We made the decision to return our newly adopted grey back to her adoption kennel today. She’s a petit tuxedo girl. It’s heartbreaking but also such a relief. I’ve been browsing greytalk A LOT in the past week so I figured I’d share my experience and hopefully get some input from people who have gone through something similar.
We brought home a sweet 2 yo greyhound last Friday. I was concerned when the shelter matched us with such a young hound since I particularly asked for a cat-friendly and low-energy dog to suit my household. But the volunteer at the adoption group convinced me by reassuring me she’s a normal greyhound with low energy who passed her cat test with flying colors.
She was a sweet girl and loved us almost instantly, lots of cuddles and follow me everywhere. However, it appeared that she had lied on her cat test. She was fine for the first two days and would listen to us when we tell her to “leave it”. She’d look away from the kitty during cat training when asked to and showed little interest in other dogs during walks. It all changed when she started getting comfy with us... she’d fixate on the cat and will only look away for a second when asked. She is not food motivated and does not accept treats or respond to verbal cues when excited (ie. on walks or in the same room as cat). We came in this expecting to have to put in work for cat introduction but oh boy we were just not equipped for this cat-workable(?) + super docile timid cat combo as first time grey owners. Our cat is extremely docile and will freeze and run when scared, which doesn’t help the situation. He is also extremely needy and will meow for us loudly from his cat-only rooms upstairs since he’s used to roaming and being able to find humans to hang out when he wants to. The dog also has a lot of separation anxiety and cannot bear people leaving to go hang out where she can’t go, even though she is not left alone. It is truly heartbreaking to hear my boy crying upstairs for attention while the dog cries downstairs because she can’t tolerate seeing anyone leaves. On top of that she absolutely hates being crated and will paw her muzzle continuously. She also has been actively trying to pry open any and all babygate we set up. She actually succeeded a couple times and got herself stuck on the stair landing since we’re still working on going down. We lived in constant fear she was going to hurt herself falling. We haven’t had a good night sleep since we got her. Our cat sleeps with us and will cry and whine if locked out but the dog refuses being crated and I don’t trust her with just baby gate and muzzle. We tried letting the dog sleep on her own bed next to ours while locking the cat out. He cried all night for us while clawing the door. Two days ago the cat slipped through the babygate without us noticing and the dog lunged at him. Thankfully she was muzzled and we quickly grabbed her leash. I would never forgive myself if my boy was injured.
After a week of not being able to sleep, I’m just not in the right place to help the greyhound acclimate to our house and deal with the usual problems that come with taking a new dog home like house training and separation anxiety. The more she stays with us the more her puppy mischief shows. The adoption group has been understanding but honestly their suggestions for cat introduction will only work on confident cats with no fear. Or maybe we’re just too newb of dog owners to handle all this.
The dog is back at the adoption kennel today. I don’t blame her at all since she is just being a puppy, and I know she is going to make someone very happy as a wonderful pet. But I can’t help but feel a lot of relief and also tremendous guilt that I have failed this dog and traumatized my cat. Has anyone gone through something similar? I don’t want to give up on the breed and I really enjoyed her stay beside all the issues I mentioned. I just don’t know how I can do better and trust the next dog to be the right dog...
