Glen Pearson with Apollo (left) and Venus (right) enjoying their new home. Picture supplied Glen Pearson had never considered adopting a greyhound for a pet, until he met Coco. Subscribe now for unlimited access .
Login or signup to continue reading $ 0 / $ NaN /year All articles from our website The digital version of Today's Paper Breaking news alerts direct to your inbox All articles from the other regional websites in your area Continue "Coco was a therapy dog, a big bluey grey female greyhound who was coming in every few days to visit the old people at my dad's aged care facility," Glen explained. "Seeing her nature and what a beautiful dog she was, got myself and my wife Nicki thinking about one day getting a greyhound. "We were building a house down here at Bermagui at the time so we couldn't do anything straight away, but we started looking at the GAP [Greyhounds As Pets] website, and checking out the dogs and realised how many dogs were there available.
"We sort of looked every few weeks while we finished the house, and looking at their profiles from time to time and keeping an eye on them." GAP held an adoption day at Hanrob Pet Motel at Heathcote in late July, and while Glen admits they were still "in the middle of doing fences", they decided to make the trek and perhaps find a new family member. "It was a 10-hour round trip but it was worth it," Glen said.
"We had a list of dogs for that day, and were actually looking at Brutus and Wazza. But then we met Apollo and we quickly realised he was the one for us." The one soon became two.
"We saw this beautiful little girl, Juliper was her name, but she wasn't on our radar because as her profile said she wasn't recommended for kids under 10. We've got four grandkids under five so while we liked the look of her, we just overlooked her for that reason, and chose Apollo on the day. "But then we did all the paperwork, and were talking to Apollo's handler, and she advised us that the recommendation was only because she tended to be a bit of a jumper so they were concerned she might knock kids over.
"I was reluctant, but one thing led to another and Nicki said can we have her as well? I gave in and the two of them - we now call her Venus - are now best mates." After a restless first night, Glen and Nicki brought the pair's beds into their bedroom, and Apollo and Venus have never been happier. "They sleep until the morning then Venus leaps onto the bed to let us know she's awake.
It's like kids on Christmas morning every day," Glen joked. "He's a bit more relaxed but she is a very, very curious little girl. As soon as you go outside, she goes and finds my shoes and takes them to her bed.
"She's very smart. Nicki bought her a puzzle with four little trap doors which you put treats behind. The centre is like a key and you've got to turn it to be able to slide one door and get to another door.
"You've got to do all these different patterns and she worked it out in 10 minutes and had all the treats. The next day she took half that time. She's incredibly clever.
"And everyone loves them. I've got some friends and people around here that never actually stood near a greyhound let alone touched one. You take them for a walk and people come over and talk to you about them and have a pat.
I think we've convinced a few people to consider adopting themselves now." There will be plenty of opportunity for those looking for a greyhound as a pet with the GAP team hosting a huge Winter Adoption Day at the Entertainment Quarter in Sydney's Moore Park on August 18. For details head to gapnsw.
com.au . This article was produced as part of an ACM partnership with Greyhound Racing NSW.
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