Five years ago we went through some tough times when he shattered his hock which meant almost a full year of major surgeries, hydro therapy, physiotherapy and rehabilitation - it cost over £12,000 most of which was met by insurance but we also bore the cost of the excesses, treatment that wasn't covered by the insurance, and of course the significant time investment, we slept for months on an airbed on the floor of the lounge so we could be with him through the night, most of my free time was taken up on vet visits, hydro, and doing the physio several times a day. We never once regretted or resented any single minute of it, he was part of our family and he repaid us a thousandfold with his love and affection. He confounded the surgeon by somehow dissolving a titanium plate that had been fixed in the leg resulting in it having to be removed and a paper being written about it by the surgeon, he further confounded him by refusing to accept that he would never be able to trot or walk without a limp and going on to do both those things resulting in a 2nd paper for the surgeon. During all of the treatment he had he never ever got grumpy or uncooperative, he endured everything with a waggy tail and was always happy to see the vets and the nurses. He never gave up, he never got fed up, and we had another 5 years of joy with him in our lives.
Four weeks ago - we had to say goodbye to our special boy. We weren't expecting it, and we weren't ready, our hearts were broken and I still miss him so much everywhere I look I can still see him, he has left a huge hole in our hearts and lives.
One thing we knew was that we would adopt again, and we knew it would be another sighthound, we had discussed whether it should be a young dog but felt that we would want to offer a home to a hard to home dog, black greyhounds are always the last to find a home and older greyhounds also wait a long time so we'd pretty much decided to look for either an oldie or a black lad but we thought that it would be a long time, several months at least before we'd be able to think about bringing a new dog into the family - we thought wrong.
Let me introduce you to Nogbad The Bad - aka "Baddie"
That was one of the photos that popped up on my facebook wall about a week after we lost Nog Brahms just happened to be passing when it appeared and he saw the pic but said he wasn't ready to look at other dogs yet. A day or so later and he asked me what the story was on that old black greyhound ... so I told him, he was an ex racer who had been rehomed with a family and was now a neglect case, the rescue had been alerted by social services who were involved with the family, he had a mouth full of rotten teeth, his nails were so long they had curled over themselves and into the pads of his feet and he was very underweight. They didn't think he'd been walked in a very long time and had clearly not seen a vet in years, then I dropped the bombshell that he was located in Stoke On Trent 4 hours drive away, and that as I thought was that ....
A few days later I'm on the phone with the rescue, arranging to go to Stoke to meet him but "we were making no promises" - we spent Valentines evening driving through gale force winds and rain to a travelodge where we spent the night still wondering if we were doing the right thing, if it was too soon ....
It wasn't.
Baddie has been with us now for a little over 2 weeks, to say he has fitted in perfectly is an understatement, its as if he's always been here, he's quiet, gentle, spotlessly clean, very loving, and just a joy to be around. He's gained a bit of much needed weight, his teefs are all sparkly clean now, and he's learning that he doesn't have to stay in his bed all day and he can chose where and when he wants to sleep and have a cwtch whenever he wants one. He's loving his walks and is a real gentleman on lead, walking with a loose lead, no pulling, he walks right at your side and is very calm with every dog he meets.
I still miss my Nogster but I know that Baddie will bring us as much joy as Nog did.
