This page is all about Lally! Lally is my retired racing greyhound that I adopted in June 2009. She's 7 years old and definitely NOT retiring gracefully! I love her to bits and she's proving a superb travelling and life companion. Here is a list of all the funny, cool and crazy lil doggy things Lally does:
- staring out of the window : Lally is Chief Navigator on this trip (she looks after the GPS). When we're on the go, sometimes she stares so intently out the front window, her eyes as wide as she can get them. I think this means she's on rabbit-spotting duty. . Sometimes she stares this intently with her head out the window, but she soon brings it back in when a fly hits her at 80kmph! Much coughing and spluttering, heh heh. What is it about car windows that dogs just adore!? I think they must think it's cool to be going so fast with so little effort!
- sometimes Chief Navigator goes off-line (when there's been no other roads for the past 50km)
- when Lally shakes herself, she starts at her nose then progresses further down her body. When the shake gets to her front legs, both left and right leg gets flailed out til they're spread right out! The shake continues all the way down to the very tip of her tail, usually followed by a satisfied "huff".
- making the bed: sometimes the bed gets a little too compacted, so Lally puffs it up! Then she turns 3-4 circles til I'm dizzy, to flatten it out again, finally settling in the new nest.
- chasing flies: Lally hates flies as much as I do! When one comes buzzing around the van she's instantly on fly-catch duty and snaps away at it til one of us has caught it, swatted it, or munched it!
- Lally is often more like a cat than a dog. I can tell when she's cold by feeling her ears. When her ears get cold she rubs them like a cat with her paws. Sometimes she licks her legs like a cat too. To fend off the cold she will quite comfortably sleep with her head buried in a blanket.
- somebody told me that greyhounds often sleep with their eyes open. Lally is no exception! It's quite freaky sometimes as the whites of her eyelids glaze over half her eye so she looks quite strange. When she comes to you can see the glaze lift very slowly as consciousness takes hold.
- yoga: Lally is a master of yoga! In the morning there is an *advanced* stretching and breathing routine before we go out for our morning walk. The familiar *chink* of the collar and lead also induces a little light jumping to warm up.
- we're working on the attitude to small dogs, and making steady progress. For the first 5 years of her life she was taught consistently that chasing small furry things and occasionally being allowed to rip them to shreds was a Very Good Thing. We're steadily working towards occasionally being allowed to intimidate and scare the bejayzus outta them.
- if dogs dream of chasing rabbits, then a greyhound must have heavenly dreams! Lally does pretty frenetic REM sleep!
- those long legs are so very far away from her brain! She's such a clumsy animal - hilarious when she's trying to have an accurate ear scratch.
- she's super smart though... honest