Pedigree post

One thing I get asked quite a lot when I’m out with the gang is whether there are any champions amongst them. To be honest, champions tend not to end up in rescue centres as they have a huge value as sires or brood bitches. A top dog can earn a million pounds in stud fees as long after they’ve retired they can still be ‘servicing’ a bitch - I’m also reliably informed that there’s no mechanical intervention, so that’s a good gig for the lads if they can get it. Monty’s dad Roanokee sired over 4000 offspring so I guess he died tired but happy...

Sue on Indigo Dream has already mentioned the brilliant database that is http://www.greyhound-data.com/. Here you can look up the lineage of your rescue and check out dads, mums, brothers and sisters and endless generations back in time. For example, Ranger was Rangers Law, son of a famous sire called Come on Ranger. He's the one who looks like he’s run through an oil slick. Arthur (Stowell Arthur) is the spit of his dad, the very cutely named Deenside Dean, while Monty (Movealong Baron renamed Remote Al) definitely has the look of his pops, particularly when he folds his ears over.

Susie (Stifflers Mom) and Miffy (Bow Inn) don’t

boast particularly famous parents but their ancestry is still pretty impressive, with some notable dogs on both mum and dad’s side of the family. What is really amazing about the whole site is how far back you can go – I can trace Miffy’s lineage back to the late 18th century! No photos of course....
Little did I realise when I used to tune into the greyhound racing on Sportsnight that one day I’d have some of my own. Those were the days of Ballyregan Bob and Scurlogue Champ, when the dogs made not just the back pages but the front pages of newspapers with their amazing exploits. And then twenty years later, in a strange quirk of fate, as we sat outside the Stenson Cafe during our original boatbuilder research, we met a chap and his two children together with their four greyhounds. I think we were smitten right then and there. They were so soft and placid, so gentle and well-behaved. How we were conned! I’d always imagined myself ending up with a lab or a pointer but within a month of turning freelance, A and I went down to our local RGT and chose Susie. And then the fun began...