East Meets West Veg

I think we are making major progress on the housetraining front. Last night Buddy Jr. passed out in his crate and would not get out of there to come into the bedroom with us. After lying in bed for about an hour or two, I finally fell asleep. It took this long to drown out the sound of the squirrel in the attic gnawing on his nightly meal of walnuts, right above our bed. (We're working on this. We had somebody come out with humane live traps, but we haven't had any luck yet. This could be because the dog keeps trying to sniff the peanut butter sandwich used as bait and tripping the trap.)

At any rate, after much annoyance, I finally fell asleep when suddenly Buddy Jr. comes running in our bedroom, sticking his long nose under our blankets and sniffing around, followed by barking and crying. Do you know that feeling when someone startles you in your sleep and you can feel the adrenaline and the blood pumping all through your body? That's how it felt. Barking is really out of character for Buddy Jr. and he doesn't do much crying either, though he did cry once before when he had to go outside to pee. So, on top of being in a startled, adrenaline-filled daze, I was now freaking out that the dog wouldn't be able to hold it if I didn't hurry my butt out of bed and into the arctic February air. I jumped up out of bed, put my socks on and ran to the door to take the dog out. These dogs can only be let out in a fenced yard or taken out on a leash, and since we do not have a fence, I had to be Buddy's night time potty companion.

Greyhounds have a strong instinct to wander and chase, which is only further reinforced by their racetrack training. If we let him out on a long rope like we have done with other dogs, he could see something, run after it and brake a leg or snap his neck when he got to the end of the rope. (They can reach 45 mph in 3-4 strides) An electric fence doesn't work for much the same reason. He could run and be through the electric fence before even feeling the shock and be scared just enough to not want to come back to the house.

From my little nighttime disruption story, you may think I'm bitter, but I'm actually very grateful. I'm grateful he's learning that he has to go outside to go potty and that he has to let us know when he needs to go. I'm also grateful we didn't wake up by stepping in a puddle of urine only to find a giant smelly pile of dog poop just beyond it. I can't even imagine how lovely it would be to have those two things marinating and cooking on our heated floors all night long, the aroma wafting through the house.

My original intent was to give a little snippet about Buddy Jr's progress and give a recipe for a green smoothie, but it just doesn't feel right putting these two things in the same post after the last mental picture I painted for you. I put the smoothie recipe in another post.

Here's a shot of Buddy Jr. hiding his face in his toy, refusing to get out of the crate and make the *long* (not really) trek to the bedroom to go to sleep.

Well, we took in a foster dog over the weekend. It's our first time fostering and this dog has been through a lot so we're feeling a little like new parents who suddenly take a baby home and feel they are ill-prepared and inadequate. Okay, maybe that's just how I feel. I think my husband is feeling just fine about the whole thing, but we are both totally helicopter dog parents right now. We hover over every move of a dog who's received little, if any, positive attention throughout his life so far. I really blame this on the special circumstances and the fact that the dog is not completely housebroken.

Our foster dog is a just-retired greyhound racing dog. He made the long trek from Alabama to Michigan just a few days ago. He's never lived in a home before and everything is new to him. Yes, everything. Sometimes I wonder if he's even been outside before. When we take him out he carefully observes every sight, sound, movement. If the birds are chirping loudly, he has to stop in place and listen. When a car drives by, we have to stop and watch it. He was quite confused when the snow started falling. He jumped up from his pillow and watched it through the window, then ran to the doorwall to get a better view. It only snowed for a few minutes and when it was over, he decided to lay down again. Maybe he thought the house was under attack by tiny white bullets.

He follows us around all the time. He tries to go in the bathroom with us. He walked in our shower (when noone was in there, of course!) That was a sure sign of a dog who's never lived in a home. Every other dog I've known has been petrified by the shower, but not this one. He likes to walk in there and sniff around whenever he gets the chance, just as calm as can be. He has no idea of the terror that lurks inside that shower. It's now been a few days and he is finally following us a little less and napping a little more. Thank goodness because his eyes have been super bloodshot and they're finally starting to look normal!

He is really tall and his head is well above the height of our kitchen table, which has proved to be quite a problem in the first few days. Remember, he's never been in a home before and he doesn't know how to act yet. Also, he's used to a sort of communal eating where the (really disgusting 4D) dog food is thrown into a thing for all the dogs to eat from and they all have to get their share before it's gone or they're out of luck. So it's been a little difficult to cook and eat these first few days. I forgot to mention that he can reach the counter too. So I've been a little less than creative in the kitchen. I'm trying to stick with what requires the least preparation or preparation which I can do on the windowsill! To his credit, he is getting much better at not putting his nose on everything within his reach.

Check out Buddy Jr. trying to recover from his jet lag! ;-)