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Rehomed

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Welcome to JR Whippet Rescue's new home on the web! We've been finding new homes for whippets in need for over 40 years, which means we're three decades older than the first personal computer, two decades older than all things online (and significantly more experienced than others in our field). We've clearly got staying power but our original web pages were looking a little frayed at the edges. It was time for a change, and this is us for 2013 and beyond. You'll find plenty here that's new with plenty more to come. Please pop back often as we will be updating the website regularly.

Behind the scenes we're much as we were, a registered charity* run by a dedicated bunch of trustees and volunteers. But our new online 'kennel' allows us to bring you more of our news and more of our success stories. Watch this space, there's so very much more we want to share with you!

* Registered Charity 326479. Contact details can be found above.

Yes, that is Jennifer Saunders!

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Jennifer Saunders and Olive                                                 Jane Saunders with Olive and Pip

I'm sure many of our readers will be aware that actress and comedienne Jennifer Saunders has a much loved whippet friend, Olive, but I wonder if you know about Olive's best mate, Pip, a JR rescue whippet who now lives with Jennifer's mum, Jane.

Jennifer most kindly tackled a photo shoot on our behalf recently, in preparation for the launch of this new website, and these delightful images were the outcome.

Pip with her adopter, Jane Saunders

Pip was kept in a garden shed until she was seven and was bred from ceaselessly. She was unloved, had never been properly cared for, and was lame through lack of any opportunity to properly stretch her legs. Rescued by us from her previous miserable existence her first night in foster was her first night with a bed to call her own.

Since her adoption Pip has thrived. No longer lame she enjoys an active life with Jane and has been quite literally loved back to full health. Mother and daughter share their great affection for whippets and are happy to champion this wonderful breed on our behalf.

Pip at home with Jane

We always need volunteers willing to transport and/or to foster whippets like Pip who are en route to their new lives. If you can help us, even in the smallest way, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Alternatively you could make a donation to assist with our vital work using the 'Donate' button in the sidebar. Thank you.

We have a new logo! What do you think?

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Designing a logo that is representative of any organisation isn't straightforward. Our hope is that the new logo for all things JR Whippet Rescue online both references our long established print logo of a whippet's head within a blue circle and illustrates that with this new website (and our presence on Twitter) we are leaping forwards into the next 40 years (yes, that's how long JR Whippet Rescue has been working to improve the lot of whippets!)

To this end we have begun to roll out new ways for you to get in touch with us. First up is our new online 'Get Involved' form. If you are able to offer a foster home to a whippet in need, can help with transporting whippets to foster homes or elsewhere, or can assist us with fundraising, please let us know by filling in that form. And you may also contact us about donations, legacies, and adoption using the same link. Help us, please, to continue to make a difference to these wonderful hounds.G23G8H78KR5N

Winning ways

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Champion Shalfleet Simply a Lord
The breeders of pedigree dogs are often attacked in the press, yet be assured, responsible whippet breeders have always been intent on producing athletic, healthy hounds with the best of temperaments*. Thankfully most of those whippets will never need rehoming and will instead live happy lives with their life-long owners. And some of them will achieve great things. Playful and affectionate companions, whippets also excel on the track, in the agility ring, and at show. And to be crowned Best of Breed at Crufts, that has to be the pinnacle of achievement.
This years Crufts Best of Breed winner, Champion Shalfleet Simply a Lord, call name Troy, went on to be placed a well deserved Reserve Best of Group. Troy's breeder and owner, Jane Wilton-Clark, has kindly forwarded some photographs of Troy to us so that we might share them with you. Perhaps you'd join with us in congratulating Jane and her stunning boy.
*Without dedicated breeders many of the dedicated breed rescues wouldn't exist. Founded by Joanna Russell of Martinsell fame over 40 years ago JR Whippet Rescue is a case in point.

