Tuesday 9 September 2008

Living with a Whippet

Living with a Whippet is unlike living with any other dog. At least, living with Millie the Whippet is unlike living with any other dog I've lived with!

Patience will know this, female whippets are Princesses. There's no getting away from it, it's just fact.

Whippets have a penchant for sleeping under things. Preferably warm, snuggly blankets. So whichever room we are in, we have to have a warm snuggly blanket with us to wrap her in. If she loses her blanket in the middle of the night, snuggling under my duvet will just about suffice as an alternative. Which is fine, she doesn't take up much room and she gives lovely snuggles. Unfortunately, my parents have spent the last 18 months trying to stop her from doing this because she does disturb their sleep and, it has to be said, she is a very effective hot water bottle. Not so good if, like my mother, you suffer enough with being too hot at night already....

Can they have the same food two meals in a row? No, they can't. They look at the food you have deigned to give them and then they look at you with a "You have to be joking" look of disdain on their faces. They will walk away from the bowl and you, their humble servant, will search the cupboards for some tempting morsel and you will do this because the wide-eyed beseeching look they have perfected will mean that you simply cannot say "eat that or go hungry".

The Lurchers and Brodie the Greyhound are about four times her size. If they dare to sleep on her bed, she will stand and stare them out until they give in and say "OK, OK, you can have your bed back".


Princesses. Spoilt rotten princesses because you cannot resist their tiny but perfectly formed frame and their big brown eyes. And their perfectly timed kisses, designed to melt the hardest of hearts.

And do we love them. Oh yes. We do.



5 comments:

  1. When I got Tig (greyhound Lurcher) he wasn't allowed on my bed until I needed his presence to keep an unwanted male away. Tashka ~ Staffy on Whippet legs ~ on the other hand, took 1 look at my bed & made it hers. She also slept in my son's bed. When we moved to Ireland & had no heating in a cold damp house, Annon & I were really glad to have this hot water puppy & would fight over her! Annon & I had to share the same bed (mattress) for months (almost our first year) & Tashka loved curling up against my belly, with my legs curled around her. She also took control of both feed dishes, but had to bow down to Tig on the question of fresh rabbit. Yes, even though she was a Lurcher, Tashka, had decided that the whole household revolved around her Whippet Princessness

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  2. Our four-legged friends do add so much to our lives, don't they? Even when Jake, our border collie, gets a bit too rambunctious, it's hard to be cross with him, particularly when he shoves his nose in my hand demanding strokes and attention.

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  3. Booker is perfectly happy on a sofa - leather preferred. He is a bedhog, so that was quashed in the very beginning!

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  4. How lovely to have a constant hot water bottle. How could anyone resist that face!

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  5. (that was me deleting - way too many typos)

    Oh how sad that I was so far behind that I missed this, but what a DELIGHT to find it now.
    Yes, you surely do GET whippets!
    It's all in the stare.
    Bill has "his" chair in the dining room. I bought it for a birthday, so he had a comfy place to read downstairs. It was to be a No Dog Zone. (Right!)
    Now while he is in HIS chair, writing or reading, Maria BARKS at him to get out and leave it for her. And he does!!!
    This was a wonderful post, thank you.
    hugs-
    Patience

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