Monday, October 16, 2017

Welcome to the Family, Petal!

We got a new dog on Thursday!



Her name is Petal ... really, it is.



Petal is four.  In her former career, she ran 27 races in Florida as 'Kelsos Petal'(link takes you to her pedigree page)



Petal is here on a foster-with-intent-to-adopt basis ... a trial arrangement to make sure that she will be a good fit in our family and get along with Ruby and the cats.  It's all going very, very well so far. 

Blurry photo, taken when we met her at her foster home, of Petal sniffing a cat that walked by.


Also in her foster home, we met Vinnie the resident pot-bellied pig ... OMG, he was so cute!!



It was a two-hour drive to bring Petal home.  She and Ruby rode very nicely together, spending most of the ride looking around or sleeping.



When Petal got here, she went right to work getting comfortable in her new surroundings.

Emptying the toy basket ...


Testing the dog beds


She even investigated the inside of Ruby's crate, which was way too small for her.


Soon, she was sound asleep.


She has an old injury to her right front toes, from an accident while lure coursing after she retired from racing.  Once I get her medical records from the adoption organization, we will see exactly what the injury was.

Petal's nails are WAY too long, especially on her bad foot, so I will work on them over the next couple of weeks to get them down to a comfortable length.


We have been looking to adopt another dog for a while.  Ruby has been by herself since Winnie died in February.  She's okay as an only dog, but she is happier when she has company.





Our first evening went pretty much as I expected it would. The cats took one horrified look at Petal and ran for cover.  Before long, as we settled in, they ventured out to evaluate the newcomer.

WTF???




As of now, bright and early on the morning of Day Five with Petal, Alice is going about her normal routine.  I expected this from her.  She likes dogs.  On Day Two, Petal walked over to Alice and poked her with her needle-nose ... Alice hissed and smacked Petal upside the head ... Petal realized that this was a lesson on boundaries, and we have been good ever since.  Dorothy, after her initial exploration on Day One, has spent most of her time under our bed.  Yesterday evening, she ventured out and spent time in my lap while I watched football and the dogs slept.  It was significant progress.

Petal is sniffing Alice, while Alice sits in my lap.


Petal is learning about the ways of our household.  Ruby is helping her.  

When I make dog stew, Ruby rinses the dishes.


Petal can help now, too.


It hasn't been all rosy and perfect, but that's to be expected with any new dog.  Petal is unsure of stairs, but she is learning.  It took a whole day of multiple attempts with yummy treats, using Ruby as an example, and a lot of praise, and now Petal is using our front stairs like a champ.  Soon, I hope to help her master the back stairs ... so she can go directly to the backyard instead of having to walk there on leash.

She loves toys! 


Right now, on this cool, rainy Monday morning, both dogs are sleeping.  Ruby is sacked out on the sofa, and Petal isn't interested in furniture and is on a dog bed.  My heart is full.



Thank you, Sighthound Underground, for matching us up with this wonderful dog.  She is everything that we hoped for ... and so much more!


28 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Me, too ... especially when the story takes place here!

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  2. What a sweet post. She is lovely. Lis

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  3. She is such a sweetie! I'm glad she is working her way into your home as I think she is already in your heart!

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    1. Petal is settling in very quickly. She seems to be comfortable here, and is well on her way to learning how we do things.

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  4. When I saw her name is Petal I thought you named her, and that is a great name for flower lovers like you (and me); then I read that Petal is part of her racing name. She was meant for you.

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    1. I know! How weird is it that we were matched up with a dog who was named Petal! We briefly considered changing it, but decided to leave it as is. Petal came here with only her name, and it's best that she gets to keep it.

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  5. So nice to see that this beautiful dog with the wonderful name Petal, is included in your happy animal family.

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    1. I am glad that she is proving to be a good addition to the family. We are never certain if the combination of animals will be right ... it seems to be this time. I am very happy to have a greyhound again!