Meet Lamorak

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Continuing our series on the fun to be had with a rescue whippet, meet Lamorak, future flyballing star. Lamorak was rescued by us, and rehomed by Keith and Julie Huggins of DogStar Flyball and is pictured here in training. We're told he's going to be very fast.
For those not in the know, flyball is a relay racing event in which teams of four dogs race against each other, two teams at a time, over a four jump course that leads to a flyball 'box'. When the dog 'steps' on the spring loaded box a ball is released which it catches and dogs must then return over the jumps whilst carrying the ball. The jump height is determined by the shoulder height of the smallest dog in the team. Each dog must cross the finish line before the next dog begins and the first team to have all four dogs 'home' error free wins the heat, of which there are five. You can see a video of the dogs in action on the DogStar Flyball website
Lamorak is not the only rescue whippet Keith and Julie have on their team. Pictured above is little lady Melora, learning all about the box. And then there's Arthur, pictured below (photo credit Paul Bennett of Dogtography), who is the number one flyballing whippet in the country, and the only whippet to have achieved a Gold 'Milestone' Award in recognition of points attained (15,000) in competition ... Breaking News: Arthur has now been awarded the Ice Blue Moon Award after attaining an incredible 20,000 points!!
It is a common misconception among folk thinking of adopting a whippet that these are dogs that need a lot of exercise. In fact although they do appreciate a daily run many are perfectly happy with one long walk on the lead. But they are intelligent dogs and are known for their joie de vivre, and taking part in activities such as flyball and agility when the opportunity arises is something they really enjoy. Please consider making a donation to JR Whippet Rescue today - there is a donate button to the left - and help us secure the lives of more whippets like Lamorak and his friends.

Beans: friend of Tuuli and Rankin

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"We have three dogs, Tombi, a Jack Russell, Pickle, a lurcher and a little whippet called Beans. We adopted Pickle in August 2008 from the RSPCA after he was found abandoned and starving, tied up next to two dead dogs. Beans was found wandering by a canal in November 2011 when she was only two months old and we adopted her from an amazing charity in Stoke called the Greyhound Gap. Beans has been a fantastic addition to our family; like all whippets she's very affectionate, intelligent and playful and we all adore her. Whippets are really wonderful dogs and we are very lucky to have her! There are so many amazing dogs in rescue centres who desperately need homes and it is so much more rewarding adopting a dog who is in desperate need of a loving home rather than buying a puppy from a breeder."

Tuuli Shipster

Photograph of Beans and Tuuli provided by Rankin
Whippet lovers are everywhere in the UK, most are unknown, some are household names. This feature is one in a series that will showcase the rescue whippet friends of famous people and their families. The posts will be archived on a dedicated page, 'Friends of the Famous', and you can read the post about Jennifer Saunders, her mum Jane, and their whippets there now, should you have missed it first time around. We are immensely grateful to the busy and talented people who have contributed their time, and their words and pictures to these posts.

Become a Friend of JR Whippet Rescue

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It is possible, on payment of a very small annual subscription, to become a Friend of JR Whippet Rescue and receive a twice yearly newsletter from us, by email or by post. In addition to letters from supporters who have adopted whippets, letting us know how they're getting on, and reports from various officers of the charity, the newsletters often include special offers - discounted dog-friendly holiday cottage bookings, for example - made exclusively to Friends. Life memberships (individual and family) are also available. This is Moppet, pictured on her 14th birthday, and featured in the last Friends of JR Whippet Rescue newsletter's gallery of whippet pics. When she died, at the grand old age of 16, her owner then rescued a fifteen year old whippet. The oldies are the hardest dogs to rehome but give so much to those who accept that the whippet they adopt may only be with them for a few short years. Moppet looks to have been an absolute darling. If you would like to become a Friend of JR Whippet rescue please email Dot, or telephone Annette on 01505 842123, for further information.

