10 years ago after the death of my 16 year old labrador my sister bought me a whipet X female puppy. I had never been very struck on the idea of whipets, greyhounds etc as they had always seemed a bit highly strung but my Sam as I decided to call her was just fabulous.

She was very gentle, always wanted and gave lots of love and was a really great friend. When I met my husband she took to him without any problems, in fact she seemed to adore him. My husband is a runner and the favourite part of her day was their daily runs together and he loved having her company.

When I became pregnant when she was 8 we worried that as she had always been the baby she might get upset, she didnt. She seemed to know well before our daughter arrived and from the day that we brought her home they became great friends, of course they were never left alone together.

She was a very wise dog and always seemed to know when something was troubling me or us and would be there for us. She was very calm except when the doorbell rang, the postman delivered etc and she was a great guard dog.

As you can probably guess by the "was" we have very recently had to have her put to sleep after a very very short illness and we are still in shock. This has been one of the worst times of my life because I, my husband and my daughter have lost a very great friend.

However I would very much recommend a whippet X to anyone considering a dog. They make very faithful friends, are kind, gentle, not very big and just lovely.