Spooky Eve's Homecoming Anniversary And Birthday (Long)

[greytdaddy]

Many of you will recall the posting about Super Spooky Eve posted in July by her adoption group It’s A Grey Area in Pearl River Louisiana.

 

They were having some challenges in finding just the right family to adopt her and looking for a perfect match for this little Sweetheart. Because of her special needs and quirks she was also causing some chaos at the kennels and foster homes and not progressing happily.

 

We are happy to say we are the proud new parents of Eve and it’s turning out to be a match made in heaven, with just a few little speed bumps along the way.

 

Although we work as volunteers for Team Greyhound in our local area and were not looking to adopt at all…we love working with the shy, spooky furbabies best and when DH saw her story we fell in love with her. We then began sending e-mails, references, and making extensive phone calls to see if both her adoption group and we could determine if we were the right forever family for Eve.

 

Once everyone had determined that we were a greyt match, Leslie and Britney graciously agreed to hold Eve for us until we could get down to them in August. Our son and his fiancé’ were getting married August 1, 2010 with a friends and family honeymoon cruise to the Bahamas immediately following the ceremony. We didn’t want to pick her up before the wedding and then have to immediately put her with a dogsitter. We thought this would probably confuse her even more. After the cruise, we headed to Pearl River, LA and picked up Eve on August, 10th, so she just celebrated her one month official “Gotcha” date with us.

 

Today is baby Eve’s 2 year old birthday. We have been celebrating with her birthday feast consisting of Iams and Merricks followed through out the day with Liver Brownie Bites, Peanut Butter Biscuits, Rawhides, and Apple Cinnamon Biscuits. Eve has new toys, a fancy gold and crystal collar, a new muzzle, a new lead with her name on it, and a beautiful new coat on order from Gini’s Grehound Coats. We will be ordering a winter sweater/jammies for her from Gini’s too.

 

Eve’s Progress Reports:

We know from our experiences with spooky hounds that there would be challenges, but we were up for it. We love to watch the amazing progress as they slowly but surely begin to blossom and their true personalities begin to emerge.

 

The ride home:

Eve had to be picked up and laid into the van on her fluffy bed beside lots of new toys as she was too scared to jump into the minivan on her own. She settled in quietly and had up close and personal time with Mama in the back. We held off bathrooming as long as possible because we knew it was going to be stressful and gave it our first shot after about 3-4 hours. Knowing how lightning-quick a truly spooked Greyhound can slip any martingale and/or harness no matter how well they are fitted because they can rival any Yoga Masters contortions in an effort to escape if panicked, we weren’t taking any chances. She had her new martingale (lime green with pink flamingos on it from the adoption group), her adoption tags, a harness, her new ID tags with home and cell numbers on it, and 2 leads on her at each bathroom stop. Both of us took turns with her at each stop. When she was too spooked to potty at the 1st place, we decided to hand over the leads from DH to DW when Eve perceived the “trade off” as us ganging up on her and instantly had a combo “panic poo and pee”. Once that was over she greytfully leaped back into the minivan as she was now beginning to view it as her “safe haven”.

She was really exhausted after all the new and frightening experiences so she began dozing while sitting up but refused to lay over even while nodding off.

We finally made it to the first hotel after one other excruciatingly long bathroom stop. As with most spooks, everything scares them and freaks them out especially when you are trying to bathroom them on a lead for probably the first time ever.

At the hotel bathrooming; all conditions must be met in Eve’s eyes before she will bathroom. There can be no lights, no moving cars, no airplanes, no people talking, no doors slamming, leaves rustling under foot, no flopping sounds, and no sudden movements. Then she must be taken to the farthest, most remote, darkest areas and given about 1 hour before conditions were just right for her last bathroom before lights out.

Once in the hotel she promptly commandeered one of the beds and took up her usual position of sprawling full length across the pillows up against the headboard and won’t budge.

Then we set up her “Cabana” pop-up tent crate from “It’s A Breeze”, Elwood, IN and put a fluffy bed in it, and let her have the security of a “den” for the night. This is a great way to go if you don’t want to haul a traditional crate, but want them to feel like they have a “safe zone” while traveling. Its all canvas mesh knit and oversize but takes up less than half the space of a crate.

The second day on the road was pretty much a repeat except she finally relaxed enough in the car to lie over and really sleep.

She wouldn’t accept any treats from our hand no matter how yummy until she discovered the combo packs of string cheese-mozzarella and cheddar. For Eve….everything is better with cheese and she took it quite eagerly.

When we finally arrived home, she seemed to “know” her back yard. Although we still kept her on a long training lead the first week in the back yard due to all the strange sounds, she was much more relaxed and starting to settle in. We kept the training lead the first week until we knew she wouldn’t jump the 4 foot fence while getting used to the new digs. We live on a “fire lane” street so we have frequent fire trucks and ambulances which are very loud and scary. Her kennel in Louisiana was fairly secluded and quiet and woodsy. We live on a busy corner lot 2 blocks from a school, with church bells, bikers, joggers, ice cream trucks, remote control cars, skateboards, garbage trucks, noisy kids, etc, so there is a lot for her to adjust to.

