Canteen race dog, Jackpot Jackie, went to her new home in the Waikato in February this year. Her owner, Karyn Gardner is clearly smitten as she's since been joined by Kylie (Pint Star) from the Craik kennels. Jackie was trained by Gary Cleeve and her winnings went to support CanTeen New Zealand, an organisation supporting young people living with cancer. Karyn sent us this update on her hounds.
"Jackie came to join us back in early March. She added to our family of two adults, two teenagers, two budgies and finally two cats. Jackie was immediately put in her place by our elderly cat who was taking no nonsense from this new intruder.
After a small number of altercations between the cats and Jackie, peace reigned again. And Jackie settled down into pet life like she was born to it. We did have a number of interesting escape attempts though, as we dealt with her insatiably curious nature.
Escape number one saw her visit the local diary (across the road), to saunter through the shop looking for what she wanted us to buy! Escape number two was one work morning when she took off out the gate just as we were taking the car out. She eventually wandered home in her own good time (after much unsuccessful searching). Escape number three happened on recycling day, when she once again spied the gate momentarily open and took off. She sprinted around possibly two blocks and was back again within minutes. She looked incredibly pleased with herself and then rather perplexed with my less than happy response!
Jackie gave us unconditional love and trust right from the start, but it started bothering me that with the demise of our old cat, and the younger one not wanting anything to do with Jackie, she was getting lonely. The hunt started for a companion for her, and with help from GAP we found a beautiful girl named Kylie (Pint Star).
We decided to call Kylie 'Honey' due to her sweet nature (natural face washing ability included), and her red fawn colouring. For the first couple of days, Jackie was less than impressed with Honey's arrival, but quickly took to resting her head on Honey's back whenever the opportunity arose.
Jackie has taught Honey how to take food nicely from the hand, and Honey has taught Jackie how to sit elegantly. Although it seems that Jackie has taken a slight dominance (sleeping on teenager's bed with Honey relegated to the floor) they are for the most part, the best of mates and regularly swap around bed mats, toys and bones.€