Paul and I were born in the island of Guernsey, and have lived here all our lives. As a home for wolfhounds, we used to think that the island's lack of wide open spaces was a drawback (they're almost non-existent as we're only 25 miles (40km) square, with a population of some 65,000). We dreamed of being able to load the dogs up into the car, drive off into the great blue yonder, and set out on a long, cross-country tramps, our hounds running free at our sides.
Then we began to take the dogs with us on holidays in the UK, staying at rented cottages, and soon learnt that in many ways Guernsey is wolfhound paradise - or at least, wolfhound-owners' paradise - as what the island lacks in wide open spaces it also lacks in wildlife. The dearth of any 'chasable' wildlife, apart from rabbits (widely regarded as a pest and permanently in the throes of myxomatosis epidemics) and the occasional pheasant, added to the fact that the few sheep on the island are in known locations, mean that wolfhounds, even incorrigible hunters like McKenna, can be walked off-lead in relative safety along our 15 miles of superb south coast cliff-paths and, of course, on many of the beaches.
We're now lucky enough to own a second home in the UK, in the Somerset village of Laverton, and we and the hounds usually spend 2-3 months a year there. The dogs move smoothly and happily between their two bases and adapt well to the change in lifestyle, enjoying the greater variety of walks there and the chance to meet up with their many wolfhounds friends - and of course, their human carers.
McKenna enjoys a jaunt on Guernsey's cliffs
McKenna and Rafferty out and about in the UK with friends, Finley and Seamus Cook.
Photo courtesy Chris Cook
