Pleased to meet you

Simon Whitehead welcomes a brace of lurcher puppies to his household, as well as a visiting foxhound. Now for the training…

- Simon Whitehead

Throughout early summer, I was unable to pass my office wall chart without my eye being drawn to the big red circle marked ‘Day 65’ – Tawny, my lurcher’s due date. Normally I spend the summer months distracted at country shows but as you are all aware 2020 isn’t a normal year. Tawny was due to whelp at Easter and was looking fed up and uncomfortable. Not fat as such, just easier to see as she stood in the entrance to her kennel. The antithesis of her usual svelte waistline.

Afforded the time to maximise her health during pregnancy, she had plenty of quality food and a purpose-built kennel in an old stable, and a whelping box fitted with the best vet bed, her chandelier being a heat lamp. While I sat, looking at Tawny I found myself reciting Juliana Berners poem from 1486, “A head like a Snake, And necked like a Drake, Footed like a Cat, Tailed liked a Rat, Sided like a Team, Chined like a Beam.” Although originally written about a greyhound, in my opinion it fits the bill for the right conformation of a lurcher.

I was on tenterhooks, just like an expectant father. All I wanted was for nature to take its course and to have Tawny whelp. Mentally I thought I was prepared for everything, but Tawny is Tawny. Life would not be the same if she did not chuck me a curveball from time to time.