And they drove off into the sunset...

Strauss's last Dremel session in our home.

Strauss, now Abby, happily went home with her new family last night. They are a perfect match! We are super pleased at how everything worked out. I always think about how silly Jon and I must look when we are standing in our driveway, smiling and waving good-bye to our fosters.

Our rescue group's next greyhound haul is February 9th. Please check back then!

The countdown begins

"Let me in! I've peed!"

The odd couple, Strauss & Iris

Despite their limited interaction, Iris has improved dramatically since Strauss came on board. She wags her tail at us, lets me Dremel her nails, and no longer shrinks under an approaching hand. Strauss, of course, went from sweet and goofy to... sweet, goofy, and well-versed in leash-walking, stair-climbing, cat-respecting, and not-jumping.

Thanks for being so good and funny, Strauss!

Sousa the Fortunate

Sousa is missing a bit of her lip on the left side of her face. She was probably bitten as a puppy by another dog, as that is usually how these situations occur. The old injury doesn't affect her in any way and gives her face a naturally lucky grin.

I have no qualms about Sousa's adoptability. She was supremely personable at her first open house and the cute smirk factor boosts her appeal. Sousa is probably not small-animal friendly given her interest in the tiny pomerian/poodle/noodle that was squiggling past the greyhounds. Provided that one does not share a home with squirrels, Sousa will make a great single addition or sibling for an existing hound.

23-JAN-08: Sousa was spoken for and will be going home with a really nice couple. See? Didn't I say she was lucky?

Pecan the Misunderstood

Pecan says, "I'm good. Really."

Pecan is one of our group's older fosters. She has been returned twice due to territorial behavior. She is super sweet and very cuddly - except on her dog bed. Her bed is her space, and she would like to be left alone when she is sleeping in her space, thank you very much.

There is nothing nutty about Pecan (pardon the pun). She just needs to be respected in her space and not allowed on the furniture. Perhaps it will take an experienced dog owner, but Pecan is ready to find a permanent home and to be a very good greyhound.

Pecan crates very well and revels in human affection (say it with me now, "except on her dog bed."). She loves belly rubs and neck scratches. What kills me is how she wistfully stares after the people who have pet her at open houses. She remembers each one and goes to the end of her leash to get more pets.

I hope Pecan will be adopted soon by someone who understands her and that she will stay adopted.

Strauss is adopted!

Only a week after leaving the track behind, Strauss has found her forever home! She was spoken for by the couple who came to visit yesterday afternoon. We took Strauss to her second open house today, and the deal was sealed before I could straighten the "I'm Adoptable" handkerchief around her neck.

Here is Strauss getting pets from the couple's son.

Strauss's new family will be picking her up on Thursday evening, so that they can have a long weekend to acclimate her to their home. Strauss is extremely lucky to have found a greyhound-savvy family with tendencies to spoil (in the good way).

Much to Strauss's chagrin, we remained at the open house afterwards so that Iris would receive some more gentle love-bombing from strangers.

Today's open house was hopping! There were at least three sets of families looking to adopt, and a good turnout of both fosters and ex-fosters.

Foster ("Pecan") and ex-foster ("Cookie")


Iris is still super shy, but she felt loads better after finding the soft blanket and cookies.




That is Strauss's new mum in the background with Strauss's bum.


Teyla amused herself and everyone else by parking in the Dogloo (TM).

Everyone wants Strauss!

Strauss has three families inquiring about her already. One couple stopped by to visit her today. They seem very interested in Strauss and will probably make a decision tomorrow at the next open house.

In the meantime, Strauss continues to be cute, funny, and loving. Here she is, quietly listening to my conversations with her ear sticking out of her crate:

Hygiene and training

Lately, Strauss has been getting alone-time training; she is left in her crate downstairs without the companionship of Iris in an adjacent crate. She howled the first time we did this on Wednesday, but it was for a significantly shorter time than when she first arrived on Saturday. Perhaps it is due to the fact that Strauss is more people-oriented than dog-oriented, but she adapted right away. Now she just watches quietly as we (including Iris) come and go.

