Pictures in spades!

Yesterday we brought home our new puppy... well, he's a bit big for a puppy! We finally got our Greyhound and Hami was the one chosen for us. This morning we decided on his new name: Bentley... I just hope my Grampy of the same name doesn't roll over in his grave! :-S So far his introduction into our home has been absolutely wonderful! It's been BEYOND our expectations, in fact. Pacha is completely in love with him (and vice-vera) and she is reacting like she's known him all her life. Last night they played together in the snow and I've rarely seen Pacha so excited. It was quite hillarious to see Little Miss Pacha trying to catch super speedy Bentley! Hah!

We also had an interesting adventure bringning him home in the pick-up truck! Tee Hee! He's a bit big for the cab and we were all crunched it when he thought it was a great time to fart! Phew! What a stinker!

Here’s our big boy (with Pacha underneath him!!)







Bentley likes Pacha’s bed...



... while Pacha checks out Bentley’s digs



They finally decide the crate is the best place to hang out. :-)



My favourite picture so far!


In other news, we finally got a preview of our engagement pictures. Enjoy!


...

Preceptorship – Day 1

I just wanted to give a quick update on my first day of preceptorship. I had a great day and the staff seems really nice. The floor was quite calm so it was a good way to ease into it. I was glad I didn’t feel all that lost since it’s a different hospital than I’m used to. Tonight I do my first night, so we’ll see how I survive. Wish me luck!

We also put up the new pup to be’s crate. Here’s an interesting comparison between Pacha’s bed and the new guy’s crate!


EEK! It's huge! At least it's just temporary, until he gets used to his environment. In this picture you can see that even though Pacha's bed looks small compared to the giant crate, it's still twice as big as she is!

In-Home Interview

We had our interview with MGAP last night and it went very well. The evaluator came over with her 2.5 year old Grey named Romero. He’s a beautiful big brindle boy and such a sweetie. I was really happy to see Pacha react quite positively to him. In fact, she even tried to play with him a bit. His owner had him on a leash so he wouldn’t wander around the house, but if it weren’t for the leash I think the dogs would have played together. After they left, Pacha was all excited and hyper, which was awesome to see! We’re really hoping a second dog will teach our lazy pupster how to play. :-)

The meeting lasted about an hour and she was able to answer many of our questions. Romero was funny and clumsy as many Greys are. It’s like they don’t realise they have these long awkward legs. Tee Hee! Anyway, there are currently 5 dogs in foster care and 7 more are coming up from the track this Saturday so there will definitely be a dog for us.

I was also really happy to see that Mr. Perfect was ready to keep Romero if they had let us. Hah! He is definitely on board with getting a second dog and likes the Greyhounds, but I know I’m definitely the bigger Greyhound fan. I sometimes worry, that I might have swayed him. I tell him this all the time and then add... I know, I have issues. To which he nods in agreement. :-)

We may be proud owners of a Greyhound this week!

As I mentioned in the previous post, we’ve applied to adopt a Greyhound through a rescue organisation (Maritime Greyhound Adoption Program). We have our in-home interview this evening and an orientation session this weekend. We might even be taking our new dog home this Saturday! Wow! It’s quite the process and the dogs are actually matched up to our family and particular needs. The president of the organisation is a dog behaviour psychologist and she’s the one who chooses the best dog for each situation. She is currently considering two dogs for us:

Race name: Regal Tumbler
Age: 2 years old in June
Sex: Male
Weight: 78 lbs
This handsome white and black boy with the very cool ears, is very laid back and calm and tested as cat tolerant. Friendly, happy tail wagging, and has a loving personality. Plays well with other dogs and people; energetic but not hyper at all. Likes cuddling, grooming, crate trained, and has good leash walking skills. A really wonderful boy that anyone would be thrilled to have.



Or

Race name: Hami
Age: Turning 3 in November
Sex: Male
Weight: 70 lbs
Beautiful white and dark brindle boy. He is good with cats and small dogs and will probably be great with children too. He is outgoing, very friendly and doesn't mind a busy home. He will fit in most anywhere and make an excellent walking companion.


Hami is a regular rescue, while Tubbler is from a prison training program. The Prison program dogs are trained in basic obedience for 10 weeks by inmates in a Florida State Prison. All the prison trained dogs learn verbal commands and hand signals for sit, stay, down, come and heel. This is such an exciting program and a win/win situation for both the prisoners and the greyhounds. For example it puts greyhounds in a place until they can find homes, it teaches Inmates patience and responsibility, it relieves inmate idleness in prison facilities, and it allows Inmates to give something back to the community, just to name a few. Click on the link Give a Second Chance to check out a video that definitely pulls at the heart strings.

Good Ol' Kijiji

We’ve been checking kijiji regularly for potential dogs to adopt. So far no luck, but some of these ads are freakin’ hilarious! I wonder what's worse: dating profiles or dog ads?

"3 year old beagle spayed and neutered"
Wow! A hermaphrodite beagle!

"Looking for a purebred lapdog"
I’m not familiar with that particular breed

"Looking for a puppy for my son for Christmas. Must be either a Boxer or a Maltese"
Ummmm... you do realise those two dogs are complete opposites, right?

"Looking for small puppy. Must be well behaved. Will return if not."
Sure... dogs don’t require any work so this should definitely work out!

"Pitbull for stud garante 10 puppys unless someting wrong with your dog"
That’s some dog! He can predict how many pups he will produce. Very impressive!

