Good girl, Irene!

Irene has made huge strides in the past three days. She sleeps through the night and is feeling very confident about staircases. She has an excellent appetite and her stools have normalized. Irene walks remarkably well on lead and follows us around when in the backyard. It appears that she just needed some time to settle in and feel stable.

No, I don't need a smaller toy. This one fits in my mouth just fine.

We are providing Irene with two 30-45 min walks each day to ensure that she doesn't get a chance to feel restless in her crate. She is otherwise easily distracted with a Kong filled with treats and relishes in positive reinforcement, such as random treats given for being quiet in her crate.

As for other animals, Irene demonstrated that she is positively indifferent to other animals (small dogs, big dogs, cats, squirrels, etc.). The only time she makes a fuss is when her crate is approached by a cat or dog. Irene has made it clear that her crate is her sacred space and no one can come near. She is perfectly fine with people encroaching on her crate space, but she is very protective of it against other animals. This makes sense since Irene comes from a world where her crate was the only thing that belonged to her. She loves to pick up toys on her way out during potty breaks but always drops them before returning to her crate. It's as if to say, "These nice things can't possibly belong to me." It's enough to make me want to cry.

To quell her fears, we temporarily placed a blanket over the front of Irene's crate. That way, she cannot see dogs or cats approaching her space head-on and eliminates the need for unnecessary nervousness. I would recommend that her adoptive home does the same until Irene feels more comfortable. I am mostly concerned about any resident kitties that may feel inclined to stick their faces or paws into Irene's crate simply because cats like to do things like that. Well, that is exactly the type of thing Irene hates!

Irene just needs someone to provide her consistency and positive feedback because she is super sweet and cute as a button. I suspect that her ideal situation would be the sole pet so that she doesn't have to compete for attention or a home with a more submissive dog. Irene reminds me of our alpha female deerhound who is bossy to other dogs but melts in our hand.

Whytell Irene... that she is a bounce?

Occasionally, adopted greyhounds are given back to the organization because their families are no longer able to take care of them and they are called, "bounces" or "bouncebacks." Our new foster, Irene, is one such hound. Unfortunately, bounces are often prejudiced for something that was outside of their control; people give up dogs because of financial trouble, divorce, a new baby, location move, etc., and not because the dog is bad. Adoption organizations will try their best to make good, permanent matches, but some things are simply impossible to predict.

Irene arrived on the same January haul as our previous foster, Santana (now called, "Lincoln"). She has simply hit a little bump on her road to retirement, but she'll soon be back on path to warm naps on soft beds and unsolicited petting.

She may be fresh off the track, but Irene knows what toys are for

But first! It's back to basics for this cute girlie, such as handling stairs, learning to be alone at times, and acting mannerly around other animals.

Understandably, Poor Irene is a little confused and nervous right now, and is showing it with her output. We are putting her on a bland diet (cooked chicken and rice) until her stools firm up. Hopefully, that will happen soon so that we can then work on putting some weight on her bones. We will also place her on two rounds of dewormer medication, just in case there is another reason for her diarrhea and weight loss.

Irene's kennel name was "Whytell Irene" and her racing stats can be found here. She has had a puny number of races at 18 in total. Her last race was in May 2007, so there is quite a mysterious gap in her past. Another mystery is the scar on her nose. Well, at least Irene has made no secret of the fact that she loves people and food. We will have to wait and see what else we can learn about Irene in the coming days.