the open wounds.  Johanna paid the gypsy 100 Irish pounds for her, as he did not want to sell her at all. He said she was his best hunting dog and that her hair would grow again. Evidently she came from a long line of very good hunters. My best friend Beverly Wolf took Silence in, as she could not be let mix with the other dogs for several weeks. Beverly gave her a warm bed on a beautiful horse fleece and the little dog thought that she had died and gone to Heaven. It took a long time for her hair to grow but she was a real fighter and when we got her wounds healed she put on weight very quickly. She was actually the first greyhound to spend a night in Avalon and I was so happy when I brought her there. She was shortly joined by a big male lurcher called King Arthur and they were our first residents at the Sanctuary. She is a dominant gypsy dog who is very kind with people. We called her silence because she never cried all the weeks she was alone suffering from her terrible wounds. We never heard her complain. She just licked our hands and curled up in her bed. Silence is about two and a half years old.

This is Gareth with Linda, while still in Ireland. He is now well-loved and living comfortably with a Keeshound and a couple of people who spoil him just right!!

This is Linda with Robert. Robert is now sharing the couch with an American greyhound girl, and people who love him very much.