Below is my son’s school holiday homework and I thought you might like to read it. Robbie is 8 years old and was set the task of writing about one day that was special to him during the summer holidays. He chose the day we adopted our 4th greyhound.

This is what Robbie wrote:

 
30th August 2006
My Special Day

My special day was when I went to pick up my new dog now called TJ on the 12th August.

Introduction

On Friday the 11th August we went to Hersham to look at a dog that my mum saw about a month before at a retired greyhound show. Mum finally managed to convince Dad to at least go and have a look at him and meet him. Dad didn’t really want another dog, because we have three big greyhounds already.

Anyway we set off in the car, it was a bit crowded because we had 3 dogs, me, Mum and Dad in the car already. That meant I was being a bit squished because Dottie was dribbling on me and her paws were on my lap.

When we got to where TJ was living, which was the same place that we got our first greyhound Billy from, we waited for someone to help us. A lady soon did and TJ was brought out to meet us. We took TJ out for a little walk with our 3 dogs and when we got back mum and I really wanted to take him home. Dad surprised us both by agreeing and we told the lady that we would like to reserve him so we could collect him the next day.

The Big Day

I woke up quite early because I was getting excited about getting our new dog. I kept saying “Are we going now?” because I was getting a bit too excited. We couldn’t collect TJ until 10 O’clock when the kennels opened.

Finally we set off to the kennels. This time we took two cars so that we could all fit in on the journey back with TJ too. I didn’t want to go in Dad’s car because it makes me feel queasy, so I went with Mum in her “dog wagon”. We call it that because it’s always full of dog hair and mud.

Dad set off first so that mum could follow him because Mum isn’t very good at finding places that she doesn’t know the way to. We arrived at the kennels a bit too early and stood outside for a little while waiting for them to open.

We went in with our dogs to collect TJ, it was a bit noisy there with lots of barking dogs who were having their breakfast.

We talked to the kennel manager and then mum went off to fill in the adoption form and pay the money. When that was done Denise, the manager offered to cut all the dogs’ nails for us. We said “yes please” because Mum doesn’t like doing Billy’s nails particularly, because his nails are black and she can’t see where to cut. Mum also bought a new coat and a muzzle for TJ.

Eventually we all got back into our cars and set off home. We got back safely and brought all the dogs into the house to let TJ find his way around. At first all the dogs were muzzled just in case there was going to be any trouble with them getting along. There were not any problems so soon mum took the muzzles off.

TJ is a very big, black greyhound, he’s four years old and is a retired racing dog. Mum said he has run 33 races, but he only won 4 of them so we don’t think he was very good at it. He is very gentle with me and people in general. Mum kept reminding me to “stop fussing TJ so much and give the other dogs some attention too”. She said that giving TJ all the attention might cause some jealousy and problems among the dogs.

At the end of the day I was quite tired and I didn’t think I would be able to sleep because we all thought that TJ would bark all night like Dottie and Jazzy did when they were first adopted. Luckily I did sleep well and TJ was quiet. So the next day I was all ready for some more fun with our four dogs.
 

Here is a photo of TJ seeing how far his tongue can reach

and here is another one of all four of the dogs having their dinner.