Sighthounds at Home
One of the most surprising comments about Siru's original pages came from an Australian dog enthusiast. She said that Siru seemed so very active and wanted to know if a Silken would be bored living with other dogs, such as her Border Collie.
It is true that Silkens often run extremely excitedly when set loose outside and that those spectacular pictures of dogs dashing at high speed are in the majority on the web pages. But at home a Silken is a couch potato par excellence and in the interest of full disclosure we just had to present you with a page where not one of the dogs is on her feet...
Sighthounds tend to accumulate on couches. Here Ali and Siru engage in some serious nap-taking during a visit to Salla's parents. A couch or an armchair is an excellent place because of the comfort and visibility, of course one would have to keep one's eyes open in order to benefit from the latter. Also, any human having fantasies of sitting down between Ali and Siru is bound to pay some welcome attention to the dogs. Silkens sleep for most of the day, charging their batteries for the walks.
Hippu sleeps in a pool of sunlight while Wilbur has found a cool, safe place beneath a radiator turned off. The overall feeling in a house of sighthounds is often one of great tranquility. These dogs make very little in the way of noise, one couple we know have fourteen Borzoi yet there is hardly a sound from them while we're there. If you own a sighthound or three there is nothing to prevent you from having hobbies at home which require concentration... unless of course you also own cats such as ours...
Vilpertti (Wilbur) the Cat, the uncontested head of our animal household. At some 7.5 kilograms (16.5 lbs), he has the necessary weight of authority to lead our combined pride/pack. Wilbur is not exactly a giant of intellect but he more than makes up for it with his jovial nature, being one of the nicest cats you are likely to meet - he loves cats, dogs and people. He is especially fond of guests, whether they are human or canine.
Wilbur is however infamous for his Love Attacks. His hapless victim will be painting, fixing static-sensitive electronic equipment, operating the sewing machine or simply trying to get some important work done when Wilbur walks by. Realizing that the victim is one of his favorite people, Wilbur jumps up onto the table and proceeds to prance back and forth on it, rubbing his face on the victim's while purring like a sizable American motorcycle and shedding copious amounts of cat hair over all horizontal surfaces. At times he may also attempt to show his affection by administering a sweet little bite on the victim's cheek or nose (sweet and little only if you are a huge, overweight, fur-covered cat - otherwise very painful).
The victim will typically make several abortive attempts to get rid of the purring nuisance - ejecting the cat out of the room, trying to distract him with toy mice, etc. Delighted that someone is paying this much attention to him, Wilbur will be back in no time, purring ever louder and wanting still more hugs and petting. Eventually the victim suffers a breakdown, puts away whatever still remains of what he or she was working on, and starts petting the cat in earnest.
Silkens seem prepared to go to great lengths in order to be near you, and we mean very near you. If you lie down on the couch just for a moment it is likely you will soon discover you have company. Siru prefers to curl up between your legs, sometimes placing her head onto your leg or knee. Ali likes to stretch out and see how much of her body can touch yours at any given moment. Riinu climbs on top of you and expects to be given your full attention...
When Riinu arrived in October 2002 Eero slept downstairs on the couch the first month or so in order to keep an eye on what the puppy was up to. This photo, which shows a representative accumulation of pets on the couch, was taken late one night...
Siru seems to have arrived fairly early and secured a place right next to Eero. It will eventually be too warm for her here so she will get up and walk over to one of the armchairs or the dogs' mattress and continue sleeping there, perhaps to return to the couch in the morning. Salla has covered Hippu with a blanket so she seems very content for now but Hippu changes places a few times every night. Riinu has passed out leaning against Eero's leg, she will likely remain on the couch for the duration of the night as she does not mind even excessive warmth. It will probably be impossible to get rid of Rose the cat no matter what Eero tries.
Riinu chews upon a soft bone in October 2002. At this point she was eight months old. Young Silkens especially need to have plenty of things they are allowed to chew or else minor disasters may result. While Siru has been rather restrained in her chewing of things, Riinu has been much more active, destroying several books and magazines and even eating (yes, we do mean eating) half a video cassette and chewing Eero's mobile phone to bits. We've found that even though she is now one year old we still need to leave her with new bones every working day, just to be on the safe side. Even then, occasional damage to our property does happen. We're hoping that eventually Riinu will outgrow these antics and turn into a respectable canine citizen, instead of the unruly though lovable little runt she is now.
The bone in this picture is a manufactured one but we've found that our Silkens prefer large cow bones and knee joints, the more disgusting-looking the better. They smell awful, which to a Silken translates as excellent, and pose interesting challenges to canine problem-solving methods, keeping the dogs busy for hours on end. Our dogs are unable to crush cow bones with their teeth but love gnawing at them.
In addition to numerous bones Riinu has a number of toys to play with. Her little horse can be seen in this picture and she also has a bunny rabbit, a dachshund and another little dog, as well as a toy bone. The ball on the right is a so-called activation ball, which is a fancy way of saying that you can put dog food pellets inside it and the dog will then push it around the room in order to have the food drop out of the holes. That is a game that Siru likes.
Silkens are fascinated by shoes. When we leave home Riinu and Siru will typically carry one or more to the living room and then lie down to sleep next to them. Ali was even more active in this, sometimes carting up to four pieces of leather footwear into the living room while we were away. Interestingly enough, our three Silkens have never caused any damage to our shoes. Dogs live in a world of smells which we will never know - perhaps our smell, so very strong in our shoes, is comforting to the dogs, making our absence easier to bear. Sometimes Riinu will nap among our shoes in the hall as in the picture above, taken in February 2002. It must feel like a safe place.
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