OUR MISSION
Emerald Hounds Abound began with real dogs and real lives.
Shamrock, Clover and Hooligan were not invented for a series. They are Irish Wolfhounds who became part of our family, each leaving their own mark on what EHA would become. What began simply as a way to preserve the moments that mattered grew into something larger: a desire to share the joy, laughter, connection and meaning these extraordinary hounds brought into our lives.
Our mission is to celebrate the remarkable bond between Irish Wolfhounds and their people, and the unexpected ways that bond can connect us to one another. EHA was built around these extraordinary hounds—their history, their character, their enormous presence, and the place they occupy in the lives of those who love them.
That does not make this a place only for people who share their lives with Wolfhounds. The connections we form with animals cross breeds, species and circumstances, and all of those connections are welcome here. But Irish Wolfhounds are where EHA began. They are its heart.
We believe joy deserves to be noticed, laughter belongs even in difficult places, and meaningful things do not always have to be solemn. We also believe animals have an extraordinary ability to bring people together. They invite curiosity, open conversations, create connections and sometimes reach people in ways we never could on our own.
EHA is built on another simple principle: humor should never require someone else to be diminished. We laugh with, never at. Kindness and laughter can occupy the same space, just as joy and depth can.
Above all, Emerald Hounds Abound exists because three Irish Wolfhounds opened a door we never expected to find. Our mission is to keep that door open—and invite others through it.
There is always room for one more in the Pack.
Come Walk With Us.
At the heart of Emerald Hounds Abound are the hounds themselves—and the extraordinary, funny, messy, joyful and sometimes difficult lives we share with them.
Their stories can take us almost anywhere.
One day might bring an adventure that exists for no greater reason than it was simply too ridiculous not to tell. Another might lead us into questions about courage, kindness, service, family, grief or what it means to remember. Sometimes the hounds stumble straight into history. Sometimes they teach us something without anyone setting out to teach a lesson at all.
That is part of what Come Walk With Us means.
We don't know exactly where every story will take us. We simply invite you to come along.
Laugh with the hounds. Watch them discover the world. Grow with them. Learn with them. Follow them into adventures, ordinary days and extraordinary moments. Meet the people and places they encounter along the way. Sometimes there will be pure chaos. Sometimes there will be wonder. Sometimes the path will lead somewhere none of us expected.
And woven through that journey is something remarkable about the hounds themselves.
Irish Wolfhounds are more than the dogs at the center of our stories. They are living representatives of an ancient breed—hounds whose history reaches back through centuries of human history and legend.
We want to help make that history feel alive.
A child might first encounter an Irish Wolfhound in a story, then walk into a library, school or community event and meet the hounds themselves.
Suddenly, history is no longer something that lives only on a page.
History walks over to greet them.
As readers grow, the hounds grow with them. A child who first meets them through laughter and adventure can one day follow those same familiar hounds into stories that ask bigger questions and explore more complicated parts of life. Relationships change. Understanding deepens. The stories can grow because the hounds—and the people walking beside them—are growing too.
That is the journey we are inviting you to share: not simply a collection of stories, but lives unfolding over time.
There will be laughter and learning, adventures and history, celebrations and difficult days, ridiculous moments and meaningful ones.
There will be life.
Come Walk With Us.
Come Sit With Us.
Pull up a chair. Find a place on a log beside the fire. Settle in and stay awhile.
There are stories to tell here.
Some will make you laugh. Some may teach you something you never knew. Some will introduce you to personalities so big that before long, you may feel as though you know the hounds yourself. Others may remind you of a story you haven't thought about in years.
And not all of those stories will be ours.
Emerald Hounds Abound was never meant to be a place where we simply tell our stories and everyone else listens.
The EHA Pack is the other half of what we are building: a place where people can gather around the same fire and discover one another's animals, memories, experiences and stories.
You may meet the hound who turned someone else's ordinary afternoon into a family legend. The one who made an entire family laugh until they couldn't breathe. The one who drove everyone absolutely crazy and somehow became the dog they couldn't imagine living without. You may hear about adventures and disasters, quiet moments and family stories told so many times that everyone already knows how they end.
You will meet the ones who are still beside them.
You will hear about the ones they still miss.
Because those lives and those memories matter.
The animals who share our lives become part of our families, our histories and, very often, some of the best stories we will ever tell. Their lives may seem ordinary to the rest of the world, but to the people who loved them, they were anything but ordinary.
And something happens when we make room for one another's experiences. Someone else's memory can bring back one of your own. A photograph can make you laugh even though you've never met the animal in it. A question can start a conversation. Something one person learned may help someone else. A story about an animal you never knew can stay with you long after you've heard it.
That is what it means to Come Sit With Us.
We want to laugh together. Learn together. Remember the hounds and other animals who walked before us. Celebrate the ones walking beside us now. Welcome the ones still to come.
Through stories, memories, photographs, conversations, community events and opportunities to meet the hounds themselves, we hope to create something that reaches beyond a page or a screen—a community connected by animals, history, humor, memory and the extraordinary relationships we build with the creatures who share our lives.