Once we bought our other two hounds (Lannie and Pearl) home from their houndsitters, she became comfortable with the 3 dog pack concept and is taking cues from them.

She learned to fly up the stairs right away. Coming down however was another story. She began to view the Master Bedroom and Guest bedroom as her newest and cushiest safe havens upstairs and refused to ever come down. The first 2 weeks we had to harness her up and lead her down 2 steps at a time as she braced all four legs out like a donkey. She was also afraid of her own reflection in the door mirror at the bottom of the steps, so it had to be covered the first two weeks.

She now views the living room as a cushy, fun place to hang out with treats and toys. She can give Tom Cruise’s couch jumping shenanigans a run for the money as she bounces on it frequently.

She still doesn’t come to us yet when we call her independently, but will come up for “group treats” in the pack of 3.

She enjoys full body massages and tummy rubs from Mama and neck and ear massages from Daddy. She will shyly creep up to Mama and stand quietly until she gets the massage, but keeps her head sideways until Mama stops. Then she’ll turn her head towards Moma until the massage is resumed. This is a huge improvement from the first week when she, as Lesley put it so succinctly “Eve viewed everyone with the terror of facing an ax murderer”.

She is progressing nicely and even quicker in the house and bonding with us than we had hoped for.

The public events are going to take considerably longer, but we’re patient and taking it all in stride at a pace that’s comfortable for all.

We have had her to 3 different walking parks trying to socialize a little each week. These are still pretty terrifying for her especially when confronted with bikers, or joggers or any sudden movements. We are gently and matter of factly and firmly encouraging her to allow people to approach her and interact with her. She is still terrified, but is learning that “no matter what”, Mama and Daddy have her back and it’s really all “OK”. We took her to the Indy GPA event and she was scared, but did better than we anticipated.

We think the biggest part of her challenges of having the more dominant dogs at the kennel sort of gang up on her stem from 2 factors that we are working on and is easier with only 3 dogs than a whole kennel of a variety of personalities.

They perceived her as weak and fearful and therefore an easy target because of her extreme anxiety with people. However, with the dogs themselves she is very brash and rambunctious, excitable, and full of puppy exuberance. She has no clue about the “pecking order” of an established pack and needs instruction from humans and spook members both on how to fit in and play nicely without upsetting the applecart so to speak. We’re working on this daily and feel 3 is her perfect pack size.

She is a delicate and dainty 55 lb petite fawn beauty, but when she runs into you or another hound it’s like being hit by a Mack truck or stomped on by an elephant.

Daddy does the 5:00AM feeding then brings them back to bed with Mama. Eve sleeps quietly all snuggled in her blankies till about 9:00AM when Mama says “where’s my wakeup girls?” or Eve decides it’s time Mama gets up so she bounces up & down off the bed like a kangaroo on a trampoline and tries to zip around the small bedroom like she’s at the Indy 500.

We decided to keep her name as Eve, although had we seen her full body first, we may have been tempted to name her “Sneakers” as she sports 4 white paws (not socks) which looks like she’s wearing sneakers. We may have also considered the name “Willow” because she is so willowy and elegant, but we now know she will be our “Forever Eve” or little Eva the Deva and Eve-alicious little treasure. Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday Eve!

Have some pictures but don’t know how to post them. Also lost our camera 2 weeks ago, so it may be awhile till we get a new camera.

 

 

Greytmama (Connie) & Greytdaddy (Gary)

[Guest racergirl435]

Awww...what a great story. Thanks for sharing.

[Guest PhillyPups]

Welcone Home and Happy Birthday Eve.

 

I love reading her story and hearing of your patience with Eve. Sounds like she is in her perfect forever home and blossoming so well.

[Guest PiagetsMom]

It's wonderful that you found each other and I wish you many, many happy years together! Congratulations, and thanks for the update

[greg1229]

That is fabulous...I love working with shy and spooky girls. Seeing them "discover" things is so fun. Seeing the light come on in their heads.

[Houndtime]

What a wonderful story.

[Guest TeddysMom]

I am so glad that Eve has found her forever home with you, I love the shy greys too. I sounds like she is really making progress with your patience and love. Congratulations Eve and family. If you want to email me the pictures, I will post them for you, let me know.

[4greyhounds]

That story brought tears of Joy to my eyes!!!! I am so very happy to hear that she is doing Great! Thanks so Much for having the patience with her....

 

Happy Birthday and Welcome Home Eve!!!!! :confetti

[Guest RobinAZ]

Happy Birthday Eve! What a wonderful story! As a mom to a shy spooky girl, I love reading how she's adjusting. It's so heartwarming, every tiny step they take

[greysmom]

As the mom of another spook I can totally relate. I remember the original post about Eve and am so glad she's found a wonderful forever home with you.

 

Thank you for giving her a chance.

[Guest IrskasMom]

Love to hear a greyt Story . Pictures would be ok of beautiful Eve

Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday