The one who started it all… Zoe

Do you believe in fate? Personally, I have never been too sure… However, one of the closest experiences to this phenomenon that I have ever had was definitely the moment we met sweet, little Zoe – the smallest greyhound I had ever seen, with the most beautiful, beguiling eyes, who visibly shrank away from us when we met her at the kennels. She was tiny, timid and terrified. At this point, we had never fostered a greyhound before; we had only adopted our boy, Niko, six months earlier. But I had an immense feeling that I wanted to do more – I wanted to help more than being a regular greyhound walker. So, the day that we met Zoe, coupled with the oncoming lockdown of March 2020, seemed to flash the word “FATE” in neon-letters within my mind…

When we first offered to take Zoe home and help her assimilate into life outside of the kennels, we had to remind ourselves of what an undertaking this truly was going to be. Firstly, we had never had two greyhounds in our apartment before. Secondly, well, we considered Niko to be a nervous greyhound but, put it this way… he wasn’t a patch on little Zoe. She looked absolutely petrified when she left her kennel and we would almost have to gently pull her out in order to get her going. She was just so frightened of the world and everything in it. I will never forget the fear in her eyes the first time I saw her. As our wonderful kennel manager explained – if we were going to take her on, we needed to give her enormous amounts of time and patience. Honestly, there were concerns that once we got her into our apartment, we wouldn’t ever be able to get her to leave it. But, we were determined. The look in her eyes was etched into my soul – the sort of thing you think about late at night when you can’t sleep.

Once we got her home, we tried our very best not to overwhelm her – very tempting when an adorable new pooch is around! However, I have learnt over our time of fostering that the best thing to do initially is to almost ignore the new dog: the last thing these poor snoots need is overwhelming amounts of fuss and a lack of personal space, particularly when they may be frightened and are exploring a new environment. At first, all she would do was hide nervously in the corner and pant heavily, not taking her big eyes off of us. So, we decided to move the second dog bed into the corner of our living room, so that she had a little safe space to feel comfortable in. For the first week, other than toilet trips and walkies, she would remain in her little corner – always alert and watching us. Even dinner times would be tricky, as I would sound completely ridiculous when I used my squeakiest voice, trying to make DIN DINS sound super exciting in order to coax her out!

By the end of the second week, I was getting worried that perhaps we weren’t the best foster fit for her. Were we helping her? Did we know what we were doing? Were we just completely out of our depth with this whole fostering thing? I remember sobbing to my husband because I had so much love to give her and didn’t understand why she didn’t seem to be improving. How naïve of me… to assume that a scared dog, who has suddenly been plunged into a life completely unknown to her, would lap up all my attention in an instance? That definitely said way more about me than about her. On top of that, poor little Zoe was not even two years old and had a few rather nasty scars on her back. (We could only assume that she was previously considered the “runt” of the litter by other dogs due to her tiny size… Heart-breaking.)

And then… one morning, I awoke to a strange sensation on my face. Something was licking me! I peeled my eyes open, shocked that Niko had suddenly developed this trait (he was certainly not a licker!) when I saw sweet, little Zoe – she had not only suddenly decided to climb on to our bed, but she was licking my face and her tail was wagging! I almost cried with happiness. It seemed something had clicked in her and she realised she was safe, she was loved and she was with her family.

The following weeks were full of joy and new experiences for Zoe. Don’t get me wrong, she was often still incredibly fearful outside of our home, but she began to reveal her cute personality right before our eyes. It turns out she adored cuddles and fuss, she enjoyed the company of Niko and would often follow him around the flat, she was brave enough to meet other doggies at the park, she zoomed around off lead when we took her to an enclosed field and she just blossomed. It felt like she trusted us and so believed that she would be okay. There were still moments of fright with her: for example, one time my husband cheered really loudly when watching the TV, and she absolutely freaked out and hid. The poor poppet was shaking and needed to be soothed. It was baby steps, and that was totally fine.

Eventually, the time came to make a decision. Zoe was ready for her forever home, but would that be with us? Could we give her to another family? This question agonised me for weeks… We had fallen in love with her. What was the right thing to do? In some ways, the easier decision was to keep her with us and this would have made us so very happy. However, in the back of my mind, I knew that we could help other snoots in need of a home. If we took Zoe on full-time, we simply would not have the room to foster again. After a lot of long conversations, we made our decision: we would find Zoe the most beautiful home like she deserved. This was because, ultimately, if we adopted her then we would have found one hound a forever home, but if we continued to foster… well, the number of hounds that we could help was limitless.

Gorgeous Zoe had taught us so much about ourselves and how we could give back to the greyhound community. She came into our lives at a time when the world was incredibly dark and closed off, and she was the bright light that made us smile through it. If a little thing like her could overcome her past and her fears, then she was an inspiration to us all. I believe she was a part of fate – partly because she helped us through the anxious time of the first lockdown, and partly because she opened the door to the awesome world of fostering, and taught us that, yes, we CAN do this!

Just to finish Zoe’s wonderful journey off, and continuing with the theme of fate, we found a perfect home for her. Our kennel manager called us and said a lovely lady who had previously fostered for the kennels had contacted and explained that she was looking to adopt a younger greyhound. We took Zoe round to meet her and the rest is history! We are good friends with her adoptive mumma and she now lives the most happy life, surrounded by love and is completely unrecognisable to the timid creature she once was.

Zoe was the first foster hound that we had ever helped but, boy, did she help us. She started us off on our foster journey and she is the one to thank for seven dogs now finding their forever homes. What a special girl! Sometimes, when fate comes calling, we just have to be brave and listen…

Love and snoot kisses,

Berry x