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  6. Replies
    1. Thank you! I love the fact that she's as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. She is a very gentle soul.

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  7. Dogs and cats make a home more homey. She looks very sweet.

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    1. If this is true, our place is homey beyond belief! Dogs and cats all over the place!!

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  8. Congrats on giving 'Petal' a loving, new home. It looks and sounds like she is settling right in. A perfect name for someone who grows roses. :-)

    Happy Autumn ~ FlowerLady

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    1. We thought, at first, that her name was a bit too obvious for someone who grows roses. Decided to leave it alone because it's been her name for her whole life and it's not our place to change it, even though we like human names for our critters.

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  9. I used to volunteer with the greyhound rescue in Orlando. They are such sweet dogs! They had to learn to climb stairs and not to try to walk through glass doors. Petal is one fortunate greyhound!!

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    1. Thank you for helping the retired racers transition from track to family pet! It is wonderful to watch them learn what it's like to be in a house, as they discover all the new stuff around them. With Petal, her bad front paw seems to be what's making her hesitant about the steps. She can do them fine, but it looks like she overthinks it as she places one paw after another. We have six front steps, which was a challenge for her at first. There are many more back steps. We will wait a bit before we attempt that.

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  10. Congratulations! Petal is beautiful and it looks like she's doing great. We got a new-to-us collie girl back in June. She had been rescued from an atrocious hoarding/puppy mill situation in GA. 437 animals were seized, 380 of them were dogs and she was one of the 29 animals they believe that was kept in the home. She's about 5 and settles in more every day. Her name at the rescue was Rizzo (from Grease), but we went with Sandy, which was the name of hubby's grandfather's last collie and this girl reminds hubby of that Sandy. So happy for us both to have these new girls in our lives!

    Shirley

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    1. Thank you, Shirley! Sounds like you and I were looking for a dog at the same time ... you found yours first. Like you, we had no hesitation in changing rescue names on our dogs. Ruby was Rosie; Winnie was Olive. Neither dog knew their name, so we changed them to something we thought fit them better. With Petal, and our other greyhounds, their names were with them for their whole lives. We could have changed it, but it didn't feel right.

      Congratulations on adding Sandy to your family!

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    2. Thanks, Connie! We lost our last rescue collie at the end of April and his end had been coming for a while so we had been opening our hearts to a "new pup" for a while. Thankfully, this girl presented herself to us via the rescue organization we support in NC, Collie Rescue of the Carolinas. We stopped by on our anniversary trip to Asheville, just to see who she might have. Names are so interesting. The collie rescue runs out of new names (they try not to repeat them very often) so they get creative. Rizzo just didn't work well for us or Sandy in our opinion. She IS Sandy (which is ironically another name from Grease, of course) and answers to Sandy now. She is parked by the front door at the moment because her dad came home for lunch and she's sure he's coming back right away. ;-) We are so happy to have her!

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  11. So happy for you guys! Petal appears to exhibit all the right things that spell a super companion and match for your home. She looks to fit perfectly in your home! I love this!
    Best, Amy

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    1. Thank you, Amy. You know that we are a laid-back bunch here, and Petal fits right in. It's wonderful to have a greyhound again!

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  12. Congratulations!!!! We love our Greys! We have been a Greyhound home since 1994

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    1. Petal is our third greyhound. We adopted Emma in 1999 and Daniel in 2005. There's just something about them that I adore ... you, too, I know!

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  13. Such a feelgood factor blogpost read, Connie, the kind that reconciles us with the (crazy) world out there! Petal is such a little cutie! So pleased that you decided to expand the family and provide Ruby with a sister. Cannot wait to read about their adventures! All the best.

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    1. Concentrating on positive, feel-good things is EXACTLY how I deal with all the negative stuff that's out there. When the world gets me down, I turn toward my critters and it all feels right again.

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  14. How fun! Hope Petal will bring many years of joy to your family.

    Blessings~

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    1. Thank you! So far she fits in pretty perfectly. We are blessed.

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