Upon her arrival, I noticed some plaque on the upper right side of her teeth and a bit of odor in her breath. Thus, I have been making it a point to brush Strauss's teeth daily. Thanks to her young age, she still has very white teeth. She puts up very nicely with the brushing and now there is practically no bleeding from her gums. Strauss also arrived with a bit of muck in her ears. The wax and dirt build-up cleaned up right away with a few ear cleaning drops and some cotton.

A potential adopter asked about whether or not Strauss has any spacial or sleep aggression. I can't say exactly either way, as we haven't had the opportunity to "sneak up" on her. Nevertheless, Strauss has put up kindly with all of our poking and prodding thus far, and allowed us to take away toys in the midst of play.

Speaking of which, Strauss loves stuffed toys. She mouths and tosses them about in her crate. She is so gentle, however, that she still hasn't found any of the squeakers in them. I guess she thinks humans are so amazing that they can make her toys squeak.

A caveat

This is what Strauss does during the majority of her time. She especially likes to bury her face under blankets. Unfortunately, it does not always make for an interesting photo opportunity.

Since potential adopters are perusing this blog, I want to clarify that Strauss is crated all the time. The majority of the photographs were taken in one 10-minute free period on Monday. I am dispersing the pictures across several entries to make the blog more interesting.

I understand that some greyhound adoption groups advocate crating and that some don't. I volunteer for one that does, and frankly, it works for us. The crate is a familiar environment for a recently retired racing greyhound, it keeps the dog safe when I'm at work, and it works to prevent separation anxiety before it starts. Greyhounds are notoriously sleepy. Their sleeping habits can match any cat's at up to 20-22 hours a day. Why not have them sleep in a comfortable crate while they acclimate to your home?

That said, here is the breakdown of Strauss's schedule:

1. Wake up, go out to the backyard to potty
2. Depending on whether Strauss comes right back to the back door or has zoomies in the yard, we wait an appropriate amount of time before giving her...
3. Breakfast (1.5 cups of kibble, mixed with 1.5 cups of warm water)
4. Just before we leave to work (~8:30AM), Strauss is let out one more time to potty
5. We usually give her a Milkbone, a stuffed Kong, or a Greenie before we go
   
6. Around midday, our dog walker arrives and takes Strauss out on a 30-minute walk
7. We come home from work at ~6:30PM and Strauss is let out to the yard for a potty break
8. Repeat Step 2...
9. Dinner (1.5 cups of kibble, mixed with 1.5 cups of warm water)
10. Around 10PM, we take a long walk/potty break (~45 minutes) before bedtime

Strauss is in her crate the entire time except during the potty breaks. She has no problems going into her crate and will easily go in there at a mere hand gesture. In fact, when I gave her a bit of free time on Monday night to take photos, Strauss tired herself out exploring and within 5 minutes, she voluntarily retired to her crate and settled down.

If I had a hyper foster, I would add a long walk in the morning to tire him/her out before heading off to work. I "worked from home" yesterday and had the chance to observe Strauss during the day. As I predicted, she just slept and slept.

"Dear My Future Family,
This is how I will look to you for the first month and a half of my adoption.
After that, I will look the same - minus the black crate bars.
Love, Strauss"

Strauss says, "Hi"

No time to post today, except for this:

A nice surprise

I mentioned previously that Strauss was too tired to whine in her crate following the open house this past weekend. Well, I guess it stuck. She hasn't howled, barked, whined, or whimpered at all since then. She's a strangely good girl.

That said, Strauss has a few bad habits right now that we're working on fixing: jumping up on people, pulling on leash, and counter-surfing.

To curb the jumping, I fold my arms and turn my back to her. Thankfully, Strauss is a good-time gal; she likes for everyone to be having a good time. As soon as she realizes that I am not having fun and not even looking at her, she stops. She then walks around to look up at my face and then wags her tail. Afterwards, of course, Strauss gets lots of praise and lots of love. Who can resist such a considerate girl?

