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She was my first Irish Wolfhound. Until then I had only seen them on
pictures, just once I saw one in “person”, a male.
His head was about the height of my chest and when I talked to him,
he came up to me and was very keen being cuddled a bit. This, for me was a key
event, from then on I knew, I’ll have an Irish Wolfhound one day.
The moment came about 2 month after I stopped working.
The household not being my favourite pastime, my husband at work during the day,
I caught myself in chatting at the local shop, with the neighbor and so on just
from boredom and loneliness. Something had to be done. I definitely needed
company. As I had grown up with dogs, we always had one at home, I knew what I
wanted.
On Dec. 21st 1985 I looked into
the local newspaper just by chance,
and just by chance I saw the tiny add above.
I remembered that time, when I had seen the male, and
so immediately called the telephone number
mentioned.
The young man on the phone told me that Cleena was a
“divorce orphan” and that he had taken her in until a place was found for her.
He said to come and see her, but not to expect to take her the same evening, as
he wanted to make sure first that she would get a good
home.
So we went there, he had some other dogs as well, but
Cleena came to us immediately and wouldn’t leave us alone, as if to say,
“couldn’t I come with you?”.
Of course we took her home the same evening, she jumped
into our car as if it had been hers all the time and at home she ate a meal and
showed us in no uncertain way, where she wanted her
bed.
She was an absolute pragmatic and took everything as it
came. She didn’t know the word afraid and sneaked into our hearts real fast. She
teached us the Irish Wolfhound ways and made it clear for the future, that any
future dogs could only be Irish Wolfhounds. I entered her twice at a show, but
she never got a better qualification than a Very Good.
Looking back I know now that her head was not correct
but had a nice expression, her eyes were to light, her hair was a bit to soft
and her angulations could have been better. But at that time I didn’t know much
about the Standard and for me she was the best and the prettiest anyway.
Unfortunately she left us at almost 7 years because of a bladder
cancer. | 
