BELLE is a wonderful black bitch please read her story....Belle has been RE-HOMED

It is on rare occasion when our rescue has felt the need to plea for help for one of our greyhounds. Many of our rescuees come to the sanctuary, some of them need to recover, some need to build confidence but all of them stay with us until they are ready to face the world and a new life with people who we know will love and care for them and take them into their family as a loving pet.

A large percentage of our dogs come to us without us knowing anything about their background, so it is up to us to get to know that dogs during their stay here and match each one of them to the right family and their circumstances, work hours, children etc. It's our job to assess the greyhounds, what sort of family they need, whether they are happy with no other doggy companionship, if they can cope with working families and so on. Until we know this it is unfair for both dog and potential owners to struggle with something they can't cope with and indeed are not happy with.

Then along came Belle! Through a contact this five year old bitch, who was nothing but a bag of bones on arrival, came to us with the story that she had been in a council compound and her seven days were up, therefore she faced being put to sleep. Of course all rescues hear this story but get on with the process of helping the animal, as we did with Belle. Through the procedure of caring for her there was something that never seemed quite right about her and the story we were told about her just never rang true. It took several months to build her weight up but that didn't seem to be the problem and eventually we decided because of some of Belle's behaviour patterns, there was more to her story, far more missing about her background than we knew. Throughout the duration of building her up she was the perfect patient, not typical of an ex-racing greyhound. She would sit for a biscuit, give us a paw and was very happy with the attention we gave her. With the help of yorkshire puddings, veg etc what we call human food, along with everything else, she became a beautiful, bouncing happy dog.

Fully recovered, the weeks went on and for some reason she began to almost fret and had bouts of depression. She also started chewing her kennel, which she had not done before, it was as though she was thinking "O.K i'm better, and it's time to go home" No home has ever come forward for poor Belle. She has been with us a year and a half, during this time she has never been in season so we have assumed someone has had her spayed in the past. Her bouts of depression are pitiful and sometimes her sad eyes seem to be trying to tell us something. That something, after all this time has raised it's head, and it has been what we can only say is a very sad and unhappy way that this news of Belle's story came to be.

Greyhound Rescue received notice that sadly a lady had passed away and had left a legacy for the rescue. We later received details of her will plus accounts etc and unbelievably she had owned a black greyhound bitch. Yes is turned out to be Belle. Now we understand Belle's pet like behaviour and certainly her depression, as we now believe she must have been the pet to her late owner for some years. In the accounts were vet bills, boarding bills etc everything that told us that Belle had belonged to a very caring owner. There are of course pieces missing from the jigsaw, such as her ending up with us and the state she was in when she arrived. The only sure thing we know is that poor Belle is desperate for a very special home, someone who can take away the trauma she has had to endure. Perhaps a retired person who can be her constant companion, someone she can belong to and once again be with. She has put up with an awful lot of unhappiness and uncertainty and must have felt unwanted in her lifetime.

We have always found it hard to re-home black dogs and feel this is one of the reasons Belle had been passed by, but there must be someone out there and who has compassion and the care to be able to give Belle lots of love.