{"id":500,"date":"2013-10-11T13:40:30","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T17:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/blog\/?p=500"},"modified":"2013-10-11T13:40:30","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T17:40:30","slug":"have-you-hugged-a-lurcher-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/have-you-hugged-a-lurcher-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Have You Hugged a Lurcher Today?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mia\"<\/a>
Mia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last week the Ohio Lurcher Project <\/a>asked us if we could take two senior Sighthounds. Lurchers are facing tough conditions in the Midwest and the local Greyhound community has started to take notice. They told us the dogs were 11 and 12 years old -- and the 11 year old had just had puppies four months ago -- and their owner had cancer and couldn't care for them anymore.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Really? Geez, guys. You had us at seniors.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So what is a Lurcher? We think of them as wild roses, next to the hothouse flowers that are retired racing Greyhounds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Generally speaking, Lurchers are a Sighthound cross, usually bred to combine the speed of a greyhound or other Sighthound with the stamina and durability of a working or hunting dog. In the Midwest, Lurchers are often retired racing Greyhounds crossed with large scent hounds like Coonhounds; overseas Greyhounds are often crossed with Collies. Sometimes the cross is Sighthound to Sighthound, such as a Greyhound to a Saluki. The unregistered pups of retired racing Greyhounds are usually lumped into this category, too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Whatever their specific genetic makeup, Lurchers are immediately identifiable as Sighthounds. They tend to run slightly smaller than the average Greyhound and have a variety of coat types and many colors, and while temperament can differ based on the cross, Lurchers usually have dominant Sighthound attributes. In other words, they're awesome dogs!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lurchers fall squarely in the SHUG mission statement, and so we said yes. Also, we have a thing for seniors. A dedicated group of volunteers from the Ohio Lurcher Project gave up their Sunday to move these two seniors and one more handsome boy from Ohio to West Virginia, where they were met by SHUG volunteers who continued the trek east to Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now all three are completely vetted and ready to be adopted. For your viewing pleasure, we<\/p>\n

\"Jack\"<\/a>
Jack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

present Jack, Mia, and Dudley . . .<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jack is 12 and thinks he's 2. He's an active guy who's a little too interested in cats, but gets along with dogs, kids, and everyone else.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mia is 11 and yes, she recently had puppies. A happily uneventful visit to the vet and her puppy days are (finally!) behind her. She's cat, dog, and kid safe and is in great shape for her age.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Dudley\"<\/a>
Dudley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dudley is only 3, but we won't hold it against him. He's cat, dog, and kid safe--although he may squish you when trying to climb into your lap. He's a super sweet boy and ridiculously cute, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week the Ohio Lurcher Project asked us if we could take two senior Sighthounds. Lurchers are facing tough conditions in the Midwest and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[63,75,53],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-sighthound","tag-greyhound","tag-lurcher","tag-sighthound"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p52ryM-84","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}