Dog Updates

The greyhound rescue here has a long application process. We filled out an application, completed a phone interview, an office interview, and now a home-visit. A volunteer also called our references.

On the one hand, this is a little bit irritating, because it has taken several weeks so far, and I'm not very good at being patient! But, on the other hand, this is a good thing. It helps ensure that we are fully ready to bring a dog home, that all of our questions have been answered, that we will pick a dog that fits our lifestyle, and from the rescue's point of view- it ensures that the adopters are competent and devoted to the process.

The home visit was actually pretty reassuring. A volunteer came over on Friday evening with her greyhound, and just walked around our condo, letting the dog sniff around and check things out, and pointing out things we might need to watch out for. She also sat down and chatted with us for a while about her routine with her dogs, answered our questions, and told us her favorite products. As we're reading "Retired Racing Greyhounds for Dummies", it's made me a little nervous from time to time, reading about all of the problems that can occur. It's easy (for me, at least) to forget that while problems can occur, they can also be solved most of the time, and most dogs won't have every possible problem. So it was nice to chat with someone who has had a greyhound for years, who has taken her dogs to the vet for various illnesses and injuries, and who hasn't lost all of her material possessions to chewing.

She also took the dog, muzzled, into the chinchilla's room. This has been my biggest fear- that even a low prey drive dog will have issues with the chinchillas. Her dog was definitely interested in the chinchillas, but he showed no signs of actually wanting to attack them. Just a curious look, and a little sniffing and tail wagging. We will definitely NOT be letting the chinchillas out of the cage in the presence of our dog, but knowing that it's possible to get a sight hound that won't want to eat them through the cage, even when they jump around, was reassuring.

Hopefully the final approval will come through early this week, and on Friday we can go look at specific dogs :) They do have several dogs that have been tested as cat friendly (usually a good sign that they have low prey drive) that haven't been cleared for adoption yet, so it might be a bit longer. It will be better to wait a little longer, though, than to bring home a dog that isn't the right fit! We'll probably bring Tiny with us (in a covered travel cage) to the kennel, so that we can let the dogs we might be interested in sniff her. Tiny will handle the stress better than Bug, but I'm anticipating a stressful couple of weeks for them. I'm sure they'll recover, though.

So please keep your fingers crossed that we are able to find a dog that gets along with the chinchillas, and doesn't mind being the only dog in the family!