3 things about Blue
1. Love for Italian greyhounds
I must confess. I was unaware of the existence of the breed before I met my wife. As a result, when the topic of favorite dog breeds came up, I had to look up "ITALIAN GREYHOUND" on Google before responding, "Oh, okay!"
Although my wife had loved the breed for at least ten years, she had never been able to own one. For me, it was my first time seeing this magnificent dog. So, the hunt began! Let's go puppy hunting.
2. Where and how to get one
Okay, so I erroneously believed that purchasing a puppy was simple. You could just type "breeders" into a search engine and presto!
Italian Greyhounds are extremely uncommon in Slovenia. At the beginning of our search, we only came across one breeder, and she informed us that she wouldn't be having a litter that year. We can wait, but please let the hunt go on.
My wife yelled while conducting an online search, "Check this out, I think my old classmate has an Italian greyhound, what should I do?"
So I said, "Just contact him and ask!"
So that's what occurred, and he was kind enough to bring us over to view the tiny, adorable dog. We learned some details about the German breeder while also being smitten.
We immediately called the breeder, but she rejected us because we both worked 9 to 5 jobs. We promised her we would arrange for someone to watch him while we worked, but this didn't help...
We were on the verge of giving up when I stumbled across the website of another Slovenian breeder. Even though she hadn't advertised any litters, I still emailed her to ask about it. And that's when it took place. When she replied, "I have a litter right now, they are 6 weeks old and three are still available!" we were ecstatic.
We also didn't tell you that we had always wished for a Blue boy. And most of the litter was blue!
And that's how we came to have Joey, our young little Iggy.
3. Social dog
When we first got a puppy, we were most concerned about how we would socialize him with other dogs and people. The first thing my wife worried about was meeting other dogs and what would happen.
We came to the conclusion that our anxieties were unfounded. Joey truly was a rock star. Since he was just a small puppy, everyone wanted to pet him and every dog we encountered was friendly to him.
He grew to love all people, and that was what he did. He is not like other Italian greyhound who are more reserved. He approaches everyone who wants to pet him with a wiggling tail, since he enjoys the attention.
3 things about Brindle
1. Our Brindle girl
Flecha del Indio ("Indian Arrow") was our Brindle galgo's Spanish name. She came from Espino de la Orbada, a small town near Salamanca, where she was probably bred to hunt rabbits.
We renamed her to Luna, when we gave her a forever home. This happened on 9th February 2019 - so that is her Gotcha day!
She is 6 year old now and going strong.
2. Medical issues
Since she was not fed correctly in Spain and was living under a lot of stress she developed some behavioural issues and medical issues.
We have to cook for her because she has issues with food digestion. She enjoys eating practically all types of meat, but she dislikes fish.
She has been doing fine for a time, and we are hopeful that she will continue to be as healthy as she can be with a consistent diet and less stress.
3. Brindle fur
We decided to look for galgos (Spanish greyhound) when we made the decision to adopt another dog from the shelter. Naturally, we desired a canine companion for Joey (Italian greyhound) that was also compatible with him. The second thing I yearned for was a brindle female, purely out of love of brindle fur that I saw, when we met other galgos.
I can still imagine the moment I first saw our Luna's image. She was constantly sitting and squinting her eyes, which, as I later discovered, were calming signals indicating that she was uneasy in her surroundings, but what I actually saw was a gorgeous dog with a purple collar that needed a home. She seemed so sad and lost. I knew we had to get here and... we did.
