We finally made our way into Petco and were a little taken aback by the swarm of greyhounds, foster parents, adoption coordinators. We were prepared to meet Angie, Cole, and Oreo and had obsessively looked at their pictures, read their profiles, and talked to the adoption coordinators in the weeks prior. From what we could tell, Angie was going to be our choice. I spoke with her foster mom for at least 15 minutes in the weeks leading up to that day and I figured she would be ours! It was pretty clear when we arrived, however, that either Angie or her foster mom was not keen on that dog going to a home with kids. Cole was beautiful, but he drug his foster mom all over the store, and he was a he. Oreo was friendly and boney with skin spots. We were kind of hoping for a grey that didn't have skin spots showing... It wasn't long before we were all overwhelmed and Isaiah was in tears. Luke and I were asking the kids what they thought about Cole or Oreo and it was too big of a decision for Isaiah. We asked Cole's foster mom what she thought and she told us honestly that we should probably choose Oreo. As we continued to observe her be drug all over the store by that strong puppy, we started to agree with her. Luke and I decided that Oreo was probably the right choice, and upon announcing that to her foster mom, Noelle broke down in tears. From her vantage point, all she could see was ribs and vertebrae. Oreo was not what she had expected either. As we were going forward with paperwork, we had to convince the coordinators that we did, indeed want this dog. "Are you sure your daughter wants this dog??" I had to explain to them that we are actually kind of like greyhounds in some ways - a bit shy and slow to warm up to things, but gentle and loyal, too! Noelle got to choose the collar and leash, and once she had been able to make that decision all on her own, she was on board. So, once the paperwork was nearly finished, Oreo's foster mom wrapped her arms around the dog and she started crying! Yet, we pressed on and I did all I could to reassure the foster mom that this dog would be well loved, including showing her pictures of our yard and the "welcome dog" sign we had ready! She gave us Oreo's favorite toy and a sack of treats and a few portions of dog food. She said that letting go of the "good ones" was especially hard, though I think she'd only had this dog for 2 weeks. Her eyes lit up when she walked with us to the car and saw that we had a nice, soft bed all ready for the dog on the journey home.
On the way home, the dog slept while the kids clamored for her to come get pets. We arrived home, emotionally and physically tired from the 7 hour experience and delighted in introducing "Oreo-Or-Whatever-Your-Name-Will-Be" to her new house and yard. We had made enough decisions that day, so we delayed the naming decision until the next morning. She slept well in our room that night, though she jumped up excitedly several times to come visit us on either side of the bed. The next morning, we dubbed her "Violet", which was no ones first choice, but it was a name we could all be satisfied with.
Life with Violet has been as smooth as a transition to having a 65 pound animal roaming the house can be! She did not bark at all for the first week, but now lets out a little bark when she wants to come in from outside. She has only had 1 accident and 1 vomit (from eating a drier sheet). We have to keep an eye on her as she really likes shoes and stuffed animals, but she's learning to leave them alone. Her favorite toy is her purple squeaky ball, which she happily carries all around the house. She can run and jump with amazing agility, but she doesn't seem to have a strong prey drive. She walks amazingly well on the leash (part of her training for the track), which might be Luke's favorite thing about her. I was worried about "counter surfing" (getting food off the counter), but she's been great! She's recently discovered there are goodies in the trash, but hasn't really messed with it too much.
We'd heard terms like "roaching", "40 mph couch potato" and "velcro dog" before adopting her and everything we heard is true! "Roaching" is when greys lay on their backs with their back legs spread wide and their front legs straight up. It's weird, yet funny and strangely cute, and she does it a lot. Supposedly greys "roach" when they are totally comfortable. So, when I sent a picture to "Oreo's" foster mom with her roaching at our house, it put her mind at ease. The second term has proven to be true, too! She can run super fast and we take her out to play a few times each day, but other than that, she just lays around and snoozes! It's awesome! We don't let her veg on our furniture, but we have put an extra bed in the kitchen so she can hang with us when we are in the kitchen. This brings us to the "velcro dog" term. She sticks pretty close to us (me) throughout the day. She almost always gets up and moves to whatever room I am in. Thankfully, she is sometimes ok not having me in eyesight, but she pretty much always has her Holly-radar on. She is pretty sad when we leave and very reluctant to get into her crate. We can hear her crying when we drive away, but I think she settles down pretty quickly and she's always thrilled by our return!
It has been an adjustment to keep gates and doors secure. This is the biggest warning when it comes to greyhounds because they can run SO fast. They can be a mile away before you start calling them, and they won't hear you and can easily get hit by cars. It's also been an adjustment to try to be hospitable with this giant creature. We're thankful that she is very social, very tolerant, and very quick to calm down after a couple excited minutes of meeting a new visitor.
Overall, we are absolutely loving our sweet dog and SO thankful for her! There were more than a few prayers that went up for guidance in this process and hopes that we could have a dog that would be a joy. Violet fits the bill and we are so glad to have her! I'll add pics someday when I have a working computer.
No comments:
Post a Comment