On lead, Strauss is far from the worst I've seen. She tends to pull in the beginning, which can be easily corrected by saying, "No pull, " and then abruptly changing direction. After a couple rounds of this, Strauss becomes much more in tune to me and is careful to see where I am going. So far, she has received good report cards from our dog walker, who described Strauss as, "very friendly! :)"

Ah, counter-surfing. This is the plight of many greyhound owners with their tall, long-faced dogs. We allowed Strauss 10 minutes of free time after dinner last night. She made a beeline to the kitchen, where Jon was cooking, and jumped up on the counter out of excitement. Unfortunately, she soon saw that there were many fascinating objects on there and tried it again on the kitchen table. The good news is that she was quick to jump down as soon as she heard us shout, "No!" The potential bad news is that the little hamster in her head is spinning its wheel now, so we will have to pay extra attention to end this behavior.

Considering that Strauss has been off of the track for a grand total of three days now, she is still making record time to becoming a well-mannered retired racing greyhound.

Stand still!

Strauss is notoriously difficult to photograph.

We finally managed to capture not-so blurry photographs while she was drinking water and getting scratches.

Iris is in the background - enjoying a scandalous time in Strauss's crate!

First Open House for Strauss

Normally we give our fosters a week to acclimate before taking them to open houses. Strauss was so easy-going that we decided to take her to one today. She did very well and charmed the pants off of several potential adopters.

Strauss is an odd whiner. She will whine and howl at maximum of 30 minutes before settling down in her crate. If we clap or make some other loud noise, she will pipe down right away. I guess this is the best way to have a whiner.

Of course, the open house pooped her out so much that Strauss hadn't made a peep about being in her crate today. We also Dremel-ed her nails with no fuss. If anything, I had to keep pushing her leg down because she wanted belly rubs. Her calm demonstration was terrific for showing our staghound, Iris, that dremeling could be a wonderful, relaxing time. As a matter of fact, after watching Strauss receive a delicious spoonful of baby food after her Dremel session, Iris bravely accepted the noisy, grinding thing without any fidgeting for the very first time!

Strauss and Iris play very well together. They take turns chasing each other in the backyard. Indoors, Strauss would play bow to Iris and then place a paw on top of her. I can't tell if this is because Iris is so submissive or because Strauss has alpha tendencies. So far, she has been very respectful of us, and most of all, the cats. Well, truth be told, Strauss is absolutely terrified of the cats. She purposely makes wide arcs around the cats and slinks further back in her crate when a cat walks by. Naturally, our boy cat, Günter, takes advantage of this and will sit on top of the stairs, daring the dogs to make it past him.

Why, yes, Mr. IKEA was indeed our design consultant for the basement. What of it?

We won't have this one for long

Strauss is charming, gregarious, confident, and beautiful. She isn't fazed by much and took her first bath without any apprehension or trembling. She also came prepared with a healthy appetite and happily gobbled up her first meal of retirement.

While Strauss is amused by her foster staghound sister, she truly only has eyes for the two humans in her household. Her bottom wiggles uncontrollably and her tail spins like a helicopter at the slightest eye contact with her foster parents.

Unfortunately, Strauss learned to use the stairs in a trial by fire when the resident cat gave her a welcome swat on the face. Nevertheless, she can now easily maneuver the stairs both upwards and downwards. Strauss quickly solved the mystery of the mirror and has no fear of shiny floors.

Uncommon for a greyhound, Strauss is also a natural sitter. She plops down on her hiney to garner pats on the head. This is mostly a ruse to draw you towards her, so she can jump up and kiss your face.

Strauss is a young thing at 2 years and 2 months. She is still very much a puppy, but only in the best ways. Her racing name is a perfect description of her personality: "Lady Adora" Not only is Strauss ladylike, she is also adorable. She has a gorgeous, regal face with cute envelope ears that flop this way and that.

Change of plans

Now it appears that our new foster will be a brindle girl named, "Strauss." Here is her description:

Strauss (Lady Adora) 9/30/05, 34936. Brindle female, nice, happy, outgoing, cat trainable.

She has a lovely racing name that is actually sensible. The switch is due to the fact that Beethoven happens to be the least cat-trainable of the bunch.

Strauss arrives at 5:30 AM tomorrow morning!

Beethoven (Cold B Gamma)

Here is the first blip about our incoming foster greyhound:

"Beethoven (Cold B Gamma), 7/28/05, 34035. Big brindle male, 85 lbs, personable, outgoing, great dog. Cat trainable."