Jack ... friend of Brian Sewell

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Art critic Brian Sewell's new autobiographical book, Sleeping with Dogs, will be published in October here in the UK. Over his eighty years Brian has lived with and devotedly cared for seventeen dogs, many of them rescues and a number of them whippets or whippet crosses. Brian has very kindly allowed us to reproduce a short section from the book before its publication - a piece about his rescue whippet Jack by way of a teaser - and has also written an introduction to that excerpt for us.
Lord knows who had had Jack, my second whippet, from a pup, who had crushed her instincts and emotions, who had left her to die without food and water after throwing her over a high wall into a deserted yard. She was all but dead when rescued, and only after a full year of patient care did she become a normal dog again ... funny, affectionate, responsive and full of character. With new hair fully grown on the paws and tail that she had gnawed bare in her abandonment, she was well nigh perfect, with a little blaze on her chest and a faint hint of blue in her ears and running down her spine. Curious and confident, she consumed nuts and chocolate (neither of them good for dogs), cheese and yoghurt, and all the temptations sweet and salt for which dogs sell their souls, her appetite for bananas quite insatiable. To my great pleasure she learned to break all the rules of etiquette and nothing pleased me more than her standing and, trembling forepaws on the table, shaking it, insistently demanding some titbit from my plate, discreetly nipping me if I ignored her. With those same paws she pulled the duvet from my shoulders in the middle of the winter’s night, and when, in the morning, I made my bed, she watched, and as soon as the covers were smooth and straight, rolled on it, mad as a maenad, an ecstatic, stretching, wriggling wildness informing spine and limb, the back arching, head and neck thrashing from side to side, and then she’d haul the cover back and make a bird’s nest of my pillows.
So typical whippet behaviour then! Bless her paws. With many thanks to Brian Sewell for his generosity and all that he has done to help whippets and other dogs in need.

Help JR Whippet Rescue when you shop online

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I wonder how many of our supporters do their weekly supermarket shop online, or regularly buy from Amazon, or many other online stores. Now, by just clicking a few buttons, you can set things up so that every time you hit the checkout pennies are donated to your favourite charity, which we're hoping is us! Here's how to do it ... First you need to log in to Give as You Live ... they'll just need your name and an email address. Click the 'How it Works' tab - it's to the right of the little 'shopping trolley in a heart' icon, toward the top of your screen, as visible in the pic at the bottom of this post - and then the 'Get Started' button, and ... ... this box will pop up.
Next, select the charity you wish to support. Just type in "J R Whippet Rescue", search, and click on the charity's 'badge' when it pops up ...
... and you'll see this screen. Now click where you see 'Install Give as you Live'.
And lastly, click on the install 'cloud', and then restart your computer.
All that remains is to activate your account by adding a security password, and you're done.
You can even raise additional money for us by recommending Give as You Live to your friends. JR Whippet Rescue depends on monies from donations and bequests, and in a world where ever more demands are being made on shrinking incomes our income is falling too. This is one small way that you can help us to keep helping whippets in need. Please sign up today. Thank you.

Diva and Roxy

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We are pleased to announce that the girls have now been rehomed. With many thanks to all our supporters.


These two sweet ladies need a cat free* home together. That's Diva on the left and her mum and best mate Roxy on the right, and the two are inseparable. You can read a little more about them on our Whippets page and if you would like to inquire further or offer the girls a home please email rehoming@whippetrescue.org.uk or telephone Linda Jones on 01234 838927. Adding two whippets to your family in one go brings its own challenges - ideally you'll have time to spend with each dog on it's own as well as with both dogs together - but it can be so very rewarding ... it's twice the fun!
* Many whippets will live happily with cats but this is a breed that's hardwired to chase small furry things and some whippets include cats in that category.

Zaffy: Friend of Lindka Cierach

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Continuing our series on whippets who live with famous folk, meet Zaffy beloved companion of Lindka Cierach, couturier and fashion designer. Lindka has graced our small screens in television programmes such as Ladette to Lady but is best known for the dresses she designs for The Princess Royal and The Duchess of Cambridge. Beautiful fawn girl Zaffy is lucky enough to share Lindka's glamorous life. Clearly they're the best of chums. This is the fourth in a series of short features about famous people and their whippets. You can also read about Jennifer Saunders and her mum Jane's whippets, Olive and Pip, Brian Sewell and his whippet Jack, and the photographer Rankin, his wife Tuuli and their whippet Beans, complete with a divine shot of Beans and Tuuli selected by Rankin especially for us ... just follow the links. Our newest featured whippets are Mr Bounce, constant companion to Lord Palumbo of Southwark, and Hector, great friend of Sebastian Faulks. Image supplied by, and posted with the permission of, Lindka Cierach.

