The first pictures and videos of Barley, in May 2025, caught my eye straight away. A goofy-looking orange and white Pointer, with a kink in his tail, from a break prior to coming into rescue. Advertised as about two years old.
‘As one of the adoption coordinators for Pointers In Need. I see lots of lovely dogs. But, somehow, he seemed special. Having lost our UK bred pointer Archie at 16 years of age, in December 2024, we were still just not quite in the right space to welcome another dog.
‘However, I suspect Archie had a hand/paw in the future. The videos and pictures of Barley kept on coming. He was in a rescue in Northern Greece – in the Rescue he had a doggy friend who he played with endlessly,
‘His little pal had a cart as he couldn’t use his hind legs. And they ran and ran. up and down, all day. Photos of him with the rescuer’s children, photos of him taken out to the local taverna – all tugged at my heart strings.
At the end of May we had an enquiry for him. I asked the team could I take the enquiry, as Barley was special to me. Very nice chap was interested, but decided a pointer wasn’t quite right with his working commitments. I was sad for Barley, but a little bit relieved he was still available. A little coercion, (and a few pints on) hubby agreed he was a special-looking little (big) chap and yes I could contact Claire, a friend and CEO of Pointers in Need, to say we’d like to offer him a home.
‘Whoop, whoop! Fast forward, we missed the summer transport and we had a holiday booked so my lovely boy didn’t travel till September.
‘So on a very cold dark wet night in a car park in Stockport, he arrived. He’d had first a journey from Northern Greece to the Athens area, where he had 2 days with a lovely foster lady. Then his journey with Taxipet (the courier firm) began. In the luxury of a climate controlled Happy Bus, with mood lighting and classical music! We had pictures along the way, the communicationfrom Taxipet throughout the journey was excellent. So off to Stockport we headed. Taxipet pulled up in the Happy Bus and out clambered this big orange and white Pointer. with his little crooked tail wagging frantically back and forth.
‘Barley greeted us on his hind legs, giving both myself and Mark a big hug! Little did I know this would become one of his trademark moves! Into the car. secured with his harness and seatbelt. and me beside him – sniffing Mark’s head, and taking in his surroundings. But part way through the 90 minute drive he curled up put his head in my lap and fell asleep: besotted doesn’t begin to describe my feelings for this boy.
‘Once at home it was time to introduce Barley to our other dogs. Louie Springer aged 11 at the time and Artemis (Arta), Pointer, orange and white, age 10, and also from Pointers in Need in 2020. It was a brief introduction in the garden, as by this time it was 1.00 am and pouring down with rain.
‘First impressions good: my two were used to other dogs visiting our home. Time to settle down. We decided to pop Barley in our very large dog crate with nice fleecy blankets, I decided to sleep in the lounge next to his crate and while he whimpered a bit he was soon fast asleep. The first few days were allowing the dogs to get used to each other. Barley loved Arta from the outset. She turned into a 10 year old puppy. We followed all the Pointers In Need guidelines, after all as an adoption coordinator I couldn’t get it wrong!
‘However, leave hubby in charge. who decided Barley didn’t need to be on the long line lead in the garden. Left him out in the garden to answer his phone, oh! Where’s Barley? He’s found a weak spot behind the shed, climbed through the fence and hedge and is on the other side of our secure garden! Fortunately he was only a couple of metres away having a very big wee on a tree and came happily back to Mark wagging that crooked tail! Needless to say we have been more cautious since then!The escape route has been secured.
‘Barley has now been with us for over 6 months and, boy, does he keep us on our toes. He likes his early mornings!! MMMM! Which got earlier when the clocks went back at the end of October, we figured he was on Greek time 2 hours ahead. Who knew how much you could achieve by getting up so early! In the first month, bearing in mind his English was limited he soon learned NO and OFF, his favourite pastime being a scoot along the kitchen work surface.
‘We had soon learnt everything is within reach of Barley. Greetings in the morning are the Barley hug, then he presents his favourite tugging toy for inspection and playtime. Mealtimes are particularly exciting for him, we have a routine, “Louie first, Arta next then ………. Barley, calm down, sit, wait, food!”
‘We have found routine is good for Barley, he is very boisterous, very excitable and the zoomies are quite something. Walkies are an adventure he is keen to embrace with the exuberance of a puppy. We have found a figure 8 lead is the best way for walking but even 6 months on this is work in progress. His joy at life is ever present. A bird, a rabbit or even a leaf are all reasons to be joyful.
‘Living in the Yorkshire Dales. we have been working hard on keeping him as calm a possible around major distractions. We have so far only had him off lead in a secure field, we started off with the long line attached now he has free running, recall is very hit and miss so no chance of letting him off lead anywhere else for now.
‘He has bonded firmly with Arta and they play loads. Louie tolerates them playing. It does look a bit rough but they both enjoy it and when she’s had enough she lets him know.
‘He is a big shadow dog, move rooms he follows, if he can’t follow he looks through the glass of the lounge door. He is happiest with company but does settle well if left at home when needed. He remains in his crate as we have yet to overcome his urge to chew the sofa corners Scatter cushions are a thing of the past for now. We have 2 granddaughters, the eldest only being 6. She absolutely adores Barley and he responds as a gentle giant goof ball. We closely supervise play with the children to ensure it is a positive interaction for Barley and the girls. It would be fair to say we got a puppy in an adult size body. which has its moments. He’s an underwear thief, a cushion chewer, a toy destroyer, dishwasher prewash, greek sun worshipper, naughty bum nipper, big hugger and still attempts some counter surfing if given the opportunity.
‘However, come evening time he’s a lapdog, albeit a bit of a big lapdog. He has so many of the characteristics we loved about Archie and his predecessor Max, we believe this bundle of love and naughtiness was specially selected for us. While typing this he has emptied all the blankets from his bed and decided to relocate/chew them so that’ll be me signing off as I’m obviously not giving him my full attention.’
Adopter Michelle Hunter
