lurcher

I had only just learned this word when it went springing by in sleek, dun form, waving a slightly feathery tail behind it. Lurchers are gazehound crosses, part greyhound, whippet, or saluki and part something else. It is said that they do not lurch per se, but as supreme poaching dogs get their name from a Romany word for a thief, lur. I am skeptical, though it is a fine romantic notion.

This one was like a deer, göfugt dýr, long head and shining red-gold tawniness.

Where had she come from? In my mind's eye I see her on the other side of town clearing the fence at the dog park like a stag and making it up the hill in under a minute. I couldn't see anyone about who seemed attached to her in that invisible way people are to their dogs even when the dogs are not on leads. She didn't look over her shoulder at anyone to check where she should be headed. She seemed bent on business of her own further up the hill. Could she be a stray, a nomad, a gypsy dog? Did I see a collar, or did I imagine it? I cannot remember.