So come for the stories.
Stay for the company.
There is always room for another chair beside the fire.
Come Sit With Us.
Come Howl With Us.
Every voice in the Pack has something to add.
And that includes yours.
Maybe it's a story. Maybe it's a memory. Maybe it's a photograph, a question, a thought, or one ridiculous thing your animal did this morning that absolutely cannot be allowed to disappear into history.
Whatever it is, we want to hear it.
Come Howl With Us is an invitation directed specifically to you—to bring your own voice into the Pack and add something that wasn't here before you arrived.
Tell us what made you laugh. Tell us what surprised you. Share something you learned. Introduce us to the animals who share your life. Tell us about the ones who came before them. Ask questions. Share photographs. Swap stories. Celebrate victories. Remember old friends.
You don't need to be a writer.
You don't need a remarkable story.
You don't even need to know exactly what you want to say.
Sometimes a howl may be thoughtful. Sometimes it may be heartfelt. Sometimes it may be a photograph that says everything without many words at all. Sometimes it may be a question you've wondered about for years.
Sometimes it may simply be a few kind words offered to another Pack member who is having a difficult day, grieving a loss, celebrating a victory, or just needing to know that someone out there heard them.
And sometimes it may amount to little more than, You will not BELIEVE what this dog just did.
All of them belong here.
Because a Pack isn't built from one voice.
It is built from many voices answering one another across the distance—sharing stories, laughter, knowledge, photographs, questions and memories; celebrating together when there is something to celebrate, and offering kindness when one of us is going through something difficult.
Your voice doesn't have to sound like anyone else's.
It just has to be yours.
So tell us something.
Show us something.
Ask us something.
Make us laugh. Make us think. Introduce us to someone you love. Help us remember someone you loved.
Whatever your howl sounds like, there is room for it here.
We'll be listening.
Come Howl With Us.
Take Your Place in the Pack.
Every journey is better when others choose to walk beside you.
Emerald Hounds Abound began with our hounds and the stories they gave us, but we never wanted those stories to travel alone. We wanted to share the laughter, the adventures, the discoveries and the moments that stay with us long after the story ends.
You don't need an Irish Wolfhound to belong here.
You don't even need to know much about them yet.
Maybe you came for the stories. Maybe you came because you love animals. Maybe something made you laugh, reminded you of an animal you once loved, taught you something you didn't know, or simply made you want to stay awhile.
That's enough.
Because becoming part of a Pack doesn't happen all at once.
At first, you may simply recognize the hounds when you see them. Before long, you know which one is likely to cause the trouble and which one will somehow get blamed for it. You know their personalities, their ridiculous habits and the things that make each of them who they are. You celebrate their adventures and milestones. You care about what happens next. And when difficult days eventually come, you care about those, too.
Somewhere along the way, they stop feeling like dogs you occasionally read about.
You know them.
And, little by little, we begin to know you, too.
We learn the names of the animals who share your life. We recognize the faces that appear in photographs. We remember the stories you've told before. We celebrate new arrivals and milestones. We laugh when somebody gets into trouble again. We remember with you when an old friend is gone.
The same thing begins to happen between Pack members.
Names become familiar. Stories connect. Someone you have never met in person can make you laugh, teach you something, bring back a memory, or offer a few kind words on a day when you needed them.
That is how a collection of stories becomes something more.
That is how strangers become familiar faces.
That is how a community becomes a Pack.
There is no single way to belong here. You may walk with us and follow the hounds wherever their next adventure leads. You may sit with us and discover the animals, memories and experiences others bring into the circle. You may howl with us and add your own voice. Most, we hope, will do a little of everything.
However you choose to be here, your place doesn't depend on how often you speak, how much you share, what kind of animal you love, or whether an Irish Wolfhound has ever thundered through your house.
If you're here, you're welcome.
If you stay, you're family.
There will always be room for one more.
Take Your Place in the Pack.
Something ancient still walks with us.
Those words began with the Irish Wolfhound itself.
These hounds are part of an ancient history stretching back through centuries of Ireland's history and legend. They are living representatives of that history, carrying something very old into the present. When we walk beside them today, something of that history walks beside us, too.
But over time, those words came to mean something more.
Emerald Hounds Abound is also about continuity: the idea that what came before us does not simply disappear when one generation gives way to another.
The ones who walked before us remain part of the stories that follow.
The hounds grow. Their roles change. The young become the experienced. The ones who once needed guidance eventually become the ones with something to teach. New paws follow old ones, carrying pieces of what came before while creating stories of their own.
That is legacy—not simply preserving the past, but allowing what mattered in it to continue living, growing and becoming part of what comes next.
And that idea reaches far beyond our hounds.
The animals and people who share our lives leave something behind. Love, lessons, memories, traditions, stories—even laughter. We carry those things with us, often passing them forward without even realizing that we are doing it.
So when we say Something ancient still walks with us, we mean the extraordinary history carried by these remarkable hounds.
But we also mean something simpler, and perhaps something much bigger.
What came before us can still walk beside us—and through us, continue forward.