Sample Story

I had always assumed greyhounds were high-maintenance sporting dogs who needed endless space and exercise. When my colleague told me she volunteered with a greyhound rescue in Centurion, I smiled politely and changed the subject.

Then she showed me a photo of Rocket.

Rocket was a four-year-old retired racing greyhound with a black brindle coat, an impossibly long nose, and an expression of such exhausted dignity that I asked about him almost involuntarily. He had been racing for two years, placed with a foster family for three months, and was described as gentle, quiet, and completely house-trained.

I adopted him three days later. The rescue was thorough — a home check, a reference, a meet-and-greet — and handed him over with a bag of food, a greyhound muzzle, and a booklet on the breed.

Everything my colleague had said about greyhounds was wrong in the best possible way. Rocket requires two twenty-minute walks a day, after which he sleeps for eighteen hours on the longest sofa he can find. He has never chewed a single thing. He learned the routine of our house within a week. He is the most effortlessly companionable dog I have ever met.

I tell everyone who will listen: if you want a large, calm, beautiful dog with minimal exercise needs and maximum couch presence, adopt a retired greyhound. You will not believe your luck.