"Puppies for sale. Mom is a maltese and another breed weighs 6 lbs dad is a shi tzu chihuahua max weighs 10 lbs. Asling $650"
Ummm... you do realise you are charging $650 for a mutt... right?

And my favourite:
"Looking to trade one of my Bull Mastif puppies for an SUV."

I get the feeling Kijiji won't be the place we'll find our dog.

Earlier this week we applied for a retired Greyhound race dog from a Greyhound rescue organisation. I can't wait till they contact us. How can you not love this adorable face!

Pacha pulled the veto card on Marshall

We brought Pacha to meet Marshall last night. The meeting went well, but it just wasn’t the vibe we were hoping for. Pacha seemed almost fearful of Marshall and she cowered between my legs. I have never seen her react to another dog that way before. Marshall was definitely more interested in Pacha than she was in him. He tried playing with her and after a while she played back, but he’s such a hefty guy that he ended up playing pretty rough with her.

Mr Perfect was really great with Marshall and he definitely had the dogs respect. I on the other hand, found it a little more challenging. Obviously, my energy wasn’t as assertive as Mr. Perfect’s. Marshall would jump up at me and snap while trying to play. I tried correcting him, but was only partially successful. I’m sure I would get the hang of it fairly quickly, but my concern would be his reaction to kids. I'd also worry about how rough his playing could get with Pacha when we aren't home. So, between Pacha’s reaction and Marshall’s snipping, we decided he wasn’t right for us.

It’s a bit disappointing but I know we made the right decision. He would really be an awesome dog for people not planning to have children or even just school age children.

Mr Perfect’s dog

Since visiting the SPCA last week we’ve been talking about the pros and cons of adding another dog to our family. For some strange reason, Mr. Perfect thought I was against getting a second dog, while I always assumed we would eventually get one. After clearing up this little matter, we agreed that adopting might be worth exploring. I had always thought we would get a second dog after our first kid (since we could see how Pacha reacts to the babe), but is post-partum really the best time to be training a dog? WE realised that this might actually be a good time to introduce a new dog. Mr Perfect would love a Boxer. I, on the other hand have a penchant for Greyhounds. When it comes down to it though, Boxers are a more manageable size than greyhounds.

Over the weekend we set some ground rules: we will not be swayed by a cute face, chemistry and energy has to work with our family, no rash decisions, Pacha’s reaction to a new dog is an essential element in our choice and any dog has to pass my allergy test.

Last night we headed back to the SPCA to see if “Marshall” was still there. When we did our initial sweep of the premise he appeared to be gone. Mr. Perfect was clearly crushed. :-( Then we found out he had already been transferred inside for the night. Yay! We asked to take him out for a walk. We did our best Ceasar Millan imitation and stayed calm and assertive. Marshall seemed to react well to our assertiveness. We waited for him to calm down before heading out for a walk. He wasn’t really that agitated, but you could see by his breathing he was curious/excited. He pulled a little during the first part of the walk, but within 5 minutes (even less) he was calm and walking in a perfect heal position. At the halfway point we made him sit and traded the leach. I had the lead now and I can honestly say it was like walking Pacha – I barely noticed he was there. I corrected him a few times, but that was really only when I noticed he wasn’t perfectly calm... it’s like I stopped his excitement before it escalated and he started pulling. When we gave him back to the SPCA employee, he was noticeably more excited, but you could tell her energy was different too. Where Pacha is calm 100% of the time, Marshall takes his cues from his leader. He’s definitely different than Pacha, but that’s also what we are looking for. I love Pacha more than anything, but she is also one lazy puppy. Hah! It would be nice to have a dog that can play fetch, go for a run and keep up with us on a hike. In that sense, Pacha is like a cat, except that she’s fun. :-P

He also passed the allergy test with flying colours! I rubbed my hands all over his coat and litterly stuck my fingers in my eyeballs! I rubbed my eyes as much as I could and has NO reaction. This is awesome news because I sometimes irritate my eyes just by rubbing them, so this means I'm definitely not allergic to him.

So now we wait for the SPCA to approve our application. We also decided that, since we are going away this weekend, we wouldn’t bring a dog home until Sunday. It’s just not fair to the dog to bring him home for 2 days and then drop him off at a kennel for two days. The SPCA won’t put a dog on hold, so we are leaving it in fates hands – if he’s still there on Sunday, then he’s our dog... if he’s not, we’ll just keep searching. The only problem is, Mr Perfect has already adopted him in his heart. :-)

The lure of a cute face

You know the scenario: you just happen to check out the SPCA website and happen to see a dog from a bred you would like and accidently end up at the SPCA on a rainy day staring on an adorable face the other side of a cage. No. We haven’t adopted another dog, but we sure are tempted. Mr Perfect’s always said he would love a second dog and has a particular soft spot for Boxers. I too would love another dog but sometimes I worry a second pet would create unbalance in our perfectly sweet and calm pupster Pacha. As well, there’s the kid factor. Right now, we’re fairly certain Pacha would adjust easily to a new crying babe, but any other dog is an unknown case. We resisted the urge to bring this beautiful 2-year old Boxer named Marshall for a walk, but then sat in the car debating on what to do. We finally agreed to come back when it’s not raining to bring the guy out for a stroll. We figure it should give us a few days to mull over the idea of a second pup. Either way, we would have to introduce him to Pacha to make sure the chemistry is right. Anyway, here's a picture of the big guy: