ReminisCing over my life with sighthounds
1993 Max my 1st sighthound
My first sighthound, Max, joined our family in August 1993. He was a 3 year old Afghan Hound who had suffered practically all his short life under the hands of various people.
Max’s early life
I first met Max in February 1991 as a young pup, owned by a young couple who had adopted him when he was taken to the refuge here in Antwerp from a hell hole of a breeders kennel somewhere in the Brussels area. Apparently many dogs had died of starvation and the surviving dogs had eaten their dead kennel mates in order to stay alive. Max, as a result of this malnourishment during his first months had weak back legs and had suffered from mange.
This young couple kept Max for roughly 6 months before they became bored with him and returned him to the refuge. He was subsequently adopted by various people and continuously returned to the refuge as his various owners became bored with him and the grooming work which comes with owning an Afghan hound.
August 1993
In August 1993 I decided to adopt another dog after the death of our Labrador Mags earlier in the year. I had decided that I wanted a small dog and it had to be a dog that could live with children as my son Sven was just going on to 3 years old and with cats.
So on a sunny Friday afternoon, my daughter Penny and I went to the refuge to choose a dog, we walked around looking into kennel after kennel and we saw this black and tan Afghan laying there in his run looking at us as if he wanted to say “Don’t expect me to get up to greet you, I don’t do that kind of thing”. We both liked the look of him but seeing as I wanted a small dog he didn’t fit the criteria. We carried on walking around looking in kennel after kennel and coming back continuously to this Afghan. I decided this must be fate so I asked to put an option on him until the next morning so that we could visit him again but then with Sven to see how he reacted to children, prior to adopting him.
On the Saturday morning we were there bright and early, went directly to his kennel and he stood up immediately and wagged his tail as if he wanted to say “You’ve come back for me”. He reacted well to Sven so we decided to adopt him, did the paper work and took him home with us.
Max was a smashing, well behaved dog with a couple of phobias. He was petrified of brushes, be they hair brushes or floor brushes and he was afraid of groups of children. So obviously he had had some very bad experiences in his young life. This resulted in me keeping his coat short so that he needed minimal brushing and combing. His fear of groups of children was solved by taking him to places where he could see kids but I could take him to one side and allow him to calm down by talking to him and letting him see that nobody would hurt him.
Funnily enough he loved my son Sven and would often sit with Sven on the sofa and as Sven was brought up with dogs he had been taught how to react towards them.
Max calmed down completely after the first six months with us and was a lovely family dog, although he never got over his fear of brushes. He used to love to go shopping with me and knew where the pet shops were and at the markets where the pet stalls were, because he had very quickly learnt that I would always buy him something from a stall or a shop and if he felt I was trying to avoid going to either the shop or a stall he would dig his feet in and would not move an inch until I went in the direction he wanted me to go. Once he got something he would let me do my shopping quite happily without any hassle.
Spring 1997
Max began to stumble and fall in the autumn of 1996, especially as he was urinating and then it began to happen on a more regular basis and he would struggle to get up again. I took him to the vet and he said he had weak knees. As at that time I neither had a pc or internet I couldn’t do as we all do today 17 years later go on line and Google to find out what was the matter with him.
One afternoon in March 1997 Max fell, screamed in pain and could not get up so I crossed my hands under his stomach, helped him up and got him home supporting his back legs. I got him into his favourite chair where he remained until the vet came to put him to sleep.
A couple of years later when I spoke to another and much more competent vet and described his symptoms It turned out that Max had most probably suffered from Degenerative Lumbosacrale Stenosis.
I only wish I could have had Max for longer but this was not to be. One thing I can be proud of is despite his horrible past, he was able to put it all behind him when he lived with us and he never had to go into a refuge again.
Max opened not only my heart, but those of my daughter and son as well, to the fantastic character of the sighthound, as all 3 of us 20 years later are proud owners of these magnificent animals.
2000 - 2005 Greyhounds, Galgos and others
On a Saturday morning in March there was a small stand at the local supermarket showing horrific photos of maltreated Greyhounds and Galgos in Spain. I put a small donation in the box and asked for more information about these dogs. I decided there and then to have my name put down as a prospective adoption person.
Mid April I got a phone call from Mrs M Broeders, the initiator of this organization if I was still interested in adopting a dog as she was going to Spain to bring some dogs back with her.
