Sugar, Spice & One Perfect Greyhound: How Wizzy Found His Forever Family

What began as a simple visit to a pop-up stall soon turned into a life-changing journey. With an open mind, a lot of heart, and support from the Home Run Hounds team, the family discovered their perfect match in the most unexpected way. This is Wizzy’s story - a tale filled with sweetness, second chances, and serendipity. Hear from owner Jen and Family below:

Meeting Wizzy: Love at First Plod

"Running a dog treat business I do pop up stalls at events and in May this year my 6 year old, Freddy came along with me to the Home Run Hounds Broadmarsh Open Day.

Something magical happened the way he clicked with the breed. Every single greyhound he met that day, whether still in kennels or already homed, just warmed to him and vice versa, he told me how calm they make him feel and despite having three other breeds of dog at home it was clear this was a whole other category to just a child liking dogs.  Fast forward a few months and following a discussion with Home Run Hounds our initial thought was temporary foster/weekend foster but we soon decided this would be too tough emotionally and decided foster to adopt would be the best for us and our existing dogs.

We had an open mind but only one stipulation, it needed to be a girl, our existing pack is all girls and my husband Neil was not a fan of male dogs.

So we set our sights on a girl at Broadmarsh, but when meeting for some 1 on 1 time the connection just wasn't right, she was a lovely girl but just too distracted and lively for Freddy and our girls. The volunteers connected with each other to discuss our circumstances and we were directed to Watford Gap to meet 3 other girls who had been picked out as being potentially suitable.

This time we went along with 2 of our existing girls, Lani the Vizsla (the most dominant one of our pack) and Tilly the Poodle (the tiny one at risk of being seen as a rabbit). Girl 1, instant no, her ears pricked up the instant she saw Tilly and thought it was race time! Girl 2, another instant no, very hyper bouncing everywhere like a kangaroo, we have that already with Lani and needed someone much calmer. Girl 3, the most potential, calmer, very sweet but still just a little too interested in Tilly and not a great reaction between her and Lani.

At this point our volunteer suggested we meet a boy, to see the behaviour difference if nothing else, Neil agreed and a few moments later she came back with a boy she had chosen as being ideal for us, our Wizzy....he plodded in to the paddock as calm as can be, no reaction to the girls and when greeting him they both seemed to instantly like him. Freddy took an instant shine to him but was worried that "dad doesn't like boy dogs", then Neil asked to take him for a walk around the paddock, he chatted away to him, and as we left he rubbed his head and told him we'd be seeing him again soon! We got back in the car, all looked at each other and instantly agreed Wizzy is the one!

A Happy Foster Fail

With having three existing dogs we agreed on an extended foster period and collected Wizz the following Saturday, it was a tough first week for him being bonfire night but he settled amazingly and was curled up asleep within an hour of being home. Every time he got scared he would come to me for cuddles, he began to play with the girls, settled into our routine, showed us how extremely lazy an ex athlete can really be and within only a couple of days it was abundantly clear, he was HOME!    We ended up halving the foster period as we fell so madly in love with this boy that we couldn't wait to make him official and signing the paperwork today was a very special moment.  We will be forever grateful for the incredible support we received from start to finish and will continue to receive in the future. If left to us, we never would have met Wizzy and our family would not be this complete. 

I would urge anyone looking at adopting to have the most open of open minds, we only restricted ourselves on gender and even that we were wrong but had we have been more restrictive yes we probably would have chosen a blue or fawn and it would have been for all the wrong reasons, we allowed the dog to be matched to us and this gorgeous black boy is 100% our perfect match!"

Find Your Perfect Match Today

Wizzy’s journey shows just how transformative adoption can be - not only for the greyhound, but for the entire family. Sometimes the perfect dog isn’t the one you expected, but the one who finds you.

If this heartwarming story has inspired you, why not take the next step yourself? 👉 Visit our adoption platform today and meet the greyhound waiting to become part of your story. Submit your own Happily Homed story by emailing [email protected]