Moss
I would never single out one or other of our dogs and describe them as a favourite. With Moss, however, I suspect that personally I have come quite close. You see, she represents the reality of what I saw in my minds eye when the desire to get a whippet first manifested itself. I guess that most of us have pre-conceived ideas of what we would wish to see in a dog, be it size, colour, attitude etc. and I was no exception in that respect.
Moss arrived with us in August 2001 together with her sister Tilley. For the next three months both sisters got along famously. Little did we know that events were soon to take a downward turn in the hitherto sweetness and light aspect of their relationship. I will reveal more when I write of Tilley in later paragraphs.
Pregnant Moss with Jimmy and Annie
For now, a word about our early attempts at chasing the lure. We had been to Newmarket to watch other dogs racing so a means had to be devised to do some training at home. We were not over burdened with state of the art equipment. In fact Pam's arms and my legs was the sum total of what we had. Pam would hold the dog and I would run along the beach pulling a lure on a piece of string. Pam releases dog: dog chases me and I fall down, close to death from my physical efforts. This could not continue. Cue, the bike! I could now be found pedalling like a demon, pulling the lure, closely followed by Moss and others. Not ideal, but progress was being made. Over time we did in fact graduate to a proper, battery driven lure machine, still on the beach, but this time attracting admiring spectators where previously people wearing puzzled frowns had wondered as to the sanity of that strange man who encouraged whippets to chase him!
To finish my piece about Moss I do need to mention her penchant for encouraging dogs on the beach to chase her. She can often be seen rushing up to a dog, tucking herself up and performing a series of pirouettes before rushing off, pursued by the obliging running mate, who has no chance of catching her and Moss knows it, of-course! She will, when it suits her, demonstrate the same performance - unprovoked running just for the hell of it. Yes you've got it: Born to Run.
Christopher Doyle, January 2006