At the end of April one of Mrs Broeders helpers came to pick me and Sven up and we drove together to the refuge in Mechelen where these dogs were being held for the adoption day.
We looked around run after run handing out dog biscuits to these lovely and despite everything they had been through very trusting animals. I came to one run a saw a lovely brindle bitch who came over to me licked my hand and gently took her biscuit from me, I called Sven over and told him to offer her a biscuit and again she licked his hand first prior to taking the biscuit. I decided that she wanted to come home with us and we adopted her.
We named Nina and took her home to Antwerp to her new life.
She was terrified of men, of certain smells and of loud noises so one can only imagine what kind of hell she went through there in Spain, she also had an elongated U shaped scar along the back of her neck going from ear to ear.
Again as was the case with Max 7 years earlier I used common sense and my intuition to get rid of her ghosts. For the first 6 months she had a Pavlov existence of going out at the same time to the same place, always going the same way every time we went out morning, noon and night until Nina became more confident. Then we started to go to other places and Nina was quite happy to put her trust in me.
I will never forget the first time I let her off the lead outside, she didn’t feel like sprinting and was just sniffing around, when I called her to come to me she looked petrified because she hadn’t run but you could see her demeanor change when I made a big fuss of her, it was then that she realized that she did not have to race for me, that she could just potter around and all was ok.
A year or so later I found out that via a search engine known as Greyhound Data and via the tattoos in her ears that her kennel name was Moynevilla Star, in Spain she was known as Combinada and according to the website Greyhound Data she ran 75 races in Barcelona mostly on the Meridana track where she was racing up until 10th February 2000.
In October 2000, my daughter Penny, adopted her first dog, Zino a Sloughi/Galgo X . Zino was just 2 months when he came to Belgium and was a darling. He used to stay in my flat during the week owing to Penny’s working hours at that time and as all pups he teethed on shoes, wooden spoons, Tupperware boxes and the TV’s remote control. But he grew in to a loving and very well behaved dog and sadly he passed away 7th May 2012
In October 2001 Niro joined our family, he was a lovely laid back black galgo. His presence gave Nina more confidence and they were always together, where the one was you could guarantee the other one would be there as well. I used to go everywhere with them, they were very well behaved, they wanted to do all they could to please me. Although they wore a lead in the town it wasn’t really necessary as they never left my side. If I ever went into a shop where dogs were not allowed I only had to lay their leads on the ground and tell them to stay and stay they would until I came back
In April 2004 I showed them both at the dog show here in Antwerp. Nina got 1 Excellent as did Niro, I was immensely proud of them especially Nina who would have acted hysterically if a man had gone anywhere near her never mind go over her as the judge Mr Seamus Oates did at the show. This all goes to show I find that you can achieve anything you want to with your dog so long as you are patient, loving, understanding and use a good dose of common sense.
We also inherited an Italian greyhound in 2002, Nando, he was a nice dog but very trying as he was as is the problem with many IGGY’s not house -trained and proved very difficult to train.
In January 2004 I saw an appeal from a refuge in a town about 20km from here, they were asking for someone to rehome a very old Afghan Hound who they had found wandering in the streets. Nobody came forward for him so he was put up for adoption and with practically no hope of him being adopted he had a reprieve of 7 days or he would be PTS.
I went to see him and brought him home with me, I could not leave such a lovely old dog to die alone and unloved in a refuge. Via his ear tattoos we found out that he was called Qhumali Y Shirvan and he was almost 13 years old, we tried to trace his owners but hit a brick wall. We renamed him Eros and he remained with us until his heart gave up on 16/08/2004. Although we only had him for 6.5 months it was an honour to have known him and to have shared our lives with him. Eros was a lovely dog who most certainly didn’t deserve to be thrown out on the streets at that age and I am glad I could give him the love and care he deserved so that when he died he was surrounded by people who loved him and not alone and afraid in a refuge
On 9/7/2004 my daughter Penny and her partner Eric adopted another sighthound, Chivas, he was a Greyhound/Azawakh X with the typical difficult character of the Azawakh. Chivas was only 9 months old when they adopted him and had not been socialized by his previous owner who had no experience with dogs let alone dogs with such a complicated character and the need of an iron hand in a silk glove to mold him into a well behaved pet. Chivas was a lovely boy who loved his own people unconditionally but petrified of strangers and strange places.
