TILDA | Richmond Studio Photoshoot for a famous Galga

The moment the beautiful Tilda walked into my Richmond studio I knew I was in for a treat:  beautiful, charming, friendly, very well-trained and attentive, she was going to be the perfect subject.

But I didn’t know the half of it.  As her owners started to chat and shared with me Tilda’s extraordinary story, I began to realise I was in the presence of the most heroic creature I have ever photographed.  Like many galgos or Spanish greyhounds, Tilda – or Vera as she was then – was a stray, probably abandoned by her previous hunting owners when she was no longer of use to them.  She was found wandering the marketplace of a little town in southern Spain in search of food, struggling with a severely broken leg.  Her kind rescuer took her to the vets where her broken leg was treated and placed in a cast.

But the vet also realised she was lactating and had likely given birth very recently.  So the search was on for the pups and their mother was the only one who knew where they were. With her rescuers, Tilda was taken back to the place where she had been found, and on a long lead she promptly led them nearly two miles to an abandoned car, and in the back were ten fat healthy pups.

I broke my toe last week.  It is just a little break and all strapped up now, but it is as much as I can do to walk our dogs the length of our local dog park.  I am overcome with respect and emotion for this dear little dog who walked determinedly for two miles through streets, over rough ground and across fields, sometimes limping, sometimes dragging her cast, to bring her offspring to safety.