Beano

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Meet Beano, a 'JR whippet', and his best mate Colin. This photograph was taken a couple of years ago, at Daymer Bay in Cornwall, when Beano was about eight months old. He's three now and Colin is just a year older. The two first met when Beano was in foster and Colin was introduced to him as a possible new 'brother' and they've been inseparable ever since. Beano was adopted by David and Barbara and we're told that in their fifty plus years of owning whippets they've rarely met one as delightful as him. He loves everybody and every dog, is as happy as the day is long, and likes nothing better than a good run and a chase. But Beano is special in another way. In addition to Beano and Colin, David and Barbara have a fourteen year old rescue greyhound, Kate. She's a very elderly lady now and needs extra care, and Beano helps with that. When Kate gets confused and wanders off he brings her back, and he sleeps with her at night to watch over her. We often feature whippets here who are famous by proxy, because they live with public figures, but some whippets, like Beano, should be famous in their own right.
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Have you adopted a dog from J.R. Whippet Rescue? If so and you'd like to see him or her featured here on the website please email the webmaster a good quality JPEG image of your hound/s and a few words about their progress. Or do you maybe know of a whippet who you think should be famous. Again, let us know, don't forget to tell us why, and we may (no promises here) give him or her a mention.
Here they are again, on the same day. Come on Beano, Colin's winning!

Another success story

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Meet Apple (foreground), now happily settled with her new family. At just fifteen months old this poor girl had had five previous homes before JR Whippet Rescue found her one forever.

Blue and Bumble need a home

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These two sweet ladies are looking for a sofa to share as their owner has sadly died. If you are able to offer them a home together, or would like to know more about them, please call Jean on 01631 566406.

Be aware: Watch those glass doors!

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We have just heard of the sad story of 'Tiggy' who died when she was running from inside to outside, but missed the fact that the conservatory door was shut. Condolences to Belinda and Family who suggest that you might like to add some sort of film to the glass to make it more noticeable. See the full story on Tiggy the greyhounds awareness page.

Meet Max!

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Isn't he handsome?! And he's now happily settled in his new home where he is already practicing the whippety dark art of sofa hogging, as new owner Gillian revealed ...
On adoption day, after we had filled in the paperwork and had a cup of tea, we secured his bed in the back of the car and he jumped in immediately ... he certainly seemed happy to set off with us and was very good on the three hour journey home. He was quite shy at first, while he got used to us and our sons, but we have had him for almost four months now and it feels like he has been here for years. He loves the sofa, he makes sure he stretches out far enough so that no one else can sit on it! He loves his walks, and he gets many admiring strokes! We are looking forward to many happy years with him.
If you could offer a home to a whippet like Max please get in touch using the contact details in the side bar and we will add you to our waiting list, although please remember that all adoptions are conditional on a satisfactory home check. And if you have already adopted a JR Whippet Rescue whippet and would like to share his or her story with us, just send us a good photo and a short description, as Gillian did, and we will publish it here.

Miss Fish - rehomed

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Miss Fish belonged to our very first, and now late, Treasurer, Joy Fisher, who died recently at the age of 93. This little black bitch is 15 years old and was taken in by JR Whippet Rescue after Joy's death a few months ago. Her new owner, Sue Tyler, lives in Berkshire and has taken several of the Rescue's really old whippets. She is the daughter of the Griffiths who were co-owners of the well known Chancerick Whippets. She says, 'This was JR Whippet Rescue at its very best. With only a couple of days' notice, intrepid Trustee, Sue Shakespeare, and her husband Kevin, set off from Essex to Kent. When they arrived at their destination, the road was closed and they had to pick their way through debris and dug up drains to reach the house, then walk the three back to the car again. They then drove to Berkshire where Sue Tyler met them with Lilah Wainman, who has since rehomed the other two whippets, a mother and daughter, together.'
Sue's other whippet, Mr Fox, at 14 years old, also a Rescue, has introduced Miss Fish to her new life. She only has one eye, but has adapted very well, is very happy and very feisty. She bullies poor Mr Fox who has been with Sue for nearly two years now, but he doesn't seem to mind.
We are very grateful to Sue for taking her.