Sadly Chivas passed away after an epileptic fit and subsequently a heart attack on 17/09/2009
In the October 2004 Domino joined us, she was a black galgo and a very sweet dog but a 1st class thief, if there was ever any food laying around Domino would find it up to and including opening the oven door and stealing the roast chicken which was cooling off, she even cleaned the oven dish. The only proof of this theft was the grease spot on the living room floor.
Sven had been wanting a dog of his own for quite a while so I finally gave in to him and he bought a whippet from a hobby breeder here in Belgium. We picked him up during the Easter hols in 2005 and he has been Sven trusted friend ever since. Everybody said Sven aged 14 at the time would soon get bored of the responsibilities that go with owning a dog, but nothing could be further from the truth he still takes him out 3 times a day in all weathers and cares for him as a dog should be cared for.
In 2005 I decided to move house and found the ground floor flat, where we now live. Luckily my landlady is a dog lover and my dogs are welcome here so long as they do not cause too much trouble to the other inhabitants in the block.
Sadly Nina never made this move as just a month prior to our moving she got Lymph gland cancer and was PTS 25/08/2005 just a fortnight before her 11th birthday.
Niro died mentally on the day Nina passed away. He really missed his partner and was inconsolable. He always lay on my bed on her place waiting for her to come home, I hoped that when we moved a month later that the change would make him happier but no such luck. He lived in my bedroom on my bed on Nina’s place and he did this until cancer took him on 8/7/2008
In the October 2005 Chloë came to be a companion for Domino as she had no company from Niro and she needed a playmate, Chloë was a 6 year old mouse grey galgo who loved to chase the rabbits at the dog park. Otherwise she was a sweet and quiet dog.
Nando was not happy here at the new address and barked all the time if there was nobody at home and the landlady asked me to rehome him as she was getting complaints so we managed to rehome him with an IGGY owner in the Netherlands were he has lived happily ever since.
2006 The Borzoi Era
In the autumn of 2005 and again during the winter of 2005/06 we went for walks with a group of sight hound owners and at these walks were some people with borzoi. I got talking to them and I liked the breed the more I heard about them and saw them.
After quite a few sleepless nights and much debating the pros and cons of owning such a big dog and bringing another dog into a very happy group as my dog were but me being me I decided to buy a borzoi. I got the contact details of a breeder here in Belgium from one of the people I had met on the walk and contacted her. Mrs Valérie Sauveur of the kennel du Pré du Château grilled me over the phone about my knowledge of sight hounds, got info from those people I had met on the walks as to who I was and what I was like with my dogs and they must have given glowing reports about me because a week after our first conversation she told me she had an available dog for me.
Kouros
On the 11th February 2006 off we went to Thoricourt to pick up my new dog. When we arrived Valérie told me that one of her bitches had just gone into labour and hopefully we didn’t mind if we kept our visit to a minimum as she wanted to take care of the new to be first time mum. Of course we didn’t mind, I was brought to the kennels where Cosaque was housed with his mum, sister and uncle and I saw a big black and white beautiful borzoi. Once he got his collar and lead on I paid Valérie, did the necessary paper work, put him in the car and drove back to Antwerp.
Kouros as he is now known had a lot to learn as he had never been off the property in Thoricourt but he learnt quickly to walk on the lead, to live on a busy street with lots of traffic, his recall at the dog park was good and he liked to play with my other hounds. He settled in very quickly and I couldn’t imagine being without him. Kouros has done a photo shoot for a semi-professional photographer Mrs Mirka Rueda and he has figured in a calendar 2 years on the trot.
Kouros became a very loving and well behaved dog, I could go anywhere with him on the bus, tram or train.
Sadly as with all of us age caught up with him, he also, as did Max suffer from Degenerative Lumbosacrale Stenosis, but this time because I knew the symptoms, as he deteriorated, I made an apponitment with the vet and he was put to sleep on 1st April 2014. Kouros was nearly 10 years and 4 months of age and is very sorely missed.
