Written by Dalaine Nel
Photography by Dalaine Nel and Philip Fourie
We adopted our first sighthound three years ago in the form of an Italian Greyhound, and saying that the sighthound family has become a bit of an obsession in my eyes since then is an understatement. I knew it was only a matter of time until I’d adopt my first large greyhound…
Puppy wanted
I did my homework, speaking to vets and various behaviourists, and the decision was made that it would be best for our current pack of mainly small dogs to adopt a puppy so that it could adjust to living with small dogs.
Greyhounds are great hunters, and more often than not, those available in rescue have been subjected to some form of hunting or even predominantly used as hunting dogs. We needed to find a dog young enough to train, whose hunting instinct wasn’t developed and used daily, to prevent her from seeing our small dogs as prey when they play or run.
Finding a sighthound puppy in rescue can take some time, but we were prepared to wait.
Four sorry little pups
One evening, I received a message accompanied by two pictures of a bundle of black, white, and grey – four sorry little pups that immediately captured my heart: Sighthound Sanctuary SA had just announced that they’d secured four greyhound pups from a township during an outreach.
I didn’t waste any time and got in touch with Jeannie van den Heever (Chairlady of Sighthound Sanctuary SA) asking if she’d allow an out-of-town adoption for one of the precious little babies. Great was my excitement to learn that I was able to apply and adopt one of their puppies.
We picked our puppy from the pictures: a shy-looking black female with a black heart shape on her snow-white chest. But they still needed their vaccinations and vet checks before they’d be able to travel. And so, the waiting started…
Lockdown delay
It was organised that I’d be able to fetch my puppy on the 27th of March 2020, as she’d then be ready to leave her foster nest and come to her forever home.
Little did we know that Covid-19 had other plans. We were heartbroken to hear that we wouldn’t be able to travel to fetch our baby as planned as the country was going into complete lockdown from the 27th of March 2020 – the very day we should have fetched her.
We had no choice but to wait, receiving pictures and updates and seeing how she was growing and growing – and we were missing out on most of her puppy antics. In the meantime, we decided to name her Maya so that at least she could get used to her name.
I finally managed to arrange a lift for Maya from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth (over 1000km) for the 2nd of May 2020 with someone who was permitted to travel. We received our (rather larger than anticipated) bundle of joy at 20h00 that evening. Little did we know that life would never again be as we knew it. A little shy and much reserved, she checked out her new environment. As she warmed up to us and her environment over the next few days, her character started to show more and more.
So much to love about Maya
Maya blossomed into a greatly confident, playful hurricane. She’s a champ at running like the stormy winds, does her gardening like a pro, can dig to Japan and back, and chews through anything and everything like a paper shredder. We very quickly learned that NOTHING is safe on counters or tables; her legs and range of reach are just way too tall for such a young pup. You either put it inside a cupboard, the stove or microwave, or risk it getting stolen.
She’s the queen of stealth mode, and you NEVER catch or hear her when she steals something until it’s too late to rescue, whatever her latest object of choice has been. She has a particular interest in dental hygiene and has stolen and destroyed many unsuspecting toothbrushes from the bathrooms.
She’s successfully killed many pairs of flip flops and has single-handedly destroyed most of our succulent collection by sampling and tasting each one of the succulents within her needle nose’s reach. Maya is as sharp as a razor and has an uncanny ability to figure things out for herself, and she quickly figured out how to remove the roll of toilet paper from the holder and that she can decorate the entire garden in streamers and snow… we now keep the toilet paper on top of the bathroom cabinet. What we don’t do for the dogs!
Maya has a great love for water, and one of her most favourite things to do is making crazy zoomies in her plastic shell before proceeding to make more crazy zoomies in the garden through the flowerbeds, creating a great mud bath for herself, which usually results in mom having to give her a bath to clean her off. She’s quickly learned that the pool is more fun than the much smaller plastic shell, and she can get even wetter and muddier if she goes for a proper dip.
Needless to say, for the cold winter days, we had to unfortunately close off her waterpark fetish, as she gets too cold and takes too long to dry off after her watery romping around the garden. I had to accept that I’ll probably never have clean floors again, for as long as Maya is around, she’ll always leave her muddy flower prints on the floor for me to remind me that she’s just finished having oodles of fun.
Maya is also a supermodel. During winter she’s proved to be true to the style of my doggy clothing business. She has no problem modelling my Wintie range clothing pieces. She happily goes to bed at night wearing her onesies or polo neck and during the day will also wear them happily (as long as I don’t mind her either bringing the whole lawn inside on top of her clothing or soaking the legs in wet grass and then getting it completely muddy during her wild zoomie runs). She needs at least three sets of clothing for the day! She just doesn’t keep clean at this stage.
She’s joined her puppy classes, a little later than what we hoped, thanks to Covid-19. Nonetheless, she successfully completed her six weeks of puppy training, even if she was already in her teenage phases and had one day of absolute tantrums, refusing to listen to any commands or even look at me throughout the whole of the class. But she did graduate, and I’m happy to report that she’s currently doing her course in basic obedience, her teenage tantrums seem slightly less dramatic, and – slowly but surely – those pointy ears with their own personality seem to have started working and listening more and more. She’s responding absolutely fabulously to the clicker training, and even if she can be as stubborn as a mule at times, we’re mostly successful at eventually getting through to her.
Tummy troubles
All the while, being a lively, seemingly normal and naughty pup, they say the perfect dog lands with the perfect family. I learned over the first few months after adopting Maya into my life why exactly she was so perfect for me. Maya has had a constant struggle with her tummy, and I’m gluten intolerant. Chronic diarrhoea, countless vet visits, tests, scans and medication. (Her taste for everything and anything from snails to palm tree leaves in the garden were also not helping her unsettled tummy.)
We scratched our heads, tried many medicines and various food brands, and finally decided to put her on raw green tripe (the stomach, raw and unprocessed, of cud-chewing animals, which can be helpful for sensitive dogs), which seemed to settle the tummy down a lot. We finally decided to remove all gluten/wheat products from her diet as well. With wheat removed and on the green tripe, literally within days her tummy has cleared up.
Me suffering from gluten intolerance myself, I now have a matching dog to accompany me on my gluten-free journey. Making her treats now myself to make sure she keeps her diet “clean”, preparing her food fresh for her with every mealtime, we’re walking the path together, me as a Paleo dieter and Maya on her BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) diet. I learn every day still – trials and errors with both my own diet and hers – and she, ever so forgiving of my mistakes when I make them.
Forever loved
I have to admit that this little land shark has come with her own set of rules and demands. She needs a constant set of eyes to keep her out of trouble, but I’m swapping my little black beauty for NOTHING in this universe.
This is definitely a much different experience than raising a princess Italian Greyhound, but even if Maya is a tomboy, we wouldn’t change the energy and changes she’s brought into our existing pack and family for anything in the world. She even got our senior lady of ten years old playing with her like a puppy again.
Maya is home for good. She’ll never know an empty or hungry stomach, heartache or fear, cold and loneliness. She’ll forever be loved, cared for and be part of a family, and her momma has big plans for her for a bright future!
About Sighthound Sanctuary SA
The Sighthound Sanctuary, located in Gauteng province, South Africa, provides a safe haven for orphaned, rescued, and elderly sighthounds, as well as “honorary” sighthounds. Dogs are assessed for physical and behavioural issues and then rehomed to loving and caring homes. For more information, or to assist, please call 082 210 7843, email sighthoundsanctuarysa@gmail.com, and follow them on Facebook and Instagram at @sighthoundsanctuarysa
