Update on Po (Natalia Bale)

April 2013 saw my husband Kevin and I visit the Pet Expo in Christchurch. We had recently lost our GSD/Collie X and I was missing having him around so much. I have always been fascinated by Greyhounds and enjoyed meeting them at various events in the UK. At the Pet Expo, to my delight, I found Greyhounds As Pets with plenty of hounds for me to pet. We got talking and was asked if we would consider adopting. At that stage, we weren't ready, so Desiree suggested fostering which really appealed to me - I could have my dog 'fix' but didn't have to find room for another dog in my heart yet! Little did I know.....!

That is how Po came into my life. She was one of a pair that I fostered together, my third and fourth. Po was very stand offish, preferring the crate or her foster sister Dolly to any of us humans. I will admit that I did not take to her straight away and found Dolly so affectionate. After landlord problems, both Dolly and Po went back to the kennel after being with us for 3 months. I missed them! We acted like divorced parents, picking them up for weekend visits, joking that we would be taking them to the Zoo or McDonalds!

Dolly found a home but Po did not. It became harder to take her back to the kennels and on January 2nd 2014 (after family from the UK had gone back), we collected her from the kennels and brought her back with us as a long term foster.

Po and I went to training classes and I set up a Facebook page for her (Po Natalia Bale), hoping that someone would fall in love with her as we live in rented accommodation and just weren't sure what would happen when our lease was up. Kerry the trainer asked how could I give her up?

We moved into another rental on 25th April 2014 and 28th April is our official 'gotcha' date. We decided that nobody would understand our quirky, sometimes grumpy, funny little Po. Since then, she has not spent a night without us. Po is a regular at Riccarton Market and A&P shows in Canterbury. Everyone is always astounded by her super soft coat. Po is also a model - her picture is on the Urbanwolf website, modelling a harness designed for sighthounds. The trainer we went to uses a photo of us to advertise his classes on Grab One and she has also appeared in Fast Friends in an article about lure coursing. We often refer to her as Princess Po! All my Facebook friends are regularly kept entertained by her funny ways. I could not imagine being without her!