Tony and Rachel Hickman's Dog Story
..Well everyone else has had their say! A bit like Suma, it was love at first sight with Streaky - or KiKi, as she was called then. Ray will spend several hours at a time looking around rescue centres on the web. There are always dozens of dogs that you would love to help out, but you know you can't do it all. If we are honest, then we have never set out to get as many dogs as we can cram into the truck, sometimes you just know it's the right
thing to do. That's pretty much what happened with all our dogs - and this little bit is our complete 'dog' story. Suma was the first. We had wanted a dog for the last twelve years, but we knew living in a flat wasn't right.
So within six weeks of moving into the house we got the infamous Suma, or 'Mad' Suma as he is known! I love the fact that I was on Studland beach last year and this couple came up to me and said 'is that Suma?'!
Then we heard about the sloughi case, which affected everyone. We had been thinking about a companion for Suma anyway, and so we just wanted to see what we could do. We wanted to give the older 'write-offs' a chance, and we loved the look of Victoria.
We went to BCDH but she had a reserve, and Kirsty very quickly showed us
Leo! We had seen Ceaser bounding around and strutting his stuff looking truly majestic, and I think it is fair to say that Leo was the complete opposite. He was shaking in the back of his kennel, and our first walk with him was a drag around the football pitch in the rain, however as soon as we got him home he barked several times, jumped on the settee and has been there ever since. So we were happy with two dogs.
Then somehow we started getting involved in this rescue sloughi business, and six months later, we saw that Victoria was back in BCDH. As she was Leo's old 'playing' partner (I am sure that is creative licence on the behalf of BCDH staff!!!) we thought it would be nice for them to play together. And meet Caroline in the process! Well, when we saw Vicky she had completely given up on life. She hadn't eaten for days and was on her last legs, and we couldn't walk away. No way. So that was three.
Then Ray found Streaky on the Stubbington Ark website. We weren't actually looking for another dog. Three is quite a handful, especially when they are big dogs and potter around at various speeds, so walking them is always fun! But Streaky fitted all of our 'criteria'. That's the 'perfect dream dog' that you never think would actually materialise, but she did! Another sloughi, another horror story. Very nervous, needs sighthound experience. Female. (another male and Suma would go even more mad). So off we went to Stubbington.
Streaky bounded into our lives like nothing we had ever seen. Although Suma likes to run and play, he is seven so not as fast as he used to be. Vicky loves to potter around at her own speed and does her own thing, and Leo pretty much does nothing unless he is on holiday - so imagine our surprise as this leapy, 100mile an hour, jumping, pawing, 3-year old appeared! My first though was 'oh my God!', quickly followed by 'she is so beautiful!' and then 'And she has teeth!'.
She was very nervous when we first bought her back - not as bad as Leo, but obviously very affected by everything that had happened to her. A typical sloughi, actually. But very quickly she improved. By accident, within a week she was off lead in the fields, (She actually pulled out of her harness and we couldn't get it back on again!) and the 'pack effect' has worked brilliantly; she will do whatever the others do, which is usually come when we call them!
She has grown in confidence every day, and she is slowly learning what 'sit' means. She loves to play with the toys, plays like a cat with a ball, is fascinated by the chinchillas and is a truly wonderful addition to the family!
Will we get any more? That's always the question! We physically can't at the moment, as we couldn't get any more dogs (not even a little one!)into the truck. We already have to either sit in the dining room or the floor of the living room, as both sofas are full of dogs - however, as we know these stories pull so much at your heartstrings you just never can tell...
.. watch this space!
