New Dog!

Hi!  I'm Megan.  I just adopted a Greyhound from Greyt Expectations Greyhound Rescue (GEGR), and I'm completely smitten with my new pup.  All I want to do is talk about him, seriously.  But, I know that for the sake of all my friends/family, they don't want to hear about Phil all the time.  So I started a blog to talk about all the awesome stuff that Phil does.  Sometimes, its really only awesome to me, but that's all that counts anyways.

When greyhounds are waiting to be adopted from GEGR, often their foster families will write blogs for the pups so that way people can semi-get to know the dogs better.  I thought it was a most excellent idea!  I love sharing pics and stories about my pets!

My boyfriend, Drew, came for a visit at the beginning of February.  I had been talking about adopting a Greyhound for a few weeks, since I had put my Dalmatian, Zeplen/Teh ZepZep, down mid-January.  My application for adoption was approved and Drew helped me choose a Greyhound his last weekend in town.

Why a Greyhound?
I wanted a pup that I didn't really have to housebreak, so that ruled out all puppies.  While they are adorable and precious, the frustration of potty training was not for me this go around.  I also knew I wanted a big dog.  I wanted a dog that didn't mind being lazy... a lot and also didn't mind going out for a jog a few times a week.

The other perks of choosing a Greyhound?
-Very rarely are they bark-ers.
-Crate trained.
-They won't mind being your exercise partner (as long as your not swimming or an olympic runner).
-They are trainable.
-They are lazy.
-They are often friendly with other animals, although sometimes not.
There are more awesome things about greyhounds you'll see as we go along, I'm sure.  There are also some difficulties.

Most adopted greyhounds are retired racers (to my knowledge).  They have fulfilled their racing time at the track and if they don't eventually get adopted, they get euthanized (again, from what I understand).  Which I believe is pretty awful.  These dogs have only ever known track life for the most part.  EVERYTHING they experience once they leave the track is NEW.  Stairs, trash cans, children, couches...  things we don't even see.  because they are so ingrained in our lives.

Why did we choose Phil (formerly known as Pals Spot Light)?
Because he was HUGE!  jk, kinda.  Phil was the first dog we took out in the yard to walk around.  At adoptathons (GEGR calls them meet & greets), the dogs are pretty nervous.  There's a lot of people around, they've been traveling for a day (from FL/AL/NC to MD), they have been removed from the environment they are used to, removed from all the other dogs they always knew..  I'd be pretty uncomfortable too.

When we took Phil out in the yard, I walked him around for a few minutes.  First measure of business was for Phil to pee.  Which took a solid minute.  This dog has a HUGE bladder!  He just kept peeing!  Then I handed the leash off to Drew.  Drew walked Phil around for a few minutes and when they stopped, Phil turned to Drew and put his head in Drew's lap.  He stood there like that until Drew started petting him, then he turned and leaned on Drew until it was time to walk again.

There was several other pups up for adoption that day and we took a few more out for a walk around the yard.  None were as large as Phil and none of the others seemed to be drawn to either Drew or I in the way that Phil had been.  It was decided.  Phil was coming home with us.  Well, me...  In a week.

Drew was set to leave MD that following Wednesday, but prior to that we were going to Colonial Williamsburg.  I had already informed GEGR that I wasn't able to take Phil till the 17th (which was the first day of a long weekend), so he was put with a foster family until then.

Fun fact:

This is out adoption photo on the GEGR website.
This is NOT Phil.  This IS Storm.
Phil had been taken by his foster family before we could get a photo with him, so we borrowed another adopter's pup who is a smaller version of Phil.  You can actually barely tell the difference!