The Trouble with Whippets or rather MY whippets is…

…that they get away with sheer murder.

OK, maybe not quite murder, but they do take the food from my children’s mouths given half a chance.

Take yesterday for example.

In the few brief hours of sunshine afforded we all trotted outside to eat supper al-fresco and so did the dogs milling around us like sharks under a lifeboat - eventually one is likely to drop. And they are waiting for just such a moment.

But nothing showing…

Now whippets are not blessed with big brains. I mean, come off it, have you seen how big their eyes are in comparison to their heads? There isn’t enough room for both optical nerves and brain in there. But what they may not have in IQ they certainly have in sheer effrontery and native cunning.

Tattie - her that has cost me a minor fortune in Vet bills this year after nearly dying on me a couple of months ago - takes it into her noggin to leap upon the table and make a bid for youngest son’s food.

This, of course, causes much hysteria and screams of laughter, then just screams and guess what? She achieves her aim.

And I let her.

In fact I do more than that - I actually photograph her doing it.

Tattie Whippet On The Table Sharking It...

Somewhere along the line our lives have become slightly skewed and the dogs are getting downright spoilt.

Maybe it is because they are whippets; for I can tell you having a Labrador on the table would really have pissed me off. For starters, Labradors tend to be clumsier than whippets especially on tables, they wag their tails and glasses go tumbling, crockery crashing and cutlery clattering. Whippets delicately negotiate their way around such obstacles like cats. And when whippets leap up they do it cleanly without any unnecessary scrabbling and hefting.

And they don’t drool.

I hasten to add I have nothing against Labradors; I’m just stating that I very much doubt that any Labrador owner would ever condone such behaviour from their dog for the reasons stated and the fact that a Labrador is just too intelligent and well-behaved to even consider such appalling conduct in the first place.

But as I have said a whippet doesn’t have much of a brain so I suppose that is why I tend to indulge them and any show of cleverness even if it is purely driven by its instinct for scavenging rather than any premeditated planning of its own.

Not quite sure what my boys think – but it’s good for them to realise that it’s a dog eat dog world out there and that if you don’t get on with your food there is always someone else who’ll snatch it from your plate when you aren’t looking…

Tattie Whippet On The Table Going In For The Kill...

 ... or even when you are!