Greyhound & Lurcher Rescue Stories – Long-Stay Resident Patrick

It’s hard to believe but our lovely long stay hound Patrick has been with us for four years now, having arrived with us in the summer of 2015. He came to us in very poor condition, underweight and with a bad flea infestation.

He was an extremely nervous boy initially, especially around people. It was a major task even to coax him out of his kennel and Siobhan and Heather spent a great deal of time working with him to gain his trust.

These days Pat loves cuddles from the people he has grown to know and trust. He allows regular volunteers into his kennel who love to give him fuss and, most importantly, treats! He is especially fond of any volunteers who come bearing gifts of sausages, even better if they warm them up in the microwave first! Talking of volunteers, this shy lad  literally has his very own fan club.  As well as treats volunteers have bought him gifts of new coats, collars, leads and harnesses  too.

Pat loves to wander about the empty kennel block on occasions when they are being cleaned and often nips into other empty kennels to ‘borrow’ any toys he comes across. He loves toys and has a rather large collection, his favourite toys at the moment being an octopus and a furry cushion. Once Pat took a liking to a unicorn toy in a neighbouring kennel and ‘borrowed’ it for himself with a tug of war ensuing under the kennel door.  He loved that unicorn so much so that, when supporters heard how fond he was of unicorns, they  sent in more toys for his collection.

Pat gets on well with all the other kennel dogs, often enjoying their company walking alongside them and he is especially interested to meet all new female hounds! Having said that Pat wouldn’t be able to cope with a walk on his own, he would find it too stressful. He is frightened of people walking towards him from a distance and is scared of small children as they can be noisy and unpredictable.

Although Pat's confidence has improved he can still be very wary of new people and certain everyday situations can make him very anxious.  Pat thrives on routine and as yet we haven’t found the right person to meet his needs.

Pat classes kennels as his home and he receives plenty of love and attention from our volunteers, many of who have grown very fond of him over the years.