Phoebe, Friend of Maureen James

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Phoebe came to me just before Christmas 2010 and was brought to me (I live near Market Harborough) from Powys by Elaine Day, of Celtic Moon Whippets, who had been fostering her. Because she came with her vaccination card, which contained her date of birth, I know she was born in 2004. She has quite an unusual background history in that she was handed in to a Greyhound Rescue centre by her original owner, despite her being a small whippet. She quickly found a new home with a lady who happened to know Elaine and Elaine would have Phoebe to stay when the lady was away, and had her when she went into hospital. Unfortunately, the lady died in hospital, so Elaine fostered Phoebe until she came to me. Phoebe had originally been called 'Fizz' and was renamed by her second owner, and sometimes I can see why she might have been called that when she has a 'mad moment'!
Since about 1993 I have had some six Rescues, all of them, without exception, being delightful dogs who settled into my home routine with ease, all loving accompanying me everywhere in the car and all wonderful companions to me. Phoebe is devoted to me and especially to her companion blue whippet bitch and they are very 'hugger mugger' together and never far away from each other. I count myself very lucky to have Phoebe. I have a small grandson and I believe that in her first home Phoebe must have been with children as she adores him and behaves in a very loving way towards him.
Thank you, Whippet Rescue, for all that you do for these wonderful dogs who, in cases through no fault of their own, find themselves without homes and people to love them.
Maureen James

From Sue Tyler, who has also rehomed Mr. Fox and Miss Fish.

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Ziggy was bred to be a racing whippet, but, some would say wisely, the only time Ziggy ever put his best paw forward was when there was something comfortable like a sofa in the offing! Consequently he was given to friends whose daughter was longing for a dog, and he is such a 'people dog' it is obvious that this move was a great success. Unfortunately his owners recently had to move and as seems to happen so often these days, pets were not allowed in the new house. Ziggy went to live with one of the girls he had grown up with but sadly her very young baby became allergic to dogs, so it was imperative that Ziggy found a new home as a matter of great urgency. At the handover it was obvious that Ziggy and his owners were devoted to each other, but under the circumstances there was no other option.
Having lived in a flat, country life is a shock to Ziggy. Whilst my whippets take popping into the garden when they feel like it for granted, Ziggy expected to put on a collar and lead and go for a walk. Under the circumstances he had to be separated from the rest of the family and so is always checking that he really should have the run of the house! He was reluctant to eat or drink and an early visit to the vet revealed that this was not stress but a serious dental problem, resulting in 21 teeth having to be removed. He proved a model patient and if I ever have to have a tooth out in future I shall think of Ziggy! He is such a happy dog, constantly wagging his tail, which at some time has been broken so it goes round in a circle not the usual side to side and is beginning to enjoy a "mad dog" whizz round the garden. For some reason he insists on sleeping on the bottom left hand corner of my bed, to my surprise there is no quiet shuffling across the bed to the warmth of a human body as it gets colder, but that corner is definitely his! Although he did not live with other dogs, this has not proved a problem, Miss Fish is delighted to have another admirer and Mr. Fox and Ziggy are almost a match pair so that at times I find it hard to tell them apart!
Although I was told Ziggy was 14, I was convinced that this was a mistake as he does not act or look like a 14 year old , however when I transferred his Microchip, Pet Log confirmed this was correct. I can only think he has found the secret of eternal youth and ever an optimist I am hoping I can persuade him to pass it on to me!

Apple's anniversary

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Apple one year on, happy in her new home.
Visitors to the website may remember the picture of her with the same owner's black and white lurcher a year ago. She is also best friends with a black whippet, Tom.
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