First of all, Monkey's doing well and gaining confidence every day. He's also happily heading to his bed at night time thanks to the chicken treat bribery many of you suggested.
Yesterday his paperwork came to us from the Retired Greyhound Trust where we learned that his racing name was Autumn Fusion. John and Judith at Crossing Cottage had already told us he had run 129 races in his career, but now we were able to look him up on greyhound-data where we found out a bit more about his races and his family tree.
Given the way he chose us SO clearly on that visit to Crossing Cottage at the start of this month, perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised to see that he was related to our Winnie on both his mum's side AND his dad's side. Yes, we have another Honcho Hound in the house. See this Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/110335212384824 - for owners of dogs descended from Head Honcho.
What was a surprise was to find that he was ALSO the grandson of the superstar Australian greyhound Brett Lee - who I wrote about on our Lost and Fond website.
Here's Monkey's potted family tree
Of course, we realise that greyhounds at stud have LOTS of puppies so lots and lots of dogs share common ancestry with Brett Lee and Head Honcho - but maybe now that we know there is DOUBLE greyhound Royality in his family tree it explains why he still likes to have his dinner brought to him in the living room.
Perhaps that confused look in his eyes in recent weeks was actually him saying: "Don't you know who I am?"
Today we took Monkey out in the car for the first time since we brought him home. We didn't want to give him too many new experiences all at once. We just took a short drive to a local park that's near a busy road (another test for Monkey). It was also his first time without his muzzle and he had a WONDERFUL time.
The sights and smells made him skip with joy and he didn't seem to mind the traffic noise at all. We also ventured on to the canal towpath to test his reaction to ducks. Not bothered at all. So more car journeys and muzzle-free walks loom large in Monkey's future.
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