Checkhov
Towards the end of 2008 I was scanning through some photos of older pups for sale in the Czech Republic via a website Info Borzoi with out any intention of getting another borzoi when I came across some photos of a lovely little pup of 4 months and my heart skipped a beat. I check out his pedigree and decided there and then to make contact with his breeder Mrs Marie Vorackova. Marie speaks no English so a young lady she knew, Mrs Alena Mladkova translated for us as did my friend Mrs Mirka Rueda, who lived at that time in Brussels. I knew that Mirka was going to the Czech Republic with her husband and their dogs for Christmas and New Year 2008/09 so I asked her if it would be possible to bring Checkhov back with her which she did. Checkhov fell into a 3 metres deep pit the day prior to Mirka picking him up but luckily he had no obvious injuries. We later found out that he had dislocated one of the bones at the lower end of his tail giving him a hooked tail. But apart from this he was fine. He entered Belgium on 5th Jan 2009 and directly fitted into the family. But none of us were to know that 3 weeks later he would spend an afternoon in the police station and 3 months with other borzoi owners after I collapsed in the street as the result of a brain hemorrhage.
Back to Checkhov
In August 2009 Penny showed Checkhov for me at the dog show in Mechelen, where he got 1 Excellent and best Junior. He has had quite few good results and has one RCAC RCACIB and one CAC CACIB to his name, but as the years have passed he enjoys showing less and less so I have retired him from the ring.
Checkhov and I do volunteer work at schools, we go to schools to teach children how to act around dogs and to learn to respect them, he loves doing this and loves all the attention and strokes he gets from the kids. This is done in controlled conditions and we are accompanied by a teacher specialized in this
Ill Health
During my stay in hospital, Kouros went back to his breeder, Checkhov went to friends in As (the other side of Belgium), the 2 galgos Domino and Chloë went to a friend’s dog penson about 15km from here. Son Sven and his whippet went to stay with his sister and her partner and the cats stayed at home, Sven and Penny took it in turns to pass by daily to feed them. I came out of hospital at the beginning of April 2009 and tried to take control of my life again. Kouros came home first, closely followed by Checkhov. It was decided that Domino and Chloë would stay where they were at this friend’s pension for a very reasonable charge towards their keep. Domino and Chloë remained there until they passed away.
I cannot thank these people enough for everything they did for my animals during my stay in hospital
Higgins
In October 2010 Kouros started to be ill and having lost Nina and Niro to cancer I was afraid he would get this terrible disease as well and I decided to get another dog as a companion for Checkhov. I studied a few pedigrees and asked my good friend Mrs L. Harvey what she thought about this certain pedigree and she said it was very good and to go for it which I did. At the beginning of February 2011 I phoned A-P Wirén in Sweden and asked her if I could be put on the list for the up and coming litter and she said ok. A week later Higgins was born.
Higgins is an immensely loving and sweet dog, who loves laying on me when I lay down on the sofa in the evening to watch tv.
He has been shown just 6 times up to now and has earned Best Baby in Genk 2001, Best Junior in Antwerp 2012 and on his first time in the Open Class 1Excellent CAC, so as you can imagine I am very proud of him as well.
Higgins only attained his 3 CAC's and sadly enough due to his untimely death never did get to be Belgian champion.
Higgins passed away 6th Aug 2016 as a result of poisoning.
Raisa
Raisa joined us on 4th October 2016 as her previous owner is very ill and he decided to get her rehomed via the Nederlandse Barzoi Club.
Raisa is a very sweet, loving and very well behaved borzoi and I am immensely honoured to have her sharing my life
Other Family Members and The Future
Other additions to the family
Sven bought another whippet in August 2010, Jack, he’s a very active speed machine and would do well on the race track or in coursing but Sven not interested in this.
Penny and Eric have after their experience with Chivas bought 2 magnificent azawakhs Agg Agmaias Esed and Agg Amaias Fehed. Esed has known quite a bit of success in the show ring but sadly Esed’s show career was cut short when he was attacked and badly bitten in the tail by another azawakh at a show in Germany resulting in Esed having to have most of his tail amputated. Fehed has been quite successful attaining both the Belgian and Luxembourg Champion titles.
The Future
As much as I love borzoi I don’t see me buying another as I am getting older and my health isn’t as good as I would like since my stroke but one thing is certain come what may I will always have a hound in the house be it a borzoi or a whippet or something in between as I love and respect the character of the sight hound.
All I can say is thank you Max for being my first sight hound and introducing me to this magnificent species of dog.
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