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. 21^st 1985 I looked into the local newspaper just by chance, and just by chance I saw the tiny ad >>>

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.

Her favorite place was the leather sofa

Sharing a bone with a friend

She was always successful in getting her way

On the Sea shore