Murphy and Vicky

Homing in Cheshire

Carol, Sue and Phil have been busy homing greyhounds in and around the Cheshire area all year and one lucky greyhound who they were able to help was Murphy (Badger). Here is an account of Murphy’s progress in his new home, written by Vicky, the daughter of the family.

Murphy is a 7 year old, retired, white and black greyhound. The first time we saw him he looked huge and got even bigger when he lay down, but he was happy to be stroked. We took him for a walk to the park to see how we got on and he loved it. That was it, we were hooked, and he came home to us that evening. Mum and Dad had put a bed for him in the sun lounge, but Murphy had other ideas and went back to where he had slept earlier. In the end, the bed came to Murphy.

Getting used to him hasn’t been without its teething problems. Finding his way around the house has raised issues - he isn’t allowed upstairs, yet is happiest when with someone, sleeping if at all possible, and tries to follow us about. One day he gave into temptation and followed me up. Unfortunately, greyhounds can struggle with upstairs, getting up them is fine, it's the coming back down again that causes the problem; consequently, he spent an hour and a half at the top of the stairs with me that night, as he was too scared to go back down again. I tried to show him how, by moving his paws one at a time, but he kept moving them back as fast as I was moving them forwards. Eventually when my dad got in he had to carry Murphy back downstairs, so he now shows a grudging respect for them, and just lies at the bottom instead. The kitchen is another area he is fascinated by, but dare not enter, as our laminate flooring appeared to fight back the night he plucked up courage and went in to find his dog chews. Having skated across the floor, it took my mum 10 minutes to persuade him back out by putting towels down for him to walk on.

Murphy goes out in the garden last thing at night and has a habit of collecting hedgehogs and bringing them in. It’s a little off-putting to find a curled up hedgehog on your dog’s bed but we are getting used to it, and are mastering the art of taking it back outside without hurting it or any of us. Actually, I think the hedgehog is getting a taste for it, mainly because whenever we find one it seems to be sat watching telly with Murphy. The latest on the dog is he is very into coconut. He found one a couple of weeks ago, when there was a fair nearby, and tried to bring it home. Consequently, we bought him one, (having first checked out if it would be okay for him - apparently the milk can cause digestion problems to put it nicely, but the coconut itself is fine) and he loves it. We restrict how long he has it for, and put it out in the garden for him to find (naturally, it comes into his bed, which can prove a bit messy - chunks of coconut everywhere). We're not entirely sure it isn't a case of he just thinks it's a hedgehog, but it's quite nice to see something round and brown that isn't walking round your front room. Not to mention it's a lot easier to pick up and carry back outside.

We did try getting him a couple of squeaky toys, however, after getting extremely excited when he saw them, he ripped them apart within half an hour of getting them. That was when we found out a squeaker is used to train greyhounds, he must have figured that was the easiest couple of races he'd ever had, as we just handed them over. Needless to say, the squeakers and toys (yes, he managed to get the squeakers out) found their way into the bin very quickly.

It’s not all been fun, on the lead he is fine but if let off anything small and fluffy / spikey is fair game – we have to be careful as the score so far is fluffy / spikey 0 – Murphy 2.

He’s getting better and is now mates with a Bichon Frise, mind you that’s on the lead !