A young couple’s trip to the Royal Melbourne Show two years ago has led to two greyhounds finding a loving home in Melbourne’s north.

You may not expect a casual visit to the Royal Melbourne Show to result in owning a greyhound, but the Show is, in fact, GAP’s biggest annual awareness campaign, with thousands of people interacting with pet greyhounds and their owners at the event each year.

Upon visiting the GAP stand at the Show, Mickleham couple Andrew Shaul and Ronelle Kok were pleasantly surprised to find out that their preconceived ideas of greyhounds being high maintenance and active dogs were incorrect.

“We visited the GAP stand and found out that greyhounds are, in fact, calm and placid while also being very affectionate and well behaved dogs, which is not what we thought they were,” says proud new greyhound adopter Andrew.

As time passed the couple researched further into the greyhound breed and they made the decision that a greyhound would be their next pet.

It all came to fruition earlier than expected, however, at GAP’s first ‘Adoption Day’ for 2016, held at The Meadows on February 28.

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“We saw that the Adoption Day was coming up and although we were going to try adopt in March or April we thought we’d attend to take a look, especially as The Meadows is close by,” Andrew said.

The event was deemed a big success with 23 greyhounds being adopted that afternoon, with Andrew and Ronelle adopting not one, but two greyhounds.

“We weren’t planning to adopt that day…it was sort of a spur of the moment decision. There were two greyhounds there that really suited our situation – we have no pets or children. Misty took to me straight away and I took to her. Pendles then made his way up to me and gave me a nice greeting,” Andrew said.

“It was then I turned to Ronelle and said, we’re adopting these greyhounds today! They came home and did this thing we’re told is called ‘zoomies’, which was quite entertaining.”

All greyhound owners know what that means – their two minutes of energy running around the backyard followed by sleeping on their bed for the rest of the day.

“We’re both glad we took the decision to make the next step. They complete our family. They don’t need much from us but they give us so much.”

For those wondering the answer is no, Andrew and Ronelle are not Collingwood supporters, or AFL followers in general for that matter, despite Pendles being named after Magpies’ Captain Scott Pendelbury.

Misty also has a footy connection, as she raced as Hot Carbon for a syndicate led by AFL media personality Craig Hutchison.

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The Greyhound Adoption Program stand at the 2015 Royal Melbourne Show, and top of page, Ronelle and Andrew with Pendles (left) and Misty.