Rescue whippets · Shoot the Dog, Volume Four, page 27
Delilah Jones and Matchbox20, two second-chance whippets and their boxer mates
Whippets are built for speed and then, the saying goes, spend most of the day asleep on the warmest thing in the house. Delilah Jones and Matchbox20 did not get that memo.
Their page in Shoot the Dog, Volume Four starts with how they arrived:
Both 'second chance' dogs, Matchbox and Delilah didn't have success in their first homes.
The second chance took. "Not your typical couch-potato whippets," their family write, they are "highly energetic, enjoying farm living and going on 10km walks each day." Nobody sleeps in. Both dogs are up at first light, keen for the morning walk and the bunnies along it.
Sprinter and stayer
Both are members of the Whippet Racing Club of Victoria, and both love chasing the lure around the greyhound track, each in their own way:
Delilah is very successful in sprints, whereas Matchbox is more of a stayer.
Matchbox also has a signature start. Now and then Matchbox comes out of the starting box bum first, the page admits, "although managing to complete the race in good time". The portrait above was taken on the beach, and you can see the racing in it: ears up, legs everywhere, sand flying.
A note, and two boxers
Todd wrote to us after the session:
We had Simon photograph our dogs (2 rescue whippets) for his annual "Shoot the Dog" Coffee Table Book. Not only was he hardworking, professional and very friendly, his photos were incredible!
We purchased several framed photos from him, and are going back to get some more soon.
Our favourite line is tucked in near the end:
We put two of our mates onto him with two big boofy boxers and the owners were over the moon.
Turn one page in Volume Four and there they are. Stella and Mike, the boxers, are on page 28. Mike's page runs through his favourite things, from sucking on the cat to collecting empty toilet rolls, and then the things he loves most, among them "play-dates with his best friends Matchbox and Delilah".
For readers outside Australia: boofy is a fond Australian word for big, solid and a bit goofy, and there is no better description of a boxer.
Rescue at the heart of it
Every family photographed for Shoot the Dog paid a $100 participation fee, and all of it went directly to an animal rescue group. Where the $100 went tells that story, and names the five rescues.