A rainy first day

Siesta's first full day at home actually started with 2 car rides to the architecture school. One to drop Ty off to meet his studio professor, Leon Krier, and the second to pick him back up again. I can pretty much guarantee Seista was confused when she made the effort to come down the scary stairs, wait as I fumbled to get a sheet spread out over the back seat, and then sit quietly during the ride only to find herself back on the exact street she started. Not to mention, she was terribly concerned when Ty jumped out of the car at the intersection in front of his school. Not quite sure how well it's going to go when we both have to leave her on Monday to go to work. But as one of my soccer coaches used to say, "we'll jump off that bridge when we come to it."

While Ty did work at school in the middle of the day, we girls snoozed on the coach and watched TV. Siesta seemed to be very interested in all the dogs that passed by on the sidewalk below our front window. Luckily her head is just the right height to see out our windows. In between her voyeuristic episodes she snoozed away on her large fluffy bed.



Later in the evening when Ty was home we tried out leaving her alone for a short time to see if we could hear her cry from downstairs, but to our surprise she was happy to jump in her kennel and seemed to be fine with the scenario. She was happy to see us when we returned from our errand around the corner, but it made me feel better about the prospect of her having separation anxiety come Monday.



Our close friends, John Killar and Lynne Addison came over for dinner tonight to meet Seista. She was cordial and greeted them both with kisses and a gentle lean into their thighs. Everyone seems to be genuinely impressed with her beautiful markings and won over by her sweet disposition. She put on such a convincing show of relaxation during dinner that I became worried that Seista was dangerously lethargic and insisted that she wake up and interact with everyone.



Yes, I know I worry too much.

As it turns out she was just fine of course and while we watched a movie she went right back to snoozing on her bed in the middle of the room. She seems really happy to be here and we are so incredibly happy to have her too. Here is a picture of her snuggling while I blog.

Siesta' s first night at home

Wow. It's been a full day. So, at 5pm yesterday I gave up on hearing back from Lindsay while still at work and came home. I gave her a call and it turned out she was still having car trouble so I offered for Ty and I to come to her home and pick up Siesta. So when Ty finished his class at 6 or so we drove 30 minutes in the rain to Prospect, CT. After Lindsay welcomed us into her house we saw Siesta again and she gave us an enthusiastic greeting with kisses. After going over the paperwork and some last minutes advice from Lindsay she helped us get everything in the car, including a HUGE crate and Siesta herself. I really have to thank Lindsay for not only being a wonderfully generous person for caring for greyhounds in search of homes, but for being a truly sweet person that I am happy to have met. I am sure Siesta will miss her and I hope I can fill the void.

So off we drove, terribly excited and a little nervous. Siesta was a great car passenger even though she had to lie down on top of her collapsed monster crate with the rear seats down to fit.



When we got home we hauled everything upstairs (ourselves, Siesta, the crate, a bag of dog food and the adorable pink toy WAG sent her home with). Here is a picture of the crate - it takes up pretty much the entire dining room so I sincerely hope this is a short term need.



We were starved so we fed Siesta 1.5 cups of her food (as directed) and ourselves some spaghetti. Seista gobbled her dinner up in less than 60 seconds flat. About 20 minutes later, Seista started wimpering a bit and we of course concluded that she must be upset about the move or the new surroundings and tried to console her. Finally, it occurred to Ty that she probably needed to go out to go to the bathroom. Genius. So off they went on a nice evening walk which I heard was VERY productive. Needless to say she was much happier when she returned and fell asleep in her kennel at midnight and we didn't hear a peep from her till 8am. Not bad for her first night.

Here are some photos I took from her first night, but like most dogs she wouldn't pose for the camera very well. We'll have to work on that.

Awaiting Siesta's Arrival

I decided to write a blog about Siesta, our snoozing greyhound, for several reasons.
1. Siesta is our first dog so we are bound to make mistakes and learn great tricks for other dog lovers.
2. Siesta is a retired racing greyhound who is still learning about life off the track, so she is bound to make some adorable blunders herself.
3. I am a long way from home, friends, and family on the west coast so I thought this would be a way for them to meet our new dog and keep in touch with me.

So, here I am at work on a Friday afternoon waiting for a call from Lindsay, Siesta's foster mom, saying she is coming to drop Siesta off. As soon as I get the call, off I will race home - or rather I will walk a block in the rain to the shuttle stop and then nervously ride the bus around New Haven waiting to be dropped off at the end of my street. Once she arrives, the official adoption paper work has to be signed and then ... she's ours!

But let me back track a little and explain why we're adopting Siesta. Of course there are the obvious reasons someone adopts a dog, they love dogs, want companionship, an exercise partner, etc. Which are all true for us. Also, Ty works long hours in grad school so Siesta is going to be my couch buddy in the evening. To be truthful, this adoption has been a long time coming. I have sort of been obsessed with greyhounds since we moved to the east coast 4 years ago and started meeting people with greyhounds everywhere. Greyhounds all seemed to be so sweet, quiet, gentle, and completely adorable. On top of all that they have a rough start to life on the track and adopting a greyhound means giving them a life of leisure that all dogs should enjoy. So when we finally decided the time was right to adopt a dog, and a small dog was out of the question for Ty, a greyhound was the obvious choice.

So I submitted an application to We Adopt Greyhounds (WAG) here in Connecticut. That evening they responded to my application with a phone interview. It was nothing too grueling, but they still wanted to set up a in-home meeting for the following week. Lindsay was the foster mom they put me in touch with and she arranged for another foster mom and both of their foster dogs to visit us in our apartment. So I scrambled to get the place as dog-friendly as possible for their visit. Ty and I were incredibly excited. When Lindsay and Chris arrived with Celesta (now called Siesta) and Sooner (a male dog - 18 months old) they had to teach Sooner to climb the stairs cause he'd never seen stairs before since he was fresh off the track. As it turned out "Celesta" had been off the track for some time since she broke her rear right leg in a race. She had it reset by a canine surgical orthopedist in Boston and had fully recuperated in foster care. So she had a little more experience in a home than Sooner. The more we learned from the two foster moms about the dogs the more it became clear that "Celesta" was the right dog for us.

During a second home visit we introduced Siesta to our friends' puppy and 2 cats to test her "prey instincts." She seemed to pass those tests so we finalized our choice with Lindsay. For the past 2 weeks we were on a previously arranged vacation to California to visit family. That's where we decided that her racing name, "Celesta", didn't quite work for us and I thought that Siesta was a clever, better sounding name that she might still respond to. Greyhounds are ofter referred to as 40 mile and hour couch potatoes because they are big fans of napping. So the name seemed to make sense. Since we got back from vacation I have been running around buying doggy gear, treats, a bed, and toys.

So, all there is left to do now is wait for her to arrive...