Hounds of Grimaldi

Rudra's connection with the crowned heads of Europe is not just the result of social climbing (sometimes, unpleasantly, called 'brown-nosing') . His great uncle Barnaby was cousin by marriage to the late Prince Reindeer of Monaco, he of the Grimaldi dynasty. The illustration above shows two of the royal hounds; Grimaldi and Caraldo (Maldi and Fitz for short).

The 'blessed' Bognor Regis (see below), the putative patron saint of greyhounds, who briefly met Rudra at Liz Hurley's wedding drew his attention to Francis Thompson's poem 'The Hound of Heaven':

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat -- and a voice beat
More instant than the Feet --
"All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."