DOB: 21 April 1975

With NUMA from 1985 to 1990

Sire: Swiss Royal Golden Guinea

Dam: Eagles Cream Chiffon

In her time with us, Chanelle was shown twice and placed twice.

David lost his beloved Blue (Kamiren Ambroisine) in a tragic accident.  For a long time, he had the occasional cat for company and led a bit of a nomadic life.  When we got together as a couple, we were living in a one bed  apartment, albeit on the ground floor with a garden.  An elderly cat sauntered in one day, and stayed.  It seemed that a puppy was out of the question.

One day, however, Shirley Carr phoned to say that Chanelle had come into Afghan Hound Rescue for the second time, that she had her transfer papers and was now ten years old.  Did we want to offer her a home?  We went to look!

When we first saw Chanelle she was painfully thin, but good-natured and she greeted David like an old friend.  Her coat was like crude lace-work, but she seemed happy.  Home she came to the apartment.  She settled in very easily and made friends with the cat - they were known to sleep together, and the cat often followed David and Chanelle on walks, from a discrete distance!

Although 10 years old, Chanelle still had a sense of mischief and a sense of humour.  David clipped her coat and gave her a bath, no trouble at all, and she seemed to relish the attention.  Just one big, big problem - she would not eat.  She would only take a few scraps of food from our own plates.  Brian was tearing his hair out - borrowing books from the library on canine diet - and we were doing all that we could think of to encourage her to eat.  Then she discovered fish fingers in breadcrumbs!  This was the first thing she ate with any relish.  She ate a further twenty!  It wasn't very long before she began eating normally, with a few supplementary scraps from our plates.

Chanelle soon put on body and her coat began to grow.  She looked forward to her four walks or more each day, often with the cat following behind.  She made various doggy friends on her walks and was particularly friendly with a  giant Schnauzer.  There were only two dogs she hated in the area, a very crazy Red Setter and a noisy black poodle.  She took a dislike to most black dogs - something to do with her past, no doubt.  She accepted the various cats that our cat brought home to tea.

We eventually moved to our current house, which we set about making escape-proof.  One day, soon after we moved in, Chanelle made a bid to go for a walk alone.  David caught up with her a few yards up the main road - buses, cars - nightmare!  David just called her name and back she trotted, keeping to the path, and into the garden.  She gave David one of her looks (she was good at those!), as if to say "What's all the fuss about?" - and went to sleep on the sofa.  She had a lot of "looks".  Brian will never forget the look she shot him when he was walking her one day when he was in a grumpy mood - the look said "Well, why did you bring me out then?"

Eventually her age caught up with her and the Vet had to be called to release her from her earthly body.  A very sad day.  She was a grande lady who gave us five wonderful years.  Coincidentally, the day she died was the day that Misha (Wishful Misha At Numa) was conceived.

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