Izzy

Izzy arrived in January 2004 to keep Kai company after Phelan died (which he did just a few weeks after Kai came home). At the time she was thought to be about a year, maybe 18 months old; she was a smooth haired Saluki cross. She was named Ivy by Wood Green because she arrived there just before Christmas.

Izzy very special and a real daddies girl. She was extremely beautiful and very intelligent and once she overcame her initial timidness with people,very affectionate and playful with everyone.

Izzy only had two speeds – manic and stop; stop meant she was sleeping or eating. She had springs in her feet and could jump and climb just about anything (apparently she scaled a six foot wall at Wood Green just so she could be with the dog next door!). Her favourite pastime was running. This usually meant chasing Kai round the garden, though she would quite happily just run round and round the garden by herself just for the sheer hell of it. If she was playing with Kai and it was her being chased she would get away from him by jumping onto the scaffolding (I was having work done on the house at the time). The other place she put her sure footedness to the test was on the beach in Devon, or rather on the rocks between beaches. Kai had done rock hopping before, but Izzy made it look trivial. She was quite happy charging up and down almost vertical rock faces without any problem.

She was a gobby dog. When I worked from home Izzy would always be in the office with me. At 4:30pm she would start telling me it was time for a walk. This would then be followed by reminder when it was tea time, etc. etc. In fact, thinking about it, she was a real nag. She was also vain. Most dogs I know either don't take any notice of mirrors or think the reflection is another dog and start barking at it. Izzy on the other hand would spend ages looking at her reflection, apparently admiring herself. My kitchen has an under counter oven with a mirror finish door, and was just the right height for her stand in front of for a full length view. One of her most endearing (sic) habits was destroying toilet and kitchen rolls. Paper in general was safe, but a roll in reach would not be a roll for long. Do you know how much paper is on one of things?

Until Izzy arrived the hounds were called "The Beastly Boys" (see the About page for an explanation why). But as she was a girl the couldn't be "Boys" any more; they became "The Beastly Beasts".

Sadly Izzy was not to spend very long with us. While out for walk on 11th September 2004 she went charging off as usual, then I heard a yelp. When I reached her I found her on the ground, dazed and unable to get up. An emergency rush to the vets confirmed the worst, and she had to be put to sleep. The only good thing is that she was doing what she wanted at the time, and I'm fairly sure she